Is it too early to start a 2016 girls 11+ W/SW London thread?

DS will not be appearing for 11+ but I bought Bond comprehension 10-11 and 11-12 along with focus on comprehension 9-11 and really liked those. I read somewhere good about "Close Reading 11-14 with Answers" and "So you really want to learn English Book 3 " and planning to buy those, Can somebody please give me feedback of these 2 books in comparison of bond books mentioned above. My aim is general improvement in English and not to miss on good material available in age group of 10-14.

Those results don't tell the whole story - assuming I am thinking of the same school - there are nearly 60 in the year and almost all sat Emanuel - 18 offers on that basis isn't great

The kids at the top of the school got offers from everywhere. Lots of others sat 3-7 schools and only got 1 offer

My dc's old primary school has just published their 11+ results and they would seem to contradict the view that schools previously seen as fall-backs are now ultra-competitive

18 children got offers from Emanuel but only 3 accepted, there were 18 offers for SCHS and 10 acceptances, 10 offers for Sydenham High and 0 acceptances and 6 for WHS and 0 acceptances. Emanuel still have a very low acceptance rate even when children have been offered scholarships

(Also several offers for Alleyn's, JAGS, Whitgift, DC)

Obviously that's only one school's results but it's non-selective so that's from a mixed ability cohort. The results look very similar to those from recent years so I think there is a lot of unnecessary panic. Parents need to have faith that their children won't be wandering the streets with no school place even if they don't sit for 5 or 6 or even more schools...

Also if there was a bulge class added for 2016 does that mean the places will be fewer for 2017, I know they take an extra class every other year, due to be 2017?

Hi

Wonder if anyone has any info on WHS, we will be applying for daughter for entry into year 7 in 2017.

Firstly does everyone who gets offered a place get invited for interview, or is it just the undecided few who get called back and the higher scorers just get an automatic offer without interview?

Also does anyone know how much weight the heads letter would carry, not that my daughter should have a bad one but I wondered if it is at all considered in the overall outcome?

Thanks

albertschoice - its GCSE results were v good last year, they have a new head who is making her mark, and GDST fees are more competitive (we are speaking very relatively here) than other London private schools - £1k+ less a term in many cases. All possible reasons I'd say.

Ah yes of course, well that's good news for the wait list then.

Someone from our school was on wait list and got the call for the bulge class. So sounds like very high acceptance level - but not enough to fully fill the bulge class . I know they thought they were offering conservatively so even with that they effectively over offered. Very popular choice of school this year - be interested to know why. Any thoughts?

but if they've had to go to a bulge class they might go to waitlist to fill it?

guess they'll be giving more wait list offers next year and fewer definites...

So interestingly WHS has had a high number of acceptances and so are putting on another class for Sept 16, suggesting they haven't gone to wait list at all this year

I'd say high 5s for those schools too although DS wasn't 5s in year 5 and he got into the boys equivalents. I think they go by the test alone. I really don't think they have to consider NC levels, reports or extra curricular prowess these days due to the terrific demand for places.

That's so helpful, thank you, I'm in such a panic as my DD's English has slipped down a notch, am sure we can turn it around hopefully but the school put this on a reference and the school to which we were applying freaked. We were looking for a Year 6 place.
I'm not sure if these NC level are even used when giving a reference anymore?

Ah, thank you MLP!

Levels were not discussed ever with parents, shared only by school when SATS results were issued in summer Y6. So I'd assume lots of guesswork in Y5. We didn't start using test papers until Y6 so I think we were a bit naive as to what SATS and levels were.

If your child is doing very well in their cohort, then as crude as that sounds, a reasonable indicator as to whether those schools are a realistic target?

Yes NC = National Curriculum normally. I'd say you'd need to be looking at level 5s in everything by the end of Y5 to have a good chance of the top schools, but it's not always easy to gauge by the NC levels as they're such a broad measure. DD2 was 4a in maths at the end of Y5 and high 5s in everything else, and she did get into one of the schools you mention, but from the waiting list.

Ealingwestmum, I believe she is referring to National Curriculum levels.

S999, what does NC levels mean? If it's the extra curricular stuff, and you are looking at potential scholarship requirements for 11 entry, all of the schools will have the requirements on their respective websites. Music is particularly tough, as though there is a minimum G5 equivalent (or G6 for SPGS), this does not always mean shortlist success. Around G4 for the GDST schools...

Art, portfolio requirements are on website.

If I have your enquiry wrong, apologies!

AeganBlue and cerealbar Richmond definitely did make a mistake saying places were offered to all on time applicants (I know because on-time neighbour got the "sorry" letter). Contacting head of childrens' services to complain seems to help - the council may have altered their on-line version of the press release, but the print version of R&TT on 4th March clearly (and mis-informedly) stated that "Every parent in the borough who applied before the deadline secured an offer of a school place for their child this week.".

G&L now offering from wait list.

Summermonths - from my experience in a probably fairly typical high achieving but mixed SW London state primary, one or two at most would get into St Pauls, and it was normally fairly apparent who they would be. G&L, Hampton and LEH would be top 4 or 5-ish. Ibstock and Emanuel used to be pretty safe bets but are now top 10 I think. Latymer tends to be a more difficult one to call - only a few get in, but they're not always the ones you'd expect. Hope that helps!

Hi Summermonths. All I can really say to you in that about half the intake to LU in year 7 are from state schools. In fact the DC I know on academic scholarships there came from state primaries, I believe. There is no separate reasoning paper, but reasoning is built into the English paper (eg. defining subtle differences between words, that kind of thing) and the more extended maths questions require quite a bit of lateral thinking. In a sense, these things can't really be tutored or taught any better in a prep school.

Teddtess I can believe the school would not tell me about epips but I'm sure at least one of my DDs would have mentioned doing a computerised test, or I'd have heard another mum mention it my now so no I don't think we do it. When I've discussed SATS levels it's always been paper tests which have been mentioned.

I've been lurking...may I be so bold please as to ask what sort of NC levels yours DDs were at in Year 5, if applying to schools such as G&L, CLSG, SPGS etc.
Thank you so much, sorry for barging in...

are you sure Ashers?
my school never tell us the results or mentions them to the parents

i only know because dd was talking about the fun computer game - and then i asked the head if she had any thoughts re selective secondaries and she told me "based on her baseline EPIP scores she would recommend Tiffin"

Summermonths our tutor was the best source of guidance for us. She had tutored lots of children into local schools and knew how my child compared to other children who had previously got places. Our state primary would not have had a clue, it's not in their remit after all to advise on private school entry,

TeddTess - epips sound interesting, we don't have that, just plain old pencil and paper tests

you think that... my dds are at a big state primary too. the head may not know your dd but she will have scores/data on her.

DDs school do EPIPS in reception, yr2 and yr4. it is a computer program which assesses them, the questions change in response to their answers/ability.

most schools have them or something similar, they base their SATS expectation off them - do schools under/over deliver on SATS score based off the baseline result.

Tedd, it's a large state primary and I doubt the Head has an opinion of where my daughter would fit. In fact the school seems to be careful not to say to parents where their children could fit in the private sector. Is that not normal for state primaries?

What is an EPIP score?!