0:00 – Intro
1:14 – Decision to Choose Independent Schools
6:54 – 11 Plus Exam Boards
9:55 – Veda’s Reaction
18:51 – Why Private School?
36:36 – VAT
43:06 – The Preparation Process
52:34 – Advice for 11 plus parents

Intro

I had an unfortunate experience with the bunson burner this probably needs a whole different podcast she’s got twoout of four already like we’ve we’re winning I’ve always thought the most yeah the most relaxed parent shouldalways take their child in and when s said I was like I’m thinking am I hearing this right it was priceless theJoe dropping Mom I passed it what would you say to parents that are like in yearfive or about to go into you know the year six September course what advice would you give to them knowing what youknow now the education Loungepodcast so this month we’re joined by Amba who’s coming to speak about WEA verand basically the journey that all of you guys have taken to get her from where she started andinto schol of your choice yeah so thanks for coming on you’ve obviously um hadyour last day of school yesterday y thank you for having me sorry to makeyou come in on your first day off perfect start to my thumb holidays I’lltake you um yeah so let’s just start by talking about your decision like what

Decision to Choose Independent Schools

what made you decide to go on this journey to like apply for the Independent Schools and the grammarschools and what were you expecting it was the parents evening at school for wewhere they mentioned that she’s doing quite well and that made us think that maybeshe could potentially do 11 plus we were quite unsure at the start cuz I’ve heard through otherparents the whole journey is something that people start quite early which Iunderstand why and it seemed like we were quite late in starting but we thought we’ll give it a go so at thestarting point of our journey we were just given it a goal with nothing expected in returnyeah I remember having a long conversation with her dad on the phonelike first first time and I was like okay so because I think he did he did hego to school uh yeah he went BR and then he went bronwood until his gcss and thenhe went ilford County for his a levels so he’s got experience of grammar and independent yeah yeah and he was likeyeah sort of thinking it might be a good sort of route to go down for for Veta soso I I remember that conversation he wants similar experience for weather yeah so yeah so was what was your firstchoice was it uh as I said just generally like see what would happenyeah we were just I was in the mind frame of we’ll just go through the Journey we have nothing to lose yeahwe’ll give it a go yeah I am very muchin more of concentrating of the mental well-being side of weather and sometime the pressure that that can bring so Ididn’t want her to think that we needed to be at any certain place or a schoolor certain marks or rating so we were just on a journey with go with theflow hence I think that when the pressure was taken off us also where we started late I couldn’t then putpressure cuz it felt like we had a very large gap of catching up so we were just yeah but it’s quite goodI I think that should be like a like a key takeway sort of thing because whenyou don’t have that level of pressure you ironically perform better Ithink that majorly helped with it was very relaxed atmosphere and say evenwith homework it was more sort of getting in pattern of doing little but often so it wasn’t a pressure of rightyou must sit down now and we have to do x amount of hours which I’ve heard through our parents we didn’t do any ofit so at times when me and her dad sat down we’re like I’m not too sure where we going with this there other people that’s doing ours and we’ll just dolittle little bits out of your pack and um turn up on Saturday for her groupsessions but it proved that that was enough short bust of work with her freshmind was enough for us as a family rather than getting her quite tensed andworking working out how much she has to finish by this point cuz it would have stressed her out and probably would havestressed me out so yeah there are some parents who like take their kids out of school and like properly Hot House themto pass so they I know of them being in set that’s thing um but yeah I thinkwith with with Vera in particular she she would not have thrived with thatapproach because she’s no his confidence was a big was a big thing yeah thecapability was was there from the beginning you can see that straight away yeah hence we chose to go down thisroute but it’s the confidence side of it and I think this is why we choseyourselves cuz everything was done in such a light-hearted manner and if there was anything thatwasn’t something that she took in from the group sessions how we could easily towards the end more so just pick a onetto one session and you would know exactly from her test papers or anythingthat you would have done in Saturdays that she needed ironing out on and that was done so yeah you made that Journeyquiet it it can be difficult like it worked with us it can be difficult topinpoint those those pain points because sometimes children are just like one week they can totally beon the ball and then next week like they’re getting things wrong that you’re like what yeah you knew this what’s happeningI think at times that did happen I was like but you know this yeah hence thebooster sessions helped a lot they can know it but yeah it’s like different tointernalizing it and doing it under pressure also I think it’s a lot for them to take like for a moment she’s gother Mets hat on then she’s moved on to English and you got your creative writing and you got your comprehensionit’s just tar switching yeah yeah which they do in the exam a lotI know and it’s what she has to learn yeah it’s not even that because you’re also switching between all of that andeverything else then the topics there for Under the Umbrella so it’s not just but even everything else like you might do swimming or you might do tennis oryou might you might you know you’ve got your school work and yeah and then you might even more than one check more onechild so it’s like all of those books get ticked off in our household and more it was it was better how they I think

