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

my experience says that the extra curricular really doesn't have any influence, it is all about the exam! well maybe if you are after a scholarship - sports, music but for those you have to be very exceptional.

SummerMonths what does your head think, they should have EPIP scores or similar on your dd.

Thanks for all your thoughts. My DD is bright and probably top 3 for English and top 5 for maths in her state school class. So not exceptional but v enthusiastic, well behaved and organised. She likes violin but only has grade 1, she is on a swim team and loves drama but has no amazing talent. She really wants Latymer Upper because it is mixed sex and local. We have a tutor once a week and she is working hard but I'm unclear whether LU is an impossible dream or not. And is Godolphin much easier or is it marginal?

I will stop gate crashing the thread now!

My DD is at a state primary, a fairly bog standard one. She's bright but no genius, in the top 5 in her class I'd say. Without tutoring however I don't think she would have got into any of the schools we applied to.

Mandz- the applications bloke was v obstreperous about a v reasonable request for clarification. And this was to an offer holder...

aeganblue - Could that be because of the extra spaces this year - e.g. an extra class at PHS, which would impact on the local area? Hasn't Surbiton increased its numbers too? (I maybe wrong). Also, there is a new state senior school in the area - Turing?
Just a thought.

coffeeismycupoftee - Must be the same man at City! What did he say to your friend? All we got told Friday before last week was that not many people had responded so they were chasing offers.

Cerealbar - yes the applications were made on time (I confirmed as I too noticed that on the press release)

Summer- having done this two consecutive years, what has struck me most is the huge successes of private applications from our state primary this year- numerous children - all bright but not necessarily the top one or two in class - who have fabulous offers from LEH & Hampton, Latymer, Godolphin, Putney etc. this contrasts enormously with last year's applications where huge numbers of girls in particular were waitlisted (I think every applicant to Putney bar one or two who ended up at Tiffin) and then the waitlists for some like godolphin didn't move and others like LEH only moved a little. As far as I could tell one cohort wasn't necessarily brighter than the last (SATs results still excellent last year) so it's a mystery to me why it's so different....
All the children this year or last either had a tutor on exam technique (from Jan year 5 generally once a week term time) or a parent who pushed them to do timed practice papers (available on school websites) and practice reasoning books (eg Bond). Hope that helps.

Manzi,
My son hated the interview at City, came out refusing to talk about it while came out of the other two (even the one he didn't get an offer from) absolutely buzzing.

My friend spoke last week to a man at City admissions who was pretty curt with him, maybe the same one.

Still, CC - not a bad alternative!

SummerMonths I don't think it matters how bright your DC are or which percentile they are in, it's the ones that are tutored from state primaries who will receive the most offers from independent schools. I know of some very bright DC who were caught out by not being tutored, one of my own DC included. I can only think of one DC, a best friend of my DS, who was untutored and scraped into Tiffin on the WL, and he is now top of every class, so a pretty exceptional case.

Coffeeismycupoftea - We were very shocked with City as we were told he was in a 'strong position' on the waiting list by the lovely admissions lady but the second guy we spoke to twice was useless and had no clue. We never did hear back and to be honest we just wanted closure on the whole thing. Ds did not like the interview of the three he did. I spoke to someone who had been very much messed around by them.

Mandzi - City Boys' admin is absolutely atrocious, well it was for us last year. My son got offered a place and in some ways it was the natural school for him, but we turned them down for an arguably less prestigious school. I was beginning to think that if it had been his only offered, we'd have just gone state. Important emails not being responded to, chaos and lack of compassion on the exam day, very unpersonal offer letter, women's toilets being broken...

Friends this year have found them to be similarly unhelpful. I think they need to get their act together - the admissions dept becomes fairly meaningless once you go to a school, but often parents are looking for reasons to discount schools if they have more than one offer.

My ds was at a fairly low-achieving state primary and he was definitely top two for maths but far lower for English. He was not exceptional but he did see a tutor for an hour a week (and wouldn't have got in without that).

I'm a lurker ( all of it to come) but at our state primary about the half the class is going private. Some got 4 or 5 offers, most got at least 2 or 3 including WHS, PHS, Hampton, LEH etc. Others got offers but have chosen Lady Margaret, Tiffin etc. They obviously can't all be at the top of the class but it is quite a high achieving school and a lot go private every year. Most have some sort of tutoring too, mainly for technique.

Summermonths. I think the bright and well rounded state school kids can go a long way with the right exam preparation. It's all relative to the standard in their particular year in their particular school though. My DS wasn't top one or two in his state school class but would be described as bright and well rounded (I hope!) and is doing very well at LU now.

SummerMonths - I think it depends on what schools you are applying for. From what I've seen this year you need to be the top one or two for schools like SPGS, City, LU and for schools like Francis Holland, Godophin, Emmanuel you'd need to be in the top 10 for everything. Just my experience though.

Those of you with state primary kids, did you get many offers? And if so was your child always exceptional within their primary cohort or just quite bright and well rounded?

Thanks, Goodbyealvin that's what I thought (assuming PHS kept to its previous pattern). It does make it a fraction easier for girls this year compared to last or next.

Surbiton WL has been moving since early last week

PHS has an extra class every other year I believe, and this was one of those years

Not heard anything about WHS, sorry

Also keen to hear of any WHS wait list movement?
(Got 3 offers, one rejection, one WL)

Hopeless432 - We got CC - our first choice. I also heard Francis Holland SW and Harrodian went to wait list.

How many forms entry was PHS having this year?

G and L went to their WL

WL moving at Putney, LEH, Francis Holland SW, St James's, Queensgate, More House...haven't heard about SPGS, G&L, WHS, City Girls, Emanuel.....anyone know about the latter names?

Mandz, l don't think City went to WL this year. Boy in my DS's class was on WL but lost hope today when he had heard nothing this morning. His offer involves a long journey south and parents disappointed. Where did you take in the end? Hope WL turned out better for everybody else.

Heard of 3 people getting offers from the Putney High waitlist today. Good news for those keen to go there who are on WL.