As the Tiffin deadline looms, is there a girls SW London grammars / indies thread yet?

1indigo thanks for sharing that really useful info re CAT scores for various schools.

I know they are further east but do you or others happen to know what CAT scores are generally needed to get into Alleyns and JAGS or Emanuel?

Did your head collect these CAT scores from the secondary schools themselves or from years of experience observing which pupils from their prep got places within these schools?

Many thanks for sharing this valuable info.

Yikes really OVienna, 50! That's two whole class loads.

I think it must be very hard for schools like F as for a lot of people they're a back-up to more local/more academic schools. But they don't want to under-offer and end up going to wait list. A woman at City Girls told me that they had to do exploding offers 'because we're such a popular school'. Actually I think for popular schools it's much easier to get the numbers right so I don't buy that, ahem, argument.

The school starting with 'F' had fifty more acceptances one year than they expected though.

Nor do I Patience!

I think the schools are pretty cagey about how many offers they make as they don't want to admit to how many won't accept. I've read people on here say that certain schools only over-offer by 10% and frankly I don't believe them (other than places like St Paul's Girls which does seem to have very high take up). I think most over-offer by at least 2x even up to 6x.

If you look at Bute House leavers destinations, for example, in 2018 there were 31 rejected offers for G&L, 16 for Latymer Upper, 12 for Putney. And those are there very sought-after schools and that's going to add up. In fact at Bute, it looks like the average girl received 4.3 offers. That means that every girl is rejecting well over three places.

I wish the system were more transparent. I've no idea what's going to happen up in the frozen wilds of North London with my dd, hence wasting my time speculating on a SW London thread!

I know WHS was close to 700, I assume PHS was similar? No idea about the others or how many offers they make. I did go through the local prep schools recently as they publish offers received, and you can see from that there are a lot of offers going out even without the state schools, but I couldn’t put a figure on it.

Well done to your dd Jimjam.
I too would be interested to hear the numbers sitting for each school and how many offers are made and how many on waiting list (it must be a fine art not to over or under offer).

Congrats JimJam! Another one in the bag!!

I wonder how may applied for PHS this year? It’s the first time I’ve ever find the girls schools.

Thanks!

Our Putney High letter arrived and we have an offer. 😀

Thanks FlumePlume. Are you getting any work done whilst checking for the postman?? Its a definite distraction for me.

re CAT scores, dds' state primary did EPIPS in reception, yr2 and yr4.

They don't share the scores but measure baseline intelligence apparently. A bit like MIDYIS testing in secondary schools.

Good luck to all going through this - you're nearly there.

I have 2 DDs at KGS. Very different children academically and socially. Both very happy there. Feel free to PM me.

There was a thread on here in Nov/Dec started by a mum of a girl at TGS about mental health at grammar/private schools. Scary reading but obviously just one person’s views.

Re Wait Lists moving- last year WHS started to move just after the State School results had come out- I think G&L moved around then as well. I think a lot of people don't reject anything until they know exactly what they have to choose from. Even if they know they probably won't take the state school offer they get they still don't accept the independent one early on.
I know that last year I had every intention of rejecting offers we didn't want ASAP but when it came to it I admit we held on to them longer that we should have. We we lucky and had more to choose from in the end than I thought we would and a possible good state school offer so we were one of the who were pegging across London ( in the snow) on the day offers had to be accepted!

For those of you looking for experience of what life is like at Tiffin GS, pop along to the talk forum section of elevenplusexams where there are many posters whose children attend the school.

jeanne - no I don’t think prep heads can “get DC in” as such. Nor would they want to try because the emphasis throughout is always on finding the “right” school for the child.

I do think some preps have a personal relationship or understanding with certain schools though. I remember when one of my DS sat Hampton years ago. The head told me just before Xmas, “We’re not sure about LU, but we think he will get into Hampton.” I’m never sure if this was a marketing technique, but DS then received a handwritten Xmas card from the head. Could he have handwritten 900 cards to all applicants - I don’t know? Anyway, seven boys “sent” from the prep all got interviews there (and all received offers). The head did intervene for the one boy who didn’t get an interview and managed to swing him one, though the parents didn’t take it up and he went to KGS. That’s just one school though. Hampton has its own feeder school anyway and is maybe more inclined to depend on others in this sense? The preps don’t have this influence at all schools, by any means, but they will at least get on the phone in borderline cases.

When do we think the wait lists will start moving?
Does anyone have experience of how it does works in practise with the Tiffin results so close to the reply dates for the independents?

Yes, loads of children were still in uniform with badges in LU interview on SATURDAY, we found it amusing, after all, they are only 10 or just 11.

@jeanne16 I agree. In the past - and quite a long time past - I think some prep heads were hugely influential. But no longer! Their advice on which schools would suit however is very helpful.

Sorry if I’m rambling on about schools, but it does strike me as unfair and ridiculous that DC with CAT scores that are within the national average will struggle to find a school in SW London. Really there is only Notre Dame (miles out), Radnor (still competitive), St Catherine’s (new head in an academic drive), More House (Knightsbridge, will not suit everyone), or the Hall, Wimbledon which seems boy-heavy and has a really long day.

Kew House was supposed to cater for this “gap” and look at the more “rounded” child, not just academics. I went to have a look a few years ago and the head was talking about the importance of the group interview in the selection process - “Don’t just bring something obvious like a football trophy. We’ll know you play football from the reference.” Then he said, “This year, for instance, we’ve had an iguana running about (!) and a marvellous lemon drizzle cake that went down very well with all.” As if people haven’t got enough on with the 11 plus malarkey, without the extra hoops to jump through of thinking up weird and wonderful items to make your child stand out or buying exotic pets fgs!

I also know another child who went to one of those group interviews st smithed school with a gymnastics certificate to talk about, only to see the girl next to her produce a whole BBC folder, signed by celebrities and allsorts, from when she was a finalist in Child Genius

I have a question - do Tiffin not interview applicants then? Is selection purely in exam performance alone?

Grammar schools are not allowed to select by interview.