11 Plus Exam Boards

it’s better how they do it now though with GL compared to what they were doing with CM because CM wasjumping all over the place and they literally because you do kind of need a different I think you need a different mindset doing math compared to likeEnglish and it’s like you’re switching cross yeah um but now they sort of blockit in 30 minute things and it’s a bit more makes makes it a bit more cohesiveas an experience so I Fel like you guys were really good at explaining us the gosetting cuz it been the so quick yeah it being the first the first year rightbefore V joined it was cem no so I didn’t have that much knowledge it being the first year so it was a lot ofquestions from our side but you put us to ease quite a bit and I think one ofquite an amazing thing that was offered was the mock test yeah you said I thinkyou made them papers as close as to the G and I think that helped with our LWalso joh I remember once in a conversation you mentioning the questions were set harder than what shewould get in the test for that first paper it was February yeah so first I was like oh my God these are crazy butfor her to think she can do these and then possibly them not being that hardin her real test was quite comforting I’ve seen some shocking things and ifyou like some of the preparation material like the types of questions like you some I’ve seen like 10 minutetest from cgp and you some of the questions in there I’m I just think theythey never asked that there was one about the subjunctive and I was like a they won’t they they will not I waslike they won’t ask that because like even at the end tell on the SATs whichwhere the grammar stuff can get quite technical they wouldn’t ask that yeah um you know like uh so the subjunctive verbform so if I were so instead of if I was is if I were sowere is subjunctive they wouldn’t know that well whatever was prepared sets was a breezefor her yeah it would be I mean after after doing 11 plus set should be Grandma being one was always being fullmarks okay it did make the rest of the journey she’s always been very very goodat grammar I noticed that and like as soon as I started taking her her yeah noshe was very good nonverbal as well yeah but I just remember grandma she she’d always be the one that I’d s rely on inthe class so Grandma’s a thing to say the truth yeah cuz you can see she’s so relaxed when Grandma comes and she’sjust like doing it I think it makes a lot of sense with her because her dad’s in law yeah and I I I think and I’m likeyeah she’s a she’s English and creative side of she’s that way inclined like very detail oriented yeah yeah um

