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

Which results are you waiting for @FlumePlume?

she was posted back into the waiting room still talking

Haha, sounds like mine. Good luck!

Do you have another DD FlumePlume or do you have to start all over with boys schools? Good luck with the SPGS outcome. When do you hear?

It depends what your options are though and how painful it is to go through the process. If it's ticking a couple of extra boxes as part of a Consortium and going to interviews in Central London, schools are an acceptable price point, and commutability isn't an issue is there harm in it? For example, we didn't go for St Ed's in Ware this time around. It is very popular here but we just felt - nah, we'd never make that call this time around, for various reasons. You just know more about what the decision making process involves and when push comes to shove what you're likely to do.

OK I'm in a minority in having applied for more with subsequent children then. Same amount of exams but got sucked into the 'might-as-well' of the 3-4-1 exam of the consortium we have in North/West London. Regret it now as really we're only interested in two of them, both of which she's passed the first hurdle for

jaysus my typos

Yes, i think people do definitely like it for 'real' reasons and the demographic may change over time.

900 applicants there year, up from 750 in 2016.

I applied to fewer with DD than i did with DS
i have another DS coming up through the ranks too.
i think you just start to become som blood disenchanted with the whole process that you don't wnt to waste the money...

Ha guilty of applying to F though it's not too far away and I genuinely like it. But it is noticeable how many more people are applying from Stoke Newington, Islington, even Camden to there now than before. I think it's both as backup and because it's genuinely seen as good school with lovely grounds, plus the diamond structure is bonus.

Yes, F. I feel like we couldn't have a thread for our area without really outing ourselves. We're Essex borders. So Chigwell, Bancrofts, Forest, City etc. Further out too: Brentwood, New Hall, Felsted and Haileybury are becoming popular.

@OVienna - I'm a NE mum lurking/occasionally posting. I rather like it as I can be endlessly speculate about 11+ without the schools here directly affecting dc, if that makes sense. Feels like a nice friendly place. Well done you for applying for fewer schools - we should have done but it's so tempting to stick another one on the consortium forgetting that it's still £100-150 to register and yet more time of work/school for interviews.

Which is the E London school that more Central/North London are applying to? F?

(East London 11+ mum here - I lurk, there's not thread for us.)

@PatienceVirtue

Interesting what you say about applying for more schools with the younger child.

However, with subsequent children we became more set on private because we didn't want to feel an inequity between their educations.

Our current DC has actually applied to fewer schools than the first one. We were more sure this time that we weren't going to take 'any private option' given the choices we have near us, whereas with the first I felt we had to ensure she had something. There were schools in the banker category that we saw the first time round that we just decided - no. Not going to bother this time.

The whole process is much more competitive than it was even three years ago. There is one school in our area that is discussed on these boards that people from Central and North London have started applying to more actively as a back up for Highgate and UCS. Cheers for that! They are now introducing a pre-test next year to cope with the volume.

As I understand it, these have been common place in West London for a while.

2 more to go, it's going to be a long month....

Uffff final interview done today. And now the waiting begins

We did more schools than we planned to however didnt study for 11+ as we were supposed to. The end of yr5 was a roller coaster for the family as her dad was hospitalised oversea for 5 months then once he was back the whole family (or my) focus was on his recovery which was alot of ups and downs. Couple of years ago when she was in yr3, she self studied ABRSM g5 from zero within nearly 4 months and had a distinction(no one in our family plays and we didnt send her to class/tutor et. for it). Then this year so far she has taken a complete control of the whole process too, she marked homework herself, asked us to buy books which could imprive her weakness, asked to sit for schools and insisted for it. There wasnt anxiety from taken exams at all, could be because she has so little pressure from us. We still are in the middle of it all and still a long way to go however whatever of the result I am absolutely proud of her and couldnt ask for any more.

I remember a boy who was a friend of my older DC who sat about 10schools including the two grammars (one begins with W, I think) in Merton, Tiffin, KCS, Latymer, St Paul’s, Westminster, KCS, Hampton and CLBS. The prep strongly advised to do 5 max but they refused. He got into them all with about 5 scholarships. He went to Westminster and had a complete mental breakdown in the second year there. Since then he’s been home educated in Khan Acsdemy.

We did 5 schools each time, but in this DD’s case, 2 schools were through the Consortium exam and that was only 1.5 hours long.

Anyone with an SPGS interview tomorrow? DD has another one in the afternoon as well!

Seven schools is a lot and a lot of money spent on registration! Poor girl! My dd sat 3 indies plus Tiffin but it is such a lottery. Maybe the sheer numbers of children sitting the exams are due to the multiple schools they are trying for. I actually think there should be a limit put in place to the number of schools you can sit. I also agree with Patience that if you already have a child at a secondary independent (as I have) you want the same for the next child to treat them the same so you have little choice but to join in the madness of 11+!!!

There was a child in DD's class who sat for seven schools! I felt really sorry for her, particularly as she did not get in to many of them. I think that must have been really tough for her. She was only recently ten years old at the time. Obviously we were a bit extreme only sitting Tiffin and one other, but like some posters have said I honestly did not feel that the others I saw were somewhere that DD would have been substantially happier than our state options and I did not feel inclined to pay the money for something that didn't seem a perfect fit.

It's tricky when it's not an oldest child though. With our son we only applied to the three that were close enough and offered something above and beyond our local state option (which I'd have been happy with). They were all very selective (top 40 I think or maybe top 30. Usually a top level figure of 10 applicants per place though of course they all over-offer). At the time it felt very precarious and I think it was always a distinct possibility he'd have been offered none.

However, with subsequent children we became more set on private because we didn't want to feel an inequity between their educations. They've never sat more than three exams though (consortium means that they can sit one exam for more than one school). Third child has applied to five because three schools were on the back of one exam. It feels like too much though - all the bleeding interviews etc.

I don't know how anyone manages more than three lots of exams. Child's barely been at school this term. Just as well it's just endless sats prep.

I've just had a friend in tears on the phone saying she wished she'd applied for more. Also have another friend who's applied for three privates although they're definitely taking the grammar place. They're doing it 'just for fun' and because the prep head wants the clever child to get loads of offers for their website. This sort of trophy hunting is vile when there are other children who are being rejected all over the place.

I'm sitting here doing no work because we're waiting to hear about interviews for one of ours. It's such an emotion and energy sap. Gah.

yes i know lots who sit 5

we didn't bother with KGS in the end as i got the arse about them wanting me to repay to register after DD had sat the 10plus
sorry just feck off you money grabbing arses

sorry feeling a bit ranty today

(to clarify - snide comments are not on this thread)

I think it's sheer numbers....
all thse snide comments about Emmanuel and St John's

HA HA GOOD LUCK

obv if you have stellar kid you're laughing