Kendrick tour/open day for 2015 exam?

[childrenanddogs]

Hi all,

My daughter is only in Year 4, so it's early to be thinking about this but I've noticed that Kendrick only seem to do open days in July.

I wanted to take her to have a look at the school, as we're leaving it up to her to see if she wants to try for the exam or not. If she doesn't like the school, then we'll forget the idea but if she does then we'll look at getting some prep materials and doing practice papers at home.

So I emailed this morning to ask if we can attend, and have had a reply, basically politely saying no and that we need to wait until next year's open day. But if we leave it until then (July 2015 when she'll be in Yr 5), then surely that's leaving it rather late as the exam will only be a couple of months after that?! I'm really surprised that you can't just go and look round to be honest, as most other schools seem to do.

What has everybody else done, how have they been to see the school, or have they just left it until 2 months before the exam? If you leave it that late, is that enough time to DD prepare for the exam?

Thanks all.

[Reading Mum]

they usually have an open day in July and one in early September. Although they say it is for year 5s no one is taking the names on the door so you can just turn up. It is a mad crush so I would recommend getting there early.

[childrenanddogs]

they usually have an open day in July and one in early September. Although they say it is for year 5s no one is taking the names on the door so you can just turn up. It is a mad crush so I would recommend getting there early.

Thanks Reading Mum. I did think of trying that, my daughter is very tall for her age! But the lady that responded to me was pretty clear that she wouldn't be welcome this year, which seems madness to me. Their website actually says it's for Yr 6's, not even for Yr 5's. I simply want my daughter to have a look around the school and see what she thinks about it.

I might have to just go anyway, I'm not leaving it until a couple of months before the exam for her to decide if she wants to go or not. Do you know if they take details from you at any point? If they have one in September, that could work as that would still give us a year and she'd actually be in Yr 5 by then anyway!

Thanks again.

[Reading Mum]

apologies - I got my years confused. It is supposed to be for year 6.

I took my daughter at the end of yr 5 and again in yr 6. No one takes your details at any point so they have no idea who visited or how old they are.
They are simply trying to keep the numbers down as it is insane on the day. We got stuck gridlocked in a corridor and I thought my daughter was going to panic because she couldn't see what was going on and we could not get out - thankfully we were near a window looking out on the chickens

[sonasona]

thankfully we were near a window looking out on the chickens

You had to bring the chickens up again

[Tinkers]

I suspect that they tell you it's only for year 6 to help keep the numbers down. As RM says, it's a scrum.
No one checks though, there's too many people and what would they want you to prove?

We went in to the September one in both year 5 and year 6.

They have had the September open day a couple of weeks before the exam, but since the exam will be on the 13th, I'm not sure what they will do this year, maybe just the July one?

[childrenanddogs]

Thanks everybody! I've just had another reply from Kendrick, who have (rather begrudgingly!) said I can take my daughter along in July, and have in fact said that they will only be holding one open event a year, presumably because of the change in exam date. They've said it will be full of Yr 5's (a change from the Yr 6 as stated on their website, again presumably because of the exam date move), and to bear that in mind. It does seem slightly crazy to me that they don't do any other open days or similar, surely if they did a few then it wouldn't be quite so busy?!? I've never heard of a school where you couldn't just go and look round anytime and only have one opportunity to do so.

So we'll go in July, as leaving it until 2 months before the exam is just too late imo.

And we'll see what DD thinks - got to confess that half of me is hoping she'll hate it so that we don't have to go through the stress of it all!

Thanks again.

[aliportico]

There will be loads of y4's there, don't worry. I guess they don't want to put on more because it takes time away from school - they finish early to get everything ready, and go in late the next day. But yeah, it will be rammed, it's quite overwhelming.

[childrenanddogs]

Thank you aliportico!

Just for info for anybody else who's also thinking of taking their daughter to the open day, Kendrick have emailed me to confirm they're only doing one this year, and it's going to be in May rather than July. No confirmed date yet, but thought I'd let people know so they don't miss it!

[Tinkers]

That would make sense, I believe the deadline for getting the application form for the exam is mid June.