Veda’s Reaction

speaking of her what was her reaction like when when like when you first camein to see see what would happen did she know about the decision was it part herdecision as well or and if so what was her so all the results as I said ourjourney was a very casual one every time we got the results and we told her itwas priceless the Joe dropping Mom me I passed it me I this mine I was like yesyou passed it came the other REM and the other one and the other one and I think back towards the end cuz for Me Myselfand her dad the we weren that stressed but obviously when you’re waiting for an email of results when we already had twoout of four and I was like she’s got two out of four already like we’ve we’re winning we’ve got like 50% off this sothird and fourth were quite casually seen and to we’re more concentrated onher reaction than the results for the third and fourth cuz um yeah as I saidthe stress side of even having 50% of her I think it’s impressive herconsistency because I know some very capable kids but to perform acrosslike because they they they might take four or five exams to actually get that performance across I mean we werepleasantly shocked it’s not something we had expected yeah so yeah we’re veryproud of her what was her reaction at the beginning of the of the process so that was to go no to come in to likecome to classes to like and what about when she went to visit schools like before she took the test she obviouslydid some visits and things yeah she totally enjoyed coming to the tutionsthat made us waking her up or bringing her in very easily M and towardsvisiting the schools or more so the interviews that’s something yeah cuz we be PR yeah so that for a10-year-old that worried me about F actually like and for a not not very confident 10-year-old that at times Ithink doesn’t necessarily like the sound of her voice cuz she’s very timid I’vethought that is something that she may find it hard hence I had thatconversation with you and I thinking I think it was you that had 10 questions or something ready for her for yeah Idid some interview inter prep and I think that helped a lot cuz a lot of her answers when she got back in the carshe’s like Mommy prey had asked me this and the fact that she had gone through with it with you and it came it came upin thing yeah I think that just boosted her voice with the confidence when it came to talking and I think it majorlyhelped but yeah that is something I was personally quite scared and her smiley face every time it came back in the carit’s like she she worked quite a lot with s on me and Chanel but not not somuch with pre so no pre was the interview question so so what we alwaysdo is with interview few times with with interview prep we always get someone whojust purposely less familiar just to sort of make thesituation a little bit more realistic yeah yeah yeah I think she did a littlebit with suid as well but she gained a lot of Mets knowledge with him I callhim your Mets Wiz yeah I think towards the end this was after the grma test andstuff more towards the independent we had booked few onetoone sessions and I think yeah it was just here trying tosqueeze the hour in here and there we could I think one of the time he said hejust for the funn fair I think that’s what it would do I think he would probably do that too he made her do oneof the gcsc papers just to see what she knows of it from her learning she cameout with really good scores it would be I think she had a five and a six or something like that as it is I’m tryingto get my head around the numbers and GCS I’m still in my ABCs when it comes to gcsc Resorts but I was reallypleasantly surprised with all the gaining and how well at the age and Stage that she was that she did in aMets paper like in the car I was joking I was like just so you know if you come home with those results in your gcss I’malready happy with you I mean she’s out performing some like year 11s already so yeah and when s said I was like I’mthinking am I hearing this right I was like you gave her a GC it’s like it’s cuz we’ve learned and everything that hegoes I was teaching her she was taking it in yeah and you must be preparing other gcsc students at the same time andwhile the paper was there and he was looking at all the questions for one of her preps he said wether do you want to give this a go it’s like yeah I don’tthink wether knew necessarily what she was giving AG go yeah but the well it’slike the what you do at gcc’s and the sort of first part of the paper is a lot of foundational yeah foundationalknowledge that really you should you m well most most kids don’tMaster this at Primary School yeah um and then what you find is that at the tail end they start to struggle a bitmore but obviously if you do 11 been in the foundation already if you do 11 plusit’s like actually pushes you to do that secondary yeah that secondary SCH alllike MTH is like lay on top of other so if you know you just keep on covering yeah like the algebra stuff that you doyou in 11 plus because they they put that in that couldeasily be your curriculum in Prim in primary school they sort of touch on ita little bit but it’s not to the same depth that they do in the 11 plus and then they start say like year eight years they start to touch on those yeah also I always find it a little bit bizarre atthe start of the Year sixth year they to know that whole curriculum so it’s notnecessarily covered in school how else are you supposed to cover that no a lot of the independent school stuff as wellis like you know some year seven year eight yeah and she’s taking this just after finishing year five yeah so you dohave to like work ahead of you most definitely do which is why like you said the SATs were like a breeze becausewe’ve done that work already so in the end she ended up helping loads of herclassmates classmates that helps her learn as well yeah that helps her feel more confident about herself that’ssomething we’re trying to get out of with that more than her learning as such so the fact that she knows this and shecan teach somebody else that’s off her age I think that was a gaining in thereI I like doing that a lot in class so getting them to yeah explain stuffbecause you get the most beautiful explanations from kids a lot of the timeso whenever you’ve got so especially with her with her I use a lot for grammar I was always I was always likecomeing better three her words but it’s like little bit like when you’re reading books and stuff say if you wanted toread a certain when if you try and get it at the child’s level you read it it’s just so much more easily explained andwhatever you have to learn in there it comes through so much more easier so it’s always when it’s seen at that childstage or through them it’s always easy to learn yeah when you don’t you don’t really know something unless you’re ableto explain it yeah so yeah it’s like there’s like three layers of learning isit like listening or like V visual or auditory and then like teaching ityourself kinesthetic kinesthetic but there’s like but the top one is like being able to explain it to somebodyelse that’s when you truly know also yeah that’s that final grin tick there that you know cuz you have now been ableto teach somebody else yeah and you teaching somebody else but in process you’ve actually taught yourselfyeah without realiz without realizing happens to me quite a bit yeah yeah but they don’t know that they’re learning ityeah as articulating things is but I do think there’s a like you can still knowsomething very well but to actually be able to explain it well you know I think mainly in adultsknowing is one thing teaching is a whole different thing yeah so but but it doesit does so demonstrate that you’re able to you understand something to a high depth good knowledge of it yeah um yeahthe she’s always impressed me with the ability to like she she doesn’t speak much but what she says has a lot ofvalue I like that quality over quantity definitely with weather very less quantity but so

Why Private School?

