Information afternoons

[talea51]

Hi

Does anyone know whether the information afternoons are for parents only or can our dcs come along too? My dh is saying that he doesn't see the point of the information afternoons as he doubts that we will get any further information than what we already have via the CSSE guidance sheet.

Can anyone who has been to one of these afternoons give me an idea of what kind of information is provided especially with regard to Out of Catchment children for the Westcliff schools as I don't want to miss out on potentially important information but equally I don't want to spend a whole afternoon finding out stuff I already know.

Does any concrete information come out of these open afternoons or is it all a bit vague?

[bravado]

We went to one at CoCHS last year an DD2 sat there with me. We didn't get any useful information I'm afraid - certainly nothing more than we knew from the sheet and from having spent loads of time on here. The staff were very kind and helpful though, especially the one we saw, who was very complimentary about DD2's score.
For those who may come from a less informed position, or who are very unfamiliar with the process of the 11+ it may well be very useful indeed. Other schools and advisors may have a different approach may be different.

Go along - if you don't go, you'll never know if you would have got vital information...and if you learn nothing more than is on the sheet, then you still haven't lost anything.

[Hopefuldad]

If you are interested in southend grammars then you would quite possibly find out the number of places available for o/c giving you a better feel for your chances.

[Freddiefox2002]

I think we will go to have a look as we are o/c and borderline in the hope that they might offer some glimmer of info regarding DS's chances of getting in.
He's ok this morning and I am hiding my disappointment for him as best I can. If he could secure a place at either SHSB or WHSB then he would be so delighted.

[willsbear]

I thought the main point of visiting the schools was to help us (parents/children) make an informed decision as to our choice of schools, and order of preference, before the deadline of 31/10. I think I'm going to go to a couple of them and probably take my DS too.

[Manana]

If you are well above the cut off-there's probably not much point in going (going from last year's meeting). If you're borderline, it's more useful.

[willsbear]

Maybe i'll just go on my own then, sounds like more of a Q&A rather than look round the classrooms?

[Manana]

Maybe i'll just go on my own then, sounds like more of a Q&A rather than look round the classrooms?

It won't be a look around the classrooms-all the boys will be working. I don't recall many DC coming last year-I think it was during school hours? My DS was at school.

[ToadMum]

DS2 is (luckily) well above cut-off and we are in catchment, but he wanted to have another look at both SHSB and WHSB before we finalised the order on the CAF. When I rang, both schools just asked how many would be coming, and neither said "remember it's just for the parents" when I replied, "three".

I had already told the Pupil services lady at DS2's school that I was intending to take him on the two afternoons, and she was okay with that. The school is already taking him out of class all afternoon on the Tuesday, anyway, for a rehearsal for next month's performance at the Royal Albert Hall, so I thought I was fairly safe in telling them about the school visits

[pinkrabbit38]

We called SHSB this morning and they checked what our DS scored before allowing us to book into the information afternoon. They assumed that we would be bringing our DS with us to the afternoon.