She Passed!

On 19th Oct I received the email, informing me that Bethany had passed her 11+. The next day we talked to the Head Teacher about her marks, and although they were lower in maths, she did really well in Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning. I guess all that reading paid off! 😉

That news was followed by a busy week, as we visited various schools, and went round and round in our decision making. I initially found the idea of a Grammar school rather scary, as I didn’t want her falling behind. Her marks, however, made me feel a bit better, and after a couple of visits, I finally decided that I needed to have faith in her abilities. (Plus, of course, I think the push (kick?!) she’ll receive there will be just what she needs!!)

So I now have to fill in the admissions form, with our four choices. All of our schools here are over-subscribed, so although I’ve been told her chances are excellent, you never know, so the extra choices are just are important. Then, we wait until March 1st (yes, my birthday!) to find out where she’s going. It’s a long wait, but hopefully it will pass quickly. And, now the stressful part is over, it’s quite exciting. 🙂

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It’s all too much….

Oh dear.. it’s been over 2 months since I wrote anything on here, and despite my intentions to post throughout our 11+ journey, it just didn’t happen. Mind you, it wasn’t very exciting, just lots of hard work going on, even over the summer holidays.

The exams are over, and Beth felt they went fairly well. She found it really hard to judge.. she didn’t finish all the questions on 2 of the papers, but then it was reported on the 11+ forum that quite a few people experienced the same.

We were aware that the head teachers actually get to see the results a few weeks before us.. and they are able to appeal against some decisions. This includes putting forward the child’s school work.. and Beth informed us yesterday that she had had to do her work on a piece of paper, because her books are all missing! Two others in her class were the same.. and all three had taken the exam.

So, I’ve now gone from being fairly laid back about it all, to being really anxious. If we’ve got it right.. it’s hard to think that she’s failed, but it’s good to know that her head teacher has that much faith in her. Plus of course, her future education could now be in the hands of a panel of local teachers!

The stress, mind you, does not stop there, as we’re now visiting the various secondary schools, and trying to make the decision as to where we should go. I don’t know about other areas, but every single school near us (including the not so good ones) are oversubscribed. It is possible that we could put down four schools on the form, and not get into any of them!!

If she passes (or gets through the appeal) there are two oversubscribed grammars near us. If not, there’s a popular Academy very near, one a bit further away, plus the local comprehensive. The bulk of children from her primary school go to the next door comp, but it’s not really where I want Beth to go.

On the 19th of Oct, we will get the 11+ result, and the application has to be in by 6th Nov. We visited one school last night, there’s another planned for Sat, plus some later in the month. It doesn’t give us long to take it all in, and make that decision.

The worse thing, however, is that we won’t find out where she’s going until March next year, and that seems like ages away!

Is anyone else going through this process.. or has been through it recently? What’s your area like.. are schools oversubscribed, or do you pretty much get your first choice?

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