what made you cuz you you went down the Private School Road obviously yourhusband had experienced yeah he Brent Wood so yeah he experienced both so whatmade you think private school and not Grammar School so we obviously did thegrammar school options uh yeah cuz you if you got offers from yeah all of them so what was the reasoning behind likewhich wrote you I think with weather it was more so we didn’t justwant the academic approach because academically I think she takes it all inwell but we need to look at the overall care yeah just alistic sports team a lotof ju learning outside just on in the classroom which I felt private had moreto offer and with the smaller numbered classes and stuff where that can easilyget lost in a large group of children she’s happy to sit at the back whereasthis I think will with it being less numbered class and stuff he’ll highlight her a little bit more and she’ll feel Ifeel she’ll learn better with the less numbers in the classroom yeah umobviously you had that choice between those the different schools was it location based or was it also was itabout the school itself when you visited or what made youchoose what what was we had Forest uh chigwell and brenwood and brenwoodokay yeah and then and then Woodford so how are those three I guess because heobviously did like visits and things y we visited all of them schools um theywere all great to say the truth um forest was chosen for our family islocation more so where he closed it’s something yeah it’s something that infuture we won’t have to be involved in the pickup drop off she can be more independent she can make more localfriends she can yeah cuz she’s where she’s growing into young adult she’sgoing to be more independent yeah I want her to say for Brentwood that her deadwhen we had firsthand experience his friends ended up being quite far awayyeah it’s quite far away bwood or like say the Saturday Sports and stuffsometimes he didn’t necessarily go for his football sessions cuz to wake up early hours of the morning to thentravel to get there whereas this is something she can if she really enjoys something she can take herself to itdoesn’t necessarily need a lot of commitment from our side or if we stuck with something and it’s just finishingshe can make her this was similar for me because both of us went both of us went to Forest I see why you like R’s choiceof going to Forest but I also grew up in onstead yeah I would you know SecondarySchool probably like year8 n onwards I would walk to school yeah with friendsand walk back with friends yeah this is our vision hence yeah carrying hugesports bag school bag full of books instrument on my back half an hour walk with all this stuff y so now I don’tknow if it was the thing at your time now she also needs her own laptop andthat I was thinking of the way yeah no we didn’t have that we had we there were computer rooms in theschools and stuff yeah no she’s to bring her own laptop which everything will be mainly based in to be honest my bookswere heavier true but if there’s laptop with books I think I had like 20 books or 20yeah but you never emptied out your locker or your bag I remember you just used to carry one yeah that’s I would so I can’t remember what one’s what so I’mgoing to car I think that locker from learning more about it recently that pattern still carried onyeah children don’t always choose to use the locker I don’t know if it’s just a forest thing they’re quite far backtowards the anded I don’t know if they’re just being lazy but yeah they tend to carry all that with them insteadit is easier well yeah it’s easier if you don’t know which class you’re going to oh definitely organizing wise it usfollow follow people to classes just follow people the wrong person I like like John you’re not you don’t dogeography what are you you’re supposed to be over there I’ll try out today I had a dream one turn around and walk I’da dream about like doing a levels and just going to the wrong classes the whole year and then doing the exam andgoing wait a minute I was like why don’t I knowthis you know so they’ve been um given two for this reason they’ve been giventwo days prior to when the rest of the school starts for them to find their feeyeah yeah cuz there is quite a big change going from yeah where was she where was she Oakdale Junior in SouthWoodford okay yeah so going from there to three form entry just a Junior School four years you literally know everybodyby name it’s a very intimate yeah experience going to like a campus wherethere’s like you know it’s five times a size or also going to different classes you don’t stay whereis at the moment you stay in the same classes and all the the lessons will change with herbeing in her same seat whereas now she’s got to learn timetable what lessonsthey’re not necessarily like her friends chosen yeah going to those classes soit’s I had a timetable but I burned it in the first week by accident like howdid that accident happen John science yeah I had an unfortunate experiencewith a bunson burner um first week and then it I was like and then I think will he was like my time your time table’s onfire John I was like that and then it was like did you make it out it was part of your experiment it was well I don’tknow what we were doing I think we were learning about bun buns and burners and oh like Open Flame the color and stufflike that um yeah Sor trust you to it would be you wouldn’t it yeah but it’sokay cuz I I had smart friends I could sort of go um yeah where are wegoing yeah so chosen chosen Forest so is there like a specific is she like more musical moresporty into drama like Forest is quite a yeah she’s more sporty she lovesswimming for their own that was not the like when we were there really it was aplastic shed with a swimming pool full of spiders okay it’s basic basic it’sbasically a greenhouse and it was horri it was letting air in it was freezing cold cold holes in the ceiling oh we’dbe swimming in Winter usually yeah for some reason that was the best season to swimming Flyers spiders all of it wellthey up their game quite a bit since that pool do you know when they built that um new center yeah that that’s thesix form side is yeah the year that we left we’re waiting for you guys to leave so they can update yeah well no Iremember um like oh second second to last year it was your second last because I remember it being complete andme going in the into the gym into the gym yeah I did the same yeah yeah we had it we had use of it for about a year sogym and Everything’s changed since I don’t know when the last time we do this everything’s had a ramp yeah quite astate off our that has changed yeah cuz we used to um play badminton there withfriends and stuff like we’ve not been back there for a while but it last year year before last maybe a couple yearsago L one of the exams were y yeah yeah they closed down the hall so we we couldn’t book it anymore because they’redoing exams so and then we just got out of habit so so yeah I think she’ll enjoyit though yeah well she’s um her and her sister both have been going swimming there from when they were 3 years oldanyway so that kind of aware of yeah I’d love her to do something like drama cuzcuz I so good it’ll open up doors for no end if she does it because I would loveto take that out of her but let’s see where how much I can push her or how much she so I didn’t really do it but Ithink I I should have done it because I regret that now because I I think Iwould have taken to it yeah I would have taken to it quite well but I’d neverreally did it yeah we I did mostly music really I did a couple of sports I did a couple ofbasketball games a couple of hockey games music really very good athleteshe’s a sprinter but she won’t put herself forward well