Good Luck !

[Mango]

Good luck to all DCs taking exams this week - nearly there now !

And, if I may say so, a special bundle of luck to those sitting for the 50 places at the wonderful St Albans High School for Girls, on Friday morning

Only a few more weeks and interviews will be over - then time to have a well-deserved break from it all.

[Daogroupie]

We will be at St Albans Friday morning. Will we see you there or do you already have a dd at the school? We keep seeing the same people at the exams. My dd has a little group of friendly faces now from City computer test, DAO day one and two and two rounds of HBS. We have Habs and City next week too. We did not get the lovely card from the St Albans Head wishing us luck that was posted out to all candidates last year. Did anyone get it or are they cutting costs this year? So glad there is no snow to battle with this year. DG

[cinnamon]

Wow, just 50 places? That's tough. I don't know St Albans (though I do have a daughter at a Consortium Group 2 school) but wish you an extra large chunk of good luck. Hope all goes well.

[Mango]

Daogroupie,

DD1 started at St Albans High School this year and DD2 is hoping to sit next year, so we wont be there tomorrow.
DD1 is still so excited about the school and is loving every second - from the coach journey in, Maths, Latin, Cookery, right through to Lacrosse in the freezing cold !

It was the best decision ever for or DD1.
DD2 has her fingers and toes crossed in hope

Good luck for tomorrrow.


Cinnamon,

Only 50 places is not as daunting as it first sounds. Indie schools that have a junior prep school intake at 4 or 7 years old will have, in addition, around another 50 or so places offered "internally" to those children at 11+. Schools like St Albans, Habs, St Helens & South Hampstead are all in this position.

Remember that it's the same batch of external girls (see Daogroupie's post above) who are sitting for the same schools - at the end of the day they can only choose 1 school. Indies therefore generally "over offer" to say the top 80 -100 candidates, to ensure they get take-up of the 50 available places - as they know many children will have multiple offers to choose from. So relatively speaking, not as daunting as it first sounds.

[Daogroupie]

Thank you for your good wishes for tomorrow Mango. DD2 is very much looking forward to her day at St Albans tomorrow. And I am looking forward to my cup of tea with the Head, SMT and Head Girl. They are all so interesting to talk to. So lovely to hear about your daughter and how happy she is Mango. It must be very gratifying as a parent to have chosen so well. Is she into Netball? DAO are playing St Albans on Saturday morning.

With ref to the prep places they all have to sit the exam and are not automatically offered places. We personally know three girls last year who had been at Wheathampstead since the age of four but were not offered High School places and had to go elsewhere. I am sure there must be more if we know three. So there are fifty places on paper but also some extra spaces from prep girls who underperform in the exam. Apparently the parents are warned quite early on in KS2 that their daughter might not make the grade so they have plenty of time to find an alternative. St Helenas in Hitchin, Queenswood, Haileybury and St Francis in Letchworth seem to be popular choices. Some prep school girls also choose to move to Habs and I did see a prep school girl at the HBS open day this year! DG

[luckydip]

I couldn't make the open day but my DD loved the school and spoke very highly of it.

She enjoys cookery and was very impressed with the fresh cakes!!

ps Best of luck for tomorrow

[chicko-mum]

Good luck, from me too, to all the DDs sitting the tests.
We watched some of the girls practising lacrosse in the gym on the open day. DD loved it!

See you there tomorrow morning DG!