Posted on: March 8th 2024
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This year, Form 6 pupils at Norfolk House School have truly excelled themselves. The 11+ is an exacting and rigorous process, particularly here in north London; it requires immense amounts of hard work to prepare for and requires patience and resilience that even adults would find challenging to muster.
Below is a summary of the offers that have so far been confirmed for our current Form 6 pupils. There is a tremendous variety, from schools in northwest, northeast and central London to those in the Hertfordshire countryside. In all, 18 independent schools and 3 state-selective (‘grammar’) schools have so far put forward offers to our pupils. Among the offers are also three academic scholarships - a special recognition of exceptional performance on the examinations.
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While our pupils always impress in their entrance exams and interviews, this year boasts some of the most impressive results our school has enjoyed in recent years. The achievement is particularly impressive when you consider that Norfolk House is not an academically selective school.
Wouldn’t an all-through school, in which your child can progress seamlessly from prep to senior school be better all round?
There’s no getting away from it, 11+ exams require hard work and preparation, and can be nerve-wracking to undergo, especially at a young age. However, while these drawbacks are relatively obvious, the advantages of going this route rather than the all-through school option are rarely discussed. Here at Norfolk House, we see them as being the following:
The choice of senior schools
When your child is 11, will they thrive best in a single-sex or co-educational setting? What kind of curriculum will suit them? Will they get the most out of a school in rural environs or will a central London school be their optimal home-from-home?
If your child is not yet 4, these are hard questions to answer. However, once your child has entered Form 5 and we have developed a thorough understanding of them as an individual, these questions are much easier for us at Norfolk House to discuss with you as parents.
With so many choices of senior schools on offer, why take the risk of a ‘best guess’ at the age of 4, which may prove to be the wrong setting by 11? It is far more of a challenge to get the support for preparation and choice of schools at this point if you are in an all-through school, whereas at Norfolk House, one of our key aims for each of our pupils is to prepare them for a range of potential destination schools.
The chance to make the most of pupils’ potential
With our accelerated curriculum and high adult-to-pupil ratios, we often find pupils at Norfolk House progress even faster than their parents expected. By 11, it may be that we can recommend applications to more academically competitive schools than parents might have considered at the age of 4. This means a far greater chance of a high-achieving pupil being able to make the most of their talents from Year 7 onwards.
Preparation for the exam helps with future progress
What all-through schools often find, but rarely discuss openly, is that the pupils who join them in Year 7 from outside, having sat the 11+ process, often outperform their peers who transitioned without assessment from the internal prep or junior School. This is often found to be the case not only in Year 7, but often up to and including Year 9. It appears from this trend that the increased self-discipline and self-efficacy that often accompanies a pupil’s preparation for the 11+ process has a long-term positive effect on their studies for years afterwards.
What do we do to best prepare pupils for success?
Our overarching aim is to ensure pupils are gradually and progressively mentored and coached to the point where they can excel in the process. This means starting early, starting gently and making sure their wellbeing remains paramount, as well as not narrowing the curriculum at any point.
1. Low Intensity Preparation
In Form 4 we begin to introduce ‘low-intensity’ preparation, such as lessons in verbal and non-verbal reasoning and the introduction of Atom Prime around halfway through the year to complement homework using questions that adapt to a child’s current attainment and help teachers to see where each pupil needs further support.
2. Parent Introduction to the Process
At the beginning of Form 5, a video introduction is sent to parents to explain the 11+ process, the considerations when choosing schools to apply to and the timeline for the application processes.
3. Senior School Presentation Evening
Heads and Registrars from a wide range of senior schools come to visit Norfolk House to present to our Form 5 parents. In 2023 we hosted representatives from over 14 schools. This is a valuable opportunity for our families to gain an insight into what each of the schools could offer their child.
4. School Recommendations
In the second term of Form 5, The Head and teachers from the Senior Prep team meet with the parents of each pupil to discuss our recommendations for schools to apply to. We aim to recommend four schools typically; one that is an ‘ambitious’ target, two that we feel relatively confident in securing offers from and one ‘safety net’ choice.
5. Revision Packs
During the East and Summer holidays, personalised revision packs are sent home with each pupil, tailored to the particular schools they are looking to apply to
6. Mock Test Papers
In the first term of Form 6 pupils begin to do mock test papers, which are again tailored for each of them towards the schools they are applying to
7. Practice Interviews
In the first and second terms of Form 6, teachers and senior leaders provide interview practice for the pupils, aimed at giving them confidence and ideas to assist them in the actual interviews for each school they apply to.
While we are always looking for new ways to give our pupils the ‘edge’ when it comes to the 11+ process, the results from this year (as with previous years) demonstrate that the ‘fundamentals’ we have refined in our preparation process support Norfolk House Form 6 pupils to achieve exceptional things. Many surpass even their own expectations of themselves and, irrespective of where they ultimately choose to start Year 7, they never cease to make us all extremely proud!