it’s okay they’ll find likethat’s the great thing about Forest is I never knew I was really good at anything until Forest I I I I sort of had an ideathat okay academically I’m doing very well in primary school yeah but I never really realized my strengths untilForest because then I was like oh you’re actually quite good at this and yeah and they they they they’ll find the kind ofthings is uh one of her primary reasons of choosing Forest to help her with thatside yeah cuz even even if you’re not choosing it in PE they’ll make you do like a 400 m or 100 m whatever and thenfrom there they’ll see R yeah yeah I didn’t even know I was good at running like until I went to ayounger self off weather wouldn’t sleep well before sports day she’s tossingturning tossing turning in her B I check on her is everything okay yes I’ve been chosen to do the 100 meter race I likethat’s really good honey cuz you usually always win yes but I just don’t want to comeany less than third I don’t mind coming a Podium yeah why are you putting thispressure on yourself like we’re more of a kind just go take part and have fun yeah but for her is winning I like thatmind frame at that young age yeah but balance yeah I I do I do think initiallythere will be a bit of a shock in terms of that’s something needs to go over cuz I I had that like as a first I’d say twothree years I find very difficult because of the just the step up I didn’treally homework before like yeah Secondary School homework gets I didz I was a for as for primary as well so youwere conditioned to there and it was in intense it was in intense cuz I rememberI think we had I had like 3 hours or something per night or two ifyou yeah it was about that and then you know you finish at 4 you then go to likeOrchestra practice or whatever you get home at 7:30 maybe have some dinner and then youhave your homework then you wake up again in the morning this Insight of our new life from September it’s hard likeit’s it’s a step up but it’s um if you’re able to meet that challenge I think she’ll be able to meet it yeah Ispent a lot of time there well like not just number of years but even like the days cuz my mom would go work in thecity so I’d get dropped in at like 6 in the morning 6 6:30 Breakfast Club jamand toast then you know an hour later normal people will startarriving nor you got some friends hour later up yeah then you have your 8:30 to 4: day then you go to after school clubfor a bit then you go to Orchestra practice then you get picked up at sevenwhen like Mom comes back from the city like pick up a car driv and I was thefirst one there last one all the time sometimes I’d cuz I did Athletics I did uh quite a lot of music things I didChapel choir and sometimes I was out of school at 9: so like 9:00 pm that doeshappen and then yeah and then then I had like the homework to do and shower andthat kind of thing and I was like finishing like midnight doing everythingand then getting up for like 6 or seven yeah so so it was quite quite hard whatabout the Saturday Sports mornings and stuff there something new sorry I’m asking you tocuz you I mean that’s usually for like match was I was in I was in the footballteam like I played in the football team and oh but I also did a club as well soI had a match on Saturday and then I had matches on Sunday so I was I was doing quite a lot of sport and then they weretraining after school on Wednesday and then I had Orchestra on Thursday then I I mean it’s a good way of keeping ayoung mind busy oh yeah no I I remember I can imagine by the time you get homeyou have no energy for no it’s overwhelming anything after that I even did a chestornament it’s really funny because I was trying to I was trying to escape all of this exercise I was like I I can’t dothis much Athletics and stuff like that yeah you need and I I needed a bit of a break so I I decided to do chess clubfor a bit and then I got into a tournament and I was second seedwell and it was just it I drew my game but it was it was difficult was a goodbut importantly you got to sit down but yeah and then they found me and they were like you’ve you’ve been hiding outin chess club trying to get out of Athletics and I was like yes I have stretch my legs yeah but I was Iwas like oh no they’re taking me a chest tourn because I wanted to just have an easy I wanted to have a bit you wanted arelax activity and then they took me on like they’re know like oh there’s this thing after school and you’ve got to goto to like it was a Hampton Court school I think I did a G other scores yeah butwas great I had we went I went to Eaton as well like to play football match so like once or twice um so you get to seeup a lot of yeah you get to see places if you’re in sports teams um they’requite good at Cricket as well Westminster I think for a basketball game and then somewhere else for ahockey game I didn’t really play hockey made her buy the hockey socks andI was like H they’re like everybody has a goal and then if she doesn’t like then she choosesto a lot of stuff to pay for isn’t it yeah there’s a lot I don’t know how my did it it’s probably it’s probably justbought the uniform y like freshly in my mind and my bank account what was what was what was the outlay for the uniformfor the UN yeah so we didn’t purchase everything from the uniform store stufflike blue jumpers or navy blue trousers John Lewis does the same or this is like a this probably needs a whole differentpodcast with my newly learned of it but just the bits that you needed to getwhich was Blazer Peak her swimming costume put us back to450 wow that’s just the bits of the uniform that’s not all ofcl and then I did the High Street shops wherever Icould where itn’t needs schol Lo did you go to the the L The UniformShop um the uniform they had their popup store oh they’ve oh yeah yeah they’cover they open up it was in the hall they’ve upgraded us have wouldn’tcall that an upgrade used be a specific cupboard with a guy just behind the cit’s from yeah there was there was Mr pill in his stationary shop as well that’s what I’m thinking of no but nothere was a specific un at the front of the school there was a uniform shop do youremember at the moment also I think the pricing which a lot of other parents andmyself know from the WhatsApp groups it’s a little bitunfair where they’ve chosen like the 11 year old 12 year olds to bein adult sizes so say for where they would be like size eight size 10 when it’s adult size you are then texted onit whereas children’s size if it was year 11 to 12 you would then not be texted on it see it felt a little unfairis why just few items of clothing cost us I just remembered like having everything oversized oh her blazer isout here she’ll grow into it hopefully by yeah yeah yeah that’s probablyanother reason isn’t it you get to have to buy more it’s hard I think it’s even worse for boys though cuz like boys boysreally like grow a hell of a hell of a lot shoes last five six months and then you’re going to get new ones Sho shoesespecially cuz you’re but that’s just shoes are okay cuz that’s just black black Navy trainers and you could usethem at then you still got all of the sports the like stud foot stud uh fieldboots and she stick scum Shields all of that stuff you have you have Cricket ifyou do Cricket that’s expensive to like Cricket whes um but you know I don’tknow if she’ll be would she be I would like her to do a team sport yeah maybethey’ll probably do rounders still rounders yeah I can imagine to be quite good at that n yeah net they do net theygot tennis they do quite a lot of stuff she like yeah bedminton tennis is her thing but I want her to be part of a ateam team as such where she takes her role and does things yeah for her team and herself yeah all those extras really

