Hall School Wimbledon – A refreshing alternative to the 11+

Another September is upon us and so begins the term of final exam preparation technique and interview practice for many 10-year-olds before arriving at their short list of schools for the dreaded 11+ exam. But is this well-trodden path, which huge numbers of South London parents follow, really necessary?

I, as a parent of 3 children in Southwest London, had been led to believe that the co-educational options for South west London families were either:

(a) a very limited selection of co-educational schools where entry is determined by a highly competitive selection process, with sometimes 1,000 children competing for 100-200 places;
(b) moving our of London to a slightly less competitive environment: or
(c) boarding.

Given that (b) and (c) were not options that I wanted for our family life, I therefore embarked on the 11+ process over a gruelling 7 years. I paid for tutors and became extremely adept at verbal reasoning. Three Christmas’ were marred by the particular 10-year-old in our house needing to complete past papers in order to be as prepared as possible.

Since starting to work in admissions at Hall School Wimbledon I have however found out that there was an alternative to this brutal process. Many children are simply too immature to engage in the 11+ process, suffer from anxiety or have parents who simply do not agree (or are not aware) that preparing children for exams at such an early age is the right thing for their child. For those families another option does exist in the shape of Hall School Wimbledon (HSW).*

At HSW we believe that we should consider the whole child, not just the narrow parameter of whether or not they can perform in a test on a given day. Instead of an entrance exam, we invite children for a Taster Day so that they can experience what it would be like to be a student at HSW. The day is an opportunity for the staff at HSW to determine if they think your child would be a good fit for the school but similarly for your child to work out if that is where they might like to spend the next 7 years of their life.

Education is not a one size fits all. There are children who thrive in an 11+ environment and relish the feeling of working out a tricky maths question under exam conditions. I am not suggesting that Hall School Wimbledon is necessarily the right school for every child, however, for many children aged 10, the 11+ exam route is not the right option and it is a revelation to me to discover this hidden gem.

If you think that Hall School Wimbledon might be the right school for your child, please visit us at one of our open days or listen to our recent podcast by our Year 7 pupils.

To find out more about a ‘Day in the life of HSW year 7 students’ head to our Podcast following the link here: https://hsw.co.uk/news/#podcast

We also offer entry from Year 5 to enable those children for whom the 11+ exam route is simply not the right choice to start at our school prior to the focus of their final primary years being all about preparing for the 11+ exams.

It is not too late to register for one of our Year 7 Taster Days in November (and you still have time to shred the past papers!)

Upcoming open events:

Saturday 5th October – whole school open morning
Tuesday 8th October – whole school open morning
Tuesday 15th October – whole school open afternoon

To book follow this link:  https://hsw.co.uk/admissions/open-day-registration/

*(The school does prepare all students for formal national exams in a rigorous way, balancing their academic progress with their personal development, health and wellbeing.)