Help me to comprehend please?

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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omismum
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:32 pm

Help me to comprehend please?

Post by omismum »

hi all...
Last edited by omismum on Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
harrow123
Posts: 299
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:54 am

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by harrow123 »

tell her HABS result is yet to come
shootmenow
Posts: 356
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:25 pm

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by shootmenow »

Just tell her that you love her and you are proud of her. She did very well to get interviews at the other schools.
These schools just know what type of girl will thrive with them. It would be absolutely horrid for your DD to go to a school where she might struggle or be overwhelmed. Her self-esteem would suffer. I had friends who struggled at Habs an think they're 'stupid' 30 years later. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
In a year you will have a happy, thriving child and all this will be a bad memory.
RationalityRules

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by RationalityRules »

Hi omismum,

Congratulations to your DD for getting some independent school offers. She has done really, really well to be offered places at those schools and you and she should feel very proud. I hope you will tell her so.

The schools you mention (Habs and NLCS) are VERY competitive schools to get into. They are always oversubscribed and cannot offer places to all of the girls who apply each year, even if they wanted to. Don't be disheartened that your daughter didn't get a place at either school - she will be among many, many disappointed girls today - and do take her as soon as you can back to the schools at which she has got offers so that she can look around them, see all of their positive points, and so that you and she can decide which one you want to accept so that her period of uncertainty isn't too long.

Above all, please don't let her think that she has somehow 'failed' by not getting places. It sounds as though she will be an asset to her future school and I'm sure they will be very lucky to have her. Bear in mind that all of these schools know very well what type of child will thrive in their particular environment, and it is likely that she has been offered places at the 'best fit' schools for her.

Best of luck. RR
Loopyloulou
Posts: 878
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:20 pm

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by Loopyloulou »

Perhaps her english was not as good as that of the other candidates?
Loopy
baggies4ever
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:24 am

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by baggies4ever »

Days like today have to be one of the toughest part of being a parent and I do feel for all of the DPs out there today dealing with this scenario (and for all those on 1st March!). But let's get perspective here - we're talking (choice of) schools - not diagnosis of a serious illness. Your DD has done fabulously well to get offers from excellent independents and your role in managing her through this is critical. Your pride in her hard work, effort, success in achieving her great results and simply for being the lovely DD that she is, will see her through. Sure she didn't get 2 of the schools - so what, arrange repeat visits to the offers she has and focus on the opportunities and excitement ahead there. They really wanted her - how great is that? They feel confident enough that she will thrive there - what more could either of you want?
Not for her to worry about now, but any DC coming out of the Habs exam thinking it was easy, worries me - their maths paper is always on the tricky side. Perhaps she thought it was easy because she was on the wrong track? Besides, easy papers simply means the bar is higher to make the cut. But that's neither here nor there now, she could only have been to Habs a handful of times (I'm guessing) - so any 'love affair' she has with the place can be easily undone. And the key to that is you focussing her on her bright, fantastic future at either of 2 superb schools. The very best to you and your lovely DD.
nonethewiser
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:52 am

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by nonethewiser »

baggies4ever, what a heartwarming thing to say and thank you very much. We might be in a rather sad position to move off the acceptance list quite soon ourselves - got place, not enough money. We were hoping for some sort of fees discount so lots of things may happen. :mrgreen:
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by Daogroupie »

You have places at two great schools, so celebrate that with your dd today and keep the news about the other schools back for a few days.

I echo the other poster. If she found the Habs and NLCS exams easy it may well be that she perhaps did not do what was required of her. If you pm me I can send you an example of an English paper that would be the required standard. This is something that is not written down anywhere so it may well be that she may have not included the literary devices that would have been required for a good mark. For example you will not get a Level 5 in creative writing unless you include every single piece of Level 5 punctuation, elipsis, apostrophes, colons, semi colons, speech correctly laid out, bracket, hyphens, exclamation mark. HABS and NLCS interview candidates with borderline exam results just to see if perhaps they slipped up on the day. It would be certainly worth emailing Bridget Howarth at HABS and see if it was the English paper that let her down. But she will do very well I am sure. Concentrate on the great schools she has and celebrate her success. Best Wishes to you both. DG
browneyedgirl
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 11:34 am

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by browneyedgirl »

Hi, If you can do please try and celebrate tonight - you all may not feel like it but your DD deserves it and she will be lead by you. Tomorrow you can start to think again about schools. She has done fantastically well and so you need to look again at the schools that she has a place at and remember why she sat the exam and what took you there- look at the prospectus/website go and see them again soon.
Its really very difficult when you know she has worked so hard but she is still the brilliant little girl she was before and in some ways all these exams are such a lottery and they don't always work out fairly. Its very hard when you are only 10 or 11 to understand, but this is just the beginning and remind her she was clever before she is clever now and it is all before her. Its just a slight change in how she gets there.
Reading Mum
Posts: 1841
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:44 am
Location: Reading

Re: Help me to comprehend please?

Post by Reading Mum »

I don't know where you live but either Reading was going to be a painful journey or HABS would have been.

The selection criteria vary so much that its impossible to compare all these schools. I would just look at the offers you have, plus any state schools that come through on Friday, and see which one would suit her best. There is nothing you can do about 'the ones that got away' since they are Indies with no appeal system so its time to look forward.

Good luck
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