VAT

really really add up they did a like I saw I think St James’s place they did areview of like the the extra cost additional cost not just the pure costof the school fees but the additional things and like per year it’s probablylike if you include trip all the extra yeah including trips and trips are it’slike it’s like 5K or something like that it’s 56 yeah I think we about this with um with Ian couple was it episode beforelast yeah yeah the the yeah and then they’ve got the the vat thing which isthe whole thing that i’ like yeah it’s quite a thing with all the parent groupchats at the moment they would like more communication from the schools I guess it’s still so new it’s hard everybodywants to know where they stand with that it’s very hard for the schools I think because obviously it’s a like I do thinkthere there there’ll be a period leading up to and obviously there’s this you have a contract with the school in orderto like bring in something like bat they need to make sure that the contract iswritten introduced for x amount of time before it comes and that kind of so yeah exactly so it’s slowly phased in butthat’s also something for the government to work out but I don’t know whether it’s like I think it’s quite likely tohappen yeah well it’s yeah yeah so this year they must have that every yearbut the amount of people that chose um so if the fees you can pay termly oryearly because of what was about to come in the news and the conversation chats news then the media a lot of parentsdecided to pay year fees rather than termly if they’ve paid the yearly feesand if the vat is then introduced they’ve paid the fees so they don’t necessarily need to take part in thatthe chances are that they’re not going to be a bring in in the first yearbecause it’s too short notice that’s the thing though if you’re already in the school so say say she’s in year sevenand then they say okay we’re going to bring it in in two years time You’ got to consider yeah and thenyou have siblings so you’ve got to then consider that yes I think it’s hard like especially hard if you’ve got say achild in year six in the prep school and you want to keep them at their schooland they go into that Year s and that’s all they they used to and then to go from that to changing the environmentyeah that’s that’s hard but um what do you think about itpolitically I mean with all the options that we get givenit’s take it because that’s what it is right I mean even when I was going tovot I was like is this really going to make a difference does my wot count towards it is it going to makea difference any it doesn’t feel like it does yeah yeah it’s once you starthearing things you know they’re getting implemented you know that’s coming in and yeah they were right I waswrong that always seems to be the way but they’re probably gonna like when we were talking about this on ourVAC on private school podcast um Ian and rer were talking about howthis is just a start yeah they’ll find more yeah it’s always but then I also think obviouslymy mind has been going everywhere lately with this topic there will be someparents that won’t be able to necessarily afford it as I said if you got two children that’s quite a jumpyeah that’s you thinking either your family holidays might have to be considered taken out it’s big decisionsand if you for any reason decide that you no longer can afford to send your child there you will then go into thestate school which will then put pressure on already over I mean theythey they’re going to have to have I don’t understand necessarily how this is going to work well I think the thing isis that they won’t they will not lose clientele like the good the good privateschools won’t lose clientele because they will have enough demand to sustainit it would just be different clel um wouldn’t it what we were saying is actually schools like the the real topone so eaten they’ll benefit from it they’ll actually they’ll actually benefit they’ll get to because they’llthey’ll push up then they’ll be able to claim back on their vatso they they will make more money and because they’ve got so much demand for their services you’ll stillget Brad and everything like they they won’t have any problem filling those places and I mean the chances are placeup Forest Bank chigwell bankr they’re not going to they’re not going to struggle TR and tell because people arewilling to pay well I know from Lockdown time when people lost their jobs therewere students coming from private to State schools so there was the numbersincrease there is going to be people that choose not to carry on paying theirfees if they get significantly high they will they will then go into state schoolthere will then be government paying for those children where they wouldn’t have had to do that before so there is myhead goes everywhere with this there is a lot I think it will happen more with those you know like those little likeIan said the ones that are less select yeah um you you’ll see that people gookay well that’s not really worth it whereas a school like Forest chwbankr people West like like all of these bigIndependent Schools I don’t think they’ll see much impact it will just be a little I thinkthere’ll be some hard conversations but it won’t be you knowultimately they’re just going to have to they’re going to say to parents this is what it is this is what it is and andparents are going to be willing to pay because it just that’s what it will boil boil down to at the

