anyone else waiting for results?

SnowyOwl_2

Congratulations to Pink-Winged Junior...big warm smiles all round today I guess.

I do feel sorry for the ones who didn't pass...it's a wee bit too soon in life to get an official "fail" type letter. Not a good lesson at all at such an impressionable age. I am not taking anything away from Mini Pink-Winged though, he/she faced a challenge and was a success so congratulations again.

samsyerman

Glad to hear your child got the result you were looking for. For those children who did not, don't worry.

My daughter did not get her test 5 years ago. She just had a bad day. She went to a high school for a year, and then sat a test to go to Glenlola at the end of her first year. She is now going to sit her GCSE's this year and she is doing really well there, so there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

I see from other posts that you had a great time in Edinburgh, I am looking forward to our meet.

By the way the fuji Digital cameras we both got, do you have problems with white spots on them or perhaps you were able to remove them.

samsyerman

Pink.

SnowyOwl wrote:

I do feel sorry for the ones who didn't pass...it's a wee bit too soon in life to get an official "fail" type letter. Not a good lesson at all at such an impressionable age.

I couldn't agree with you more SnowyOwl; for every 11 year old child in Northern Ireland with a big smile on their face this morning there were two others who were at best disappointed and at worst devastated.

Pink

Pink.

samsyerman wrote:

My daughter did not get her test 5 years ago. She just had a bad day. She went to a high school for a year, and then sat a test to go to Glenlola at the end of her first year. She is now going to sit her GCSE's this year and she is doing really well there, so there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
samsyerman

Personally I think the 11+ is a lottery. Any child can under-perform on the day. I feel that there must be a better selection system than this. I've heard that Glenlola is an excellent school.......We tried to persuade our eldest to go there, but she fell in love with another school.

Pink

Simpson

Well done mini pink.

I speak as a father of one who also got her results on Saturday.

Quick tip by the way you can arrange to collect the results in person from 07:30 at the postoffice by writing a letter to the postal delivery manager stating Name, Address and date for mail to be collected. Our post doesn't come til lunch time so it got it over and done with first thing.

anyway my daughter will not get an automatic place in the first school of her choice but is in with a good chance of getting one. This now means that the whole process is now extended until the end of May. Should she miss out on her first choice, then luckily we have also found 2 other schools which we would be happy for her to attend.

I don't believe that competition is the problem I think the waiting and pressure from peers and especially from parents is the biggest problem.

We are pleased with how hard she worked and the effort she put in. The result therefore must be fair as every child did the same tests.

We know that she found the first test harder than the second, that could be down to nerves or whatever, but we opted into this system because we as a family want her to attend a particular school and that is the criteria set by that school.

Why we want that school is down to three main reasons but one of those is their record of academic success. If they didn't have an examination entrance criteria I wonder if their own academic record would be as impressive. A little competion is healthy. Pressure is not.

Hopfully the replacement to the transfer test will still foster a little competion, but remove all this waiting. Once the decision is made then we can deal with the consequences of it.

mecanno

Congrats aswell, my daughter did very well and will get into her school of choice.We put no pressure on her at all and are very happy with her result. She also found the first paper harder than the second as did many of her friends so I think that was just how the exam was structered. I feel sorry for the children who didn't do so well but hopefully they will not suffer as the majority of schools seem to be on a par these days.

leftieM

Glad your kids did well.
I don't get the 11+! I went to school in the ROI and we had to sit an entrance exam for internal streaming but once other criteria were fulfilled a place was yours. Mind you, it was a small enough town with 6 secondary schools, one of which was private, so they were all 'good'.
I think it'll end up like England - you'll get into a school if you live in the catchment area so the house prices near the good schools will shoot up, effectively meaning you can buy your way in. At the moment everyone has a shot at the best schools.
No doubt the 11+ is deeply flawed - kids can be tutored to do better so it's not a level playing field to begin with, and it's dreadful to think that a child will be saddled with failure at such a young age.
It'll be interesting to see what the government come up with to replace the 11+.

tightgit_2

Congrats - When we went through this last year a friend told us that if it's a thin letter they have passed and if it is fat they haven't. What a relief it was to get the thin one.