Grey Coat school admissions - how to get in?

Can you still apply for a normal place if you dont get the language apptitude?

Ah, I've just realised this is a zombie thread, the original kids are now in year 6!

Allmimsy, Haberdasher's Askes now allocates on distance (it used to be lottery). They have also got rid of the banding. In SE London Charter (old and New), Kingsdale, Prendergast, Sydenham Girls', Harris Girls' ED and Deptford Green are all good options

Apologies for bumping an old thread. I wondered whether anyone knew roughly what sort of distance you'd need to be from this school if the girl had attended church weekly for all of her life [and didn't sit a test for a language place etc]?? Is this something I might be able to get by emailing the school? Thanks in advance.

I absolutely agree, LaydeeC. The banding system makes it very easy to manipulate intake: if they have 17 very able children in one band but can only offer 15 places, they simply put two of them into a less over-subscribed band so that they can ensure they get places also.

I honestly cannot understand all these convoluted admissions criteria. Surely, if a school is truly comprehensive then it should be based on distance. The introduction of up to eight or nine bands with inner and outer rings must always ensure that most of the children are of average or higher ability thus skewing the intake. The idea that a child who lives yards from a school cannot get in because he/she is no 16 in a band where the fifteen kids have already been offered a place is an utter nonsense.
This is what is happening in the Academy schools in the area that I live - and it is an open secret that it is purely a back door selection process whereas the LEA controlled secondary schools purely allocate on distance.
I think it stinks.

We went for the language test this year, but I am afraid I can't remember much other than they were given a sample of language (Martian) and had to deduce what different words/sentences meant. I think there are some tests online somewhere that are similar.

There were lots and lots of girls in each sitting, and lots of sittings on different days. So the odds are very slim.
My dd didn't get in. A friend of hers at school did though. By all accounts this friend is exceptionally clever. My dd is high achieving but can't catch this other girl. I think it is an intelligence/logic test really.

The language place can't be tutored for, it tests the child's logic. We didn't put in for a language test but was lucky to get a church place, but that's also not a guarantee as it's point scored.

I really don't know how that offer places as we are about two miles away and girls in my DD class come as far as N7 and se27!

My ds passed a language aptitude test for another school. He, and all the other children I know who got places by this method were also applying to independent schools and were doing verbal and non verbal reasoning practise to pass these tests. We went with the independent school and he really isn't any good at languages but is very logical.

We're thinking of grey coat for DD for 2015 entry. Live in SE1 area. Not religious but DD very academic. Open day today and the queue is unbelievable. My heart has sunk and feel we have no chance.

I felt like that about Haberdasher's Aske's, Nomore! We didn't get a place there for our son, nor at two other comprehensives we'd have been delighted to send him to. We did get our fourth preference and would have been pretty sure of a place at our fifth and sixth too, but I would rather have attempted home education than send him to any of those. All in special measures, on and off for years. He went to a private school instead.

So glad all that is long behind us!

I know .

I suspect part of the local ambivalence stems from the fact that it does not operate as a local school. Pimlico, in contrast, rents out classrooms to local groups, and shares its library and sports facilities with the local community. Plus educates local children.

Greycoats seems to attract plenty from Kent via Waterloo, and well as those coming into Victoria or by tube. Perhaps a fall back if you don't get the Grammar. I certainly got chided once by a colleague from Kent for sending my DD to a private school. I tried to explain that we were not offered any of our preferences, only a failing school some way away. She was astonished. Quite a lot of her friends children went to Greycoats. I am not sure that making sure you tick the boxes on the admissions criteria gives you as much moral high ground as I think she felt she was entitled to. (I am sure there is some theological question about whether in these circumstances it is more moral not to baptise, than to play the schools admission game.)

Poor DD had to get on a bus past Greycoats. Full of kids coming in from far and wide. We really wished someone from the school had given them a talk on not standing as a big group by the entrance of the bus, leaving others to push past them to get on and off, and perhaps the very long entrance criteria might include some understanding of basic social norms, like giving up seats for the elderly and disabled.

Sour grapes? Moi?!

Thanks, Needmoresleep, that makes perfect sense. I was just a bit worried that someone new to the system might be confused and think you could end up with two offers.

We live in SE London, many miles from Victoria, and quite often see girls in Greycoats uniform coming home on the train or bus. It seems odd to me, but I suppose it's not as far as the Oratory or St Olave's/Newstead Woods or the Sutton/Bexley grammar schools, and some families fall over themselves to get places at those schools.

Allmimsy, it might have been loose wording. What I meant is that I know people who are pretty certain to get Greycoats (live v. close, baptised, in a feeder primary) will look often look very seriously at both Greycoats and Pimlico. I can think of one family who simply preferred Pimlico, another who received a late offer for Greycoats, but decided not to give up their Pimlico place.

Pimlico really is much improved. Greycoats certainly offers a good education but there seems to be a sense that it is resting on its laurels.

Dosen't really matter though. Greycoats seems near impossible to get in unless you are seriously religious.

Awww my mother went there during the 1950s. Good luck!

Yes, scenario 2 happened to a friend of my DD's. Got a place at Greycoats, was offered St Marylebone from the waiting list and took a place there.

hold onto the Greycoats place

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Needmoresleep, I don't understand how anyone could turn down a place at one state school for another one in the current system. Do you mean that people are putting Pimlico down as a higher choice than Greycoats?

Using the common application form, or whatever it's called, parents get one offer (or none) from their state school applications. If a family puts Greycoats down as #1 and Pimlico as #2 and both schools would be able to offer a place in the first instance, the system will automatically hand back their Pimlico place and Greycoats, which releases the Pimlico place for another family. The family will never know that they would have got a place at Pimlico.

I suppose if they had a change of heart when they get the Greycoats offer they might be able to go to Pimlico and ask if there are any vacancies there - is that what you mean?

(The current system is so much better than the position ten years ago before this came in when some families did end up holding multiple offers and took their time deciding which to accept, while other families had nothing at all.)

dd1 got a place some years ago but didn't actually go. she sat the aptitude test but got her place on faith grounds - as did everyone else we know who went there. And those that didn't get places were actually those from the more evangelical churches - if your church doesn't baptise babies then your dd won't get full marks on the faith score. this may have changed though as I know one family who complained about this.

Our nearest school. A few years back DD sat the test and thought it more of a logic test than language. There were sittings on at least two different days and queues round the block, so the odds are slim. Some local children seem to get tutoring for it. I have not read the admission criteria but people living really, really close seem to have a higher chance. I also don't know if things have changed but rules used to demand a high level of religious participation so easier for girls from evangelical church backgrounds for whom church was a big part of family life. The slight downside here was that some of these pupils might be less tolerant of homosexuality and other facets of a liberal society. Not a school for a child of gay parents.

Locally Pimlico Academy is becoming increasingly popular, to the extent that people now turn down Greycoats for Pimlico. More liberal, good pastoral care and less rigid. That said, Greycoats delivers a good education. They take boys in sixth form.

DD did not get a place. Frustrating to see pupils travel in from far and wide, with a mini traffic jam of parents dropping pupils off out of sight of the school. And unlike pupils from other schools, Greycoats pupils regularly fail the bus behaviour test. I wish one of their teachers would tell pupils that they should give up seats for clearly elderly and disabled people, and not block the entrances. but that's what comes with having, effectively, a London wide catchment.

My DD did the test some years back and said it was like an alien language and mostly aural. One of her friends was offered a language place but didn't accept it. She is fluent in an oriental language - not sure if that helps.

I would go and have a look at it. Personally I didn't like it but most people I know rave about it. St Marylebone was the more fashionable school a few years back and many people apply for both.