The Preparation Process

end so in terms of preparing for like the lead up to theexam obviously you did the you did the year five course for the grammar schoolapplication and then you did the four month year six course for the independent scho so SeptemberOctober November December December and then and then you got your exams andthen the exam was in January right so how how did V cope with that last fourmonths like the runup like what were the challenges like was she anxious she stressed and like what did you do tosort of what did she do to it was a little bit where she had done her 11 plus in the grammar school one inSeptember yeah she thought everything we prepared is done now it’s finished let’s go party and then he’s like oh hold onyou’ve now got this this this this it was a little bit like oh do I really have to fed up at the end yeah it got alittle bit fed up but then we explained that you have prepped already this is just going and showing them what you’vealready learned why not just take few more under your belt while you areprepared for it so yeah she in the end understood and where we kept regularattendance with her coming to tution it helped it’s like with with the actuallyit different in the sense um from her 11 plus prep you then had your creativewriting that’s when we came to you quite a bit at Lon andinterviews so there was new things to then be learned for those exams as wellit wasn’t just as I sold it to her that you prepped and there you go you all you have to do is go and show them there wasmore to be learned it’s like a it’s it’s a step up even from the Woodford examyeah then you want to be known all arounded you want to be interviewed yeah and there’s morethere’s more difficult topics there’s different exam formats interviewing the parents interviewing the parents yeah weshould do parent interview practice Yeah I would I would have signed up for it ifthat was an offer cuz I was like H what they going to ask me yeah as in I thinkit’s a general knowledge for them to know what family they’re inviting to their schools but yeah as an adult to betold you are going to be interviewed for your child’s school I was like okay let’s go play that game it’s quitecommon in in the US system as well like they do like well you see we not in the US and it’s not something I’m it’s likenurseries and like privies that are really Elite theyinter also I understand where they’re coming from they want to know the whole package the whole family who’s going tothen take part for the next possibly say seven years it’s not just that you can pay the fees it’s more than I think it’sa lot about their brand it’s like who is who is representing us like do we want them as part of our brand or not it’slike Yeah The Independent Schools make a big deal about the ethos of the school and the values also they’re in theposition of yeah picking yeah they can choose that can be one of theirfiltering processes the good ones yeah the good ones they they have like a very specific value and Ethos behind them Ithink it really it really shows in the students one of our questions at theparent interview was whether being a state school which there will be a lotof x amount of student that’s come from Private School prep schools they havebeen prepared their curriculums planned to prepare them for such testsinterviews whether obviously not having the same background how have we preparedher to get here that’s when the tutions and extra knowledge for us to firstly goand learn and then yeah giving her had to come in but the fact that had teacherasked her so I’d like very little prep which waswhat I was just no as in Rich schools from school obviously they preparing forsets that’s the government requirement they not preparing for yousay that but a year five there’s not like in year six it ramps up but in inyour in year five they don’t have much they don’t have much that’s it to do your saying there like there’scertain schooles aren there that you said prepare you yeah prep scools yeah I forgot the name of it stream what’sthe Preparatory no what’s the word when there’s like a fil filters isn’t it filter school no it’s not where theylike um student filter through from like Oaks or whatever is oh yeah so the filschool will prepare you for a little bit at least stream schools stream stream River something yeah um but yeah thoseparticular schools will prepare you a little bit for yeah where most of their students are probably going to go to butlike you’re saying the other ones will just be like oh it’s government it’s SATs it’s this yeah no as in the head teacher asked us how did we prepare forthis as he said rightly that I understand this is not something yourher school would prepare her for yeah yeah I think that gave me a little bit of an advant well no it didn’t give mean advantage in the exam but maybe in the interview because that I I think to them I sounded so under prepped for itthat yeah it was very genuine there yeah like I I was just answering things practiced and yeah so whereas like a lotof people might have been prepped like other schools would prepare for interview questions and do interviewswhich is obviously not something that with the school yeah with with the independent school course like my mainaim isn’t necessarily anything to do with topics it’s to prepare thechild for curveballs and to think flexibly so nothave my aim with that course was always not just it’s just topics it’s aboutproblem solving and thinking on your feet and and also being able to thinkmore holistically about things so I also ask them maybe things that they’re notused to being asked so about topics that they’re not used to hearing about yeahalso there I think it was yourself that mentioned couple of very bizarre questions which you might notnecessarily have a in the interview thing yeah yeah so the answer is not necessarily what they looking for yourprocess of eliminating what it could what they want to know how do you how does your mind yeah they’ve made iteasier though I remember what I actually asked how many balls could this oh it was it was um yeah I show the Rubik’sCube and said this is like a 3X3 Cube how many of these can fit this entire room yeah yeah she she looks veryconfused I mean as an adult I would look but it’s the process of eliminating andworking out if this they want to see your so they don’t want the answer they want to know your method ofand that’s that’s like I remember I think now it is easier because like from the questions that you although one of Ijust remember one of the questions that they got for Forest I think it was waswould you consider to be good teamwork or something something like that and I was I was quite I was like that was a atricky question difficult for some some kids to answer yeah so when that was asked ifshe’s LED anything thing so similar yeah yeah um I remember I got asked like theone remember the one that long ago I got I remember like the TV shows that Iwatched I was like friends friends and and yeah um was it but what books do youread yeah books um authors and that kind of thing and I got asked how many howmany students are in your primary school and that was something where that was and and it was like was it so so I waslike okay well there’s so I remember my thoughts going into it I was like there was 40 kids in my class and there weretwo CL cuz I had I went from goers book so I was like it’s around around 40 wellit wasn’t when I was when I was there but you Chang once she left she left yeah beat me to it yeah he used to usedto not used to not be that great of a school but it was there was like 40 in each class and I remember my thoughtprocess was like there were two two classes in each year group and then likeworking through the number of years and I had to think about reception as well so I was was like okay so there’s aboutseven year groups yeah and then you do seven times eight or whatever and andthen you had to zero so so so I remember being asked cuzI Mr Hard Castle interviewing going through that process Deputy had for when we were there yeah well for the firstpart of when we were there you used to call me Mrstrange how long has it been since you got your results so we got the results

