Secondary School Admissions

inkie

Just another little update:

I was talking to the parish priest yesterday morning as there was an Advent Mass on in school that I attended. My son did a reading in that.

I asked if he could do a letter of support even though we are not Catholic and he said he would be happy to do that. I've got it back this afternoon so I'll get it posted off to the secondary school.

This puts my son in category 7 out of 13, so he stands a much better chance as he would have been in category 13 without it.

We'll have to keep our fingers crossed until March now!

This seems a bit odd, considering that the closing date has gone already. I am on the board of govs. for a church school and we went through all our applications yesterday.

Becles

I got a letter from the school on Tuesday stating if we wanted to add a supporting letter, it needed to be with the school secretary by December 21st.

It was fresh in my mind when I saw the priest yesterday which is why I asked him.

Maybe different schools have different time scales in which they deal with these things?

eira

As other contributors have said research schools carefully-a)ask LEA for selection criteria b) read the OFSTED reports (available from the online site) c)speak to as many DIFFERENT parents as you can The results mask a number of issues-eg schools with high levels of A-C can push bright kids to breaking point and neglect the 'less profitable' pupils; some schools have better pastoral systems than others; some schools have a low acceptance for the 'different' pupil-and a lot of kids change when they get to adolesence.
If you can visit the school during the day look at teacher/pupil interaction, what are break times like ?
My eldest duaghter ended up in a Catholic school due to a disability-it was the only school with disabled access. I had to get my MP to pressurise the LEA to provide her with schooling. I her previous school she had ben bright, chirpy and confident. She made friends at the school but left with relatively indifferent GCSEs and a certificate for 'speaking up in RE'.Her tutor statement was a joke-it described her as 'shy and quiet' (which she isn't) and described a College course for some kind of vocational training that she was allegedly attending ! She had never so much as been remotely near one. Essentially she was the wrong kid in the wrong school-but we had no choice due to her severe physical disability.
It took a superb A level College tutor to restore her confidence. She is now doing extremely well at university. I have since found other parents with less than happy experiences of the school. So ask around-what kind of kids flourish in the school/what are the experiences of other parents/what's the staff turnover like? A local school-with a good reputation-had a strong culture of bullying.Staff vacancies were frequent-the head changed and the staffing is now stable.

3KIDSNOMONEY

Anybody really nervous about receiving letters regarding secondary school admissions tomorrow. I am sooo nervous, my baby is already 3 days overdue and i really don't want to miss tomorrow's post as i am desparate to know if my daughter has got a place at our chosen school! Not holding out much hope and dreading the appeal process.

Penny-Pincher!!

I am waiting to hear about my niece and friends son passing their 11+.

Good luck guys!

PP
xx

clairewp

3KIDSNOMONEY wrote: »

Anybody really nervous about receiving letters regarding secondary school admissions tomorrow. I am sooo nervous, my baby is already 3 days overdue and i really don't want to miss tomorrow's post as i am desparate to know if my daughter has got a place at our chosen school! Not holding out much hope and dreading the appeal process.

Hi if i didn't have to get up i would be having a very large voddie, my stomach is really churning.Good luck to you and me or should i say our young ones.
claire

bestpud

I'm not waiting but just wanted to wish you all the best of luck!

carolpinkdreamer

I'm sick with nerves. I'm convinced we'll get the dreadful school on our road!!
Good luck.

Becles

I'm dreading the letter too. My son really wants to go to the Catholic school with his mates, and he'll be upset if he doesn't get in.

shykins

waiting here too

will either be grammar if he passes 11plsu or local comp... wish i had known u could apply online cos i wouldknow now if i had but instead will have to wait for letter and the post round here is not brilliant and u just know this will be the one letter thatwill go astray

<sigh>