Best way to prep for grammar school entry in Year 3

maman

From your username, welshbabe, I think you probably experienced a different system to many. In Wales, the pass mark was set each year by the number of places available in the local grammar schools. Welsh Local Authorities did all they could to increase the number of places available especially when the 'baby boomer' children got to 11 years old.  So, while not perfect, everyone had at least a  chance of getting to grammar school although, just as now, those who went to a leafy school, had supportive parents and maybe a tutor had a better chance. There was a lot of cramming/teaching to the test just like there is now for SATs. 

When I met my (English) DH I realised that they had a totally different system in that each school was allocated a number of places based on the number on roll. So in a small village, just 2 children per year went to grammar school regardless of whether they were more/less able than the children in a neighbouring school. 

Whichever way you look at it, IMO it's a divisive unfair system that feeds inequality. 

happyandcontented

maman said:

From your username, welshbabe, I think you probably experienced a different system to many. In Wales, the pass mark was set each year by the number of places available in the local grammar schools. Welsh Local Authorities did all they could to increase the number of places available especially when the 'baby boomer' children got to 11 years old.  So, while not perfect, everyone had at least a  chance of getting to grammar school although, just as now, those who went to a leafy school, had supportive parents and maybe a tutor had a better chance. There was a lot of cramming/teaching to the test just like there is now for SATs. 

When I met my (English) DH I realised that they had a totally different system in that each school was allocated a number of places based on the number on roll. So in a small village, just 2 children per year went to grammar school regardless of whether they were more/less able than the children in a neighbouring school. 

Whichever way you look at it, IMO it's a divisive unfair system that feeds inequality. 

I went to an English Grammar school in 1971 and I don't believe this was the system at that time. Do you have a link to support this contention?

Mojisola

The passmark was also weighted in favour of boys so boys with a lower mark 'passed' - supposedly to compensate for boys being 'later developers' than girls.

happyandcontented

Mojisola said:

The passmark was also weighted in favour of boys so boys with a lower mark 'passed' - supposedly to compensate for boys being 'later developers' than girls.

Yes, I was aware of that, but that was a supposed levelling of the playing field, not a quota, which was what the previous poster suggested existed.

maman

A bit off topic, but interesting all the same. Seems somewhat apt as there's lots in the news today about educational opportunity.

Sorry but I can't find any documented link to how places were allocated. It's anecdotal based on speaking to people who'd experienced this system in the 50s and 60s. It seemed widely known that the local village school always sent just 2 pupils to the grammar school in the nearest town every year.

There was obviously a quota everywhere based on the number of places available, it was how they were allocated varied. Fortunately in Wales, they did seem to make lots of places available and in the city I grew up in there were 2 Boys' and 2 Girls' grammar schools of equivalent size. It then meant that roughly (allowing for tutoring etc ) the most able (even if that meant most able at passing exams) boys and girls in that year group went to the grammar school but it did fix a quota based on the number of boy and girl places available so it could advantage or disadvantage on gender in any particular year.  

happyandcontented

There certainly wasn't a quota system in England, it may have been that other reasons precluded more children going - finances, parental preferences, distance, inverted snobbery, etc, etc, but nothing so concrete as a set quota. 

maman

happyandcontented said:

There certainly wasn't a quota system in England, it may have been that other reasons precluded more children going - finances, parental preferences, distance, inverted snobbery, etc, etc, but nothing so concrete as a set quota. 

It may not have been called a quota publicly but it still existed. There was a set number of places available at the grammar school (s) each year and that's how many could pass the exam. It was only when the baby boomer children started to reach 11 years old that the government realised that many able children weren't getting into grammar schools because there was no room that they started making other arrangements that gave flexibility and accommodate the large rise in the birth rate. So you maybe had a grammar stream (able to take O Levels which others couldn't) in a secondary modern school or  a multilateral school (with grammar and secondary modern under the same roof). It paved the way for comprehensives in most parts of the country. 

Fireflyaway

When I worked in admissions there definitely was a process by which the exam scores where 'adjusted' . As others say, this is so a place is available for everyone that achieves the pass mark. For example younger children where given slight 'credit ' for want of a better word. So a child born in July could get fewer questions correct than a child born in January but still get the same result. Adjustment is also made depending on the number of candidates sitting the exam. The number of times parents would ask if there was a high birth rate that year, when their kids didn't get the result they wanted! 

John_

mark1234567890 said:

Evening all,

Our son is starting Reception class in Sept (if the pandemic is over by then) and we're already thinking about secondary school. We would love for him to go to a grammar school and found that there is a grammar school where we live that offers entry in Year 3. I have talked to some of the pupils from the school and they all said that the Year 3 entrance exam is much easier than the Year 7 entrance exam. However, the school website does not publish past papers for Year 3 entry.

Does anyone know how we can help our son to prepare for such an entrance exam in Year 3? Has anyone on here been through the process and been successful?

Thanks,

Mark

The first step is to choose good parents, as intelligence is hereditary. Hopefully you’ve that part covered already, so next is to inculcate a love of learning.

Davesnave

welshbabe88 said:

We did 11+ back in the 60s and I never noticed any special tutoring or pressure in school - we just did the test like a normal day - half got through, 4 and half didn't.

  As another 60s eleven plus candidate, my experience was different from yours.

For a start, there was the new bike often promised to those who succeeded, though in my case I knew it would be second-hand and awarded regardless of the result.

In the Year 6 top stream, all we did was engage with various elements of Maths and  English, plus frequent re-working of old 'intelligence' papers. There was also the 'treat' of art on Friday afternoons, which could be withdrawn for poor behaviour.This lasted until we sat the main exam, although there was an earlier one, which weeded out the no-hopers.

I distinctly remember being pleased when the big test was out of the way, so we'd have subjects like geography, history and 'nature' again. Best of all was knowing I'd no longer need to visit my tutor; a very tweedy lady, Miss Braddick, who lived in a dingy Victorian house.She was my maths crammer. I wasn't scared of the Head, who used to shout and hit me almost every day, but I was terrified of her and the evil fractions and percentages she'd have ready-prepared in my notebook. She also had a small beard, which I tried hard not to stare at

I don't think we dwelled on the exam once it was done. On the morning the results arrived, other children rushed out of the school gate to tell me I'd passed, and for a moment or two I didn't understand what they were talking about.

I didn't expect to pass, so the enormity of what had happened didn't sink in immediately. Besides, I was deeply concerned that the bike was not just second-hand, but very sub-standard, without straight handlebars. Had my parents also imagined the sec-mod on the hill was my future destination?