Advice for 11 plus parents

in end of February end of February okay no to be precise 14th 15th of Februaryjust before halterm okay as we received the address um the results then went offon our holiday which worked out perfect because it was after yeah so you’ve had could have the holiday at the same timegrp worked out yeah um yes so it’s been about what fourfour months or so yeah how how has it been since now that You’ finished theprocess you’ve got your results you’ve called everybody yeah um um how wouldyou okay how would you um give advice what would you say to parents that are like in year five or about to go intoyou know the year six September course what advice would you give to them knowing what you know now just the whole journey make it asrelaxing as possible for your whole family for the child for the adults don’t make it a need it’s notthat as in is isn’t that we must have that school don’t it’s just taking awaythe pressure that approach worked really well yeah so even when the results weredue I knew with I roughly knew they do you and she was getting a bit uneasy but myself and the husband just made sure wedidn’t talk about it once the exams were done it’s just not something to talk about and when theresults came after that came I mean we had already spoken about if she didn’t get in how would we then breakit but yeah be as casual as possible about the whole thing do you think thatapproach would work for every every child or would you say maybe it’s different depending on the child Learthat yeah learned some families desperately want yeah to schoolyeah I the child’s friends are going or there’s a lot of expectation around thatand that I can imagine would wouldn’t be nice coming up to the result days butyeah for from my experience from prepar preparing to the test day test day isvery important cuz you’ve got your nerves and you don’t want to filter that into your child cuz they are the onethat’s going in there for that three four hours and they pick up on it won’t they that journey in where everyone’sjust quiet in the car yeah try and make it as normal as possible and if you have to Stage ityeah put that music that she likes a little bit louder yeah just made them feel relaxedthen yeah which is kind of the approach we take with our classes anyway isn’t it yeah we want them to be that’s what she liked yeah ultimately like they putchildren put a surprising amount of pressure on themselves and yeah like you said yeah I’ve seen and yeah I think theparent needs to be cognizant of that otherwise it you be surprised how muchpressure parents put on their themselves oh the journey as well that was something newly learned for myself but as I said that’s when you really wanted that pressure from the adult but it does filter through and the children they know they can tell yeah they knowif the parents are bickering or little things and that’s not your normal r i remember your dad was it your husbandbeing quite shocked by just the level of questions that I was asking and was like I can’t even do this I don’t a lawyerknow exactly like with the comprehension and stuff like it’s like I don’t have to cover this in my emails but he said hehands up you’re taking her we knew our strengths he knew that morning yeahbefore was not his time so he’ll just like she’s got the pen she’s got the pencil we got rubbersharpen mebe this and it’s like don’t need that it’s fine but from that tone and Body Language it is something whereI would pick up but then he’ll be like you drop her yeah I’ll sit in the car so you don’t have to worry about parkingI’ve always thought the most yeah the most relaxed parent should always take their child in that was definitely thecase because the other one will project those yeah emotions onto the child and that’s not needed at that time for any for the before we go I just want to give you something this is for you guys just oh thank for coming in and and stuff thanks a lot from I cards can yeah or the years get a little bit they do this is really nice whereas this can last a little longer cuz yeah nowell um we’ll put that up in the on the wall somehow so thanks again for watching if you’re watching us on YouTube don’t forget to like subscribe and leave a comment maybe share share the video with somebody if you’re listening to us on Apple or Spotify don’t forget to give us a follow and a rating and we’ll see youback again nextmonth the education Lounge podcast