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

"Melfish", you need to visit Norte Dame in Cobham, St Catherine's in Twickenham, Radnor House, Ewell Castle, Claremont Fan and if the travel works St Theresa's Effingham and Tormead. These are all back up schools for SHS and KGS (Ewell Castle being a step below).

I cannot understand why you are allowing a ten or eleven year old to dictate the terms of her future school choice. I don't understand this explanation and think you are really letting your daughter down here. Please just go and look at the schools - she might love some of them and then your choice is easier. Also, why bother to take an exam for somewhere she/you doesn't like? Much better to concentrate on places that you are both happy with.

Thanks for the nice words Graciferous. I thought I explained, but here, again, we think of only visiting school which we have offer. Her choice/preference and I agreed and I stick to that rule.

You are genuinely nuts not to be visiting the schools you are thinking of applying for. I cannot imagine why on earth you wouldn't. As you see, somewhere that looks good on paper may not suit your daughter at all whether or not she can get in.

I went to SPGS yesterday for a music event, regretted it as we didn't feel like it. Probably because of the Admin lady who didnt make us feel being welcomeat the start. Oh well! I should have sticked to the rule that no school visit. It just happened that I could manage to get away from work for an early evening and she is free on Monday afternoon after school so we made the decision to visit in the morning only. Someone is less driven for an exam now:(.

Mine said the maths was very hard and the English was fine. She is much stronger at English

We’ve been having a look online at the various SW London girls’ schools and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a private day school for an average/middle set DD? I attended one about 25 years ago so I’m a bit out of date. we looked at KGS last weekend but I think the entry requirements have moved on considerably since my day. I’m booked to see Surbiton High in a couple of weeks. We’re in Kingston if that is any help.

We concur re the maths.

Good luck to everyone! I was told tonight that maths was tough(from someone who loves maths and is naturally good at it). My husband managed to park near

I'm in the pick up queue for the afternoon session- thank god the weather is so good!!! Coming here on the bus was hectic, had to reassure DD (who's suddenly not keen) that it wouldn't normally be like this!!!

so that's why the traffic was absolutely horrendous this morning !!!

We felt lucky to queue in good weather this morning! I also think we could have caught a later train but might have stressed about getting in. The queue was immense wasn't it? It reminded me of queuing for a ride at Chessington in the summer hols. Good luck to your DD xxx

I think at our school ( 1 form entry) 12 applied, 10 got offers and 1 went. At least 4 of the 10 who got a place had no intention of going there but had registered years ago so thought they may as well sit the exam.
I really like the school and have another younger DC so hoping the numbers don't go crazy!

tvfriend. If Emanuel over offer, then it didn't feel like that where we live - only 2 out of 8/9 (at least) were offered at our school. A fair few boys that didn't get offered at Emanuel got offers at Whitgift.

TVfriend, yes, will be interesting to see what happens with Emanuel! I heard 1200 this year, although may have included 10+ / not be true!

Greenleave I think 5 sounds about right, tbh.

I dont have confidence in applying only 2 schools (1 grammar, 1 Indie). We applied 5 Indie(one is already in the bag, 1 is boarding which unlikely we want her to go and not too sure if we could afford but for her to have another type of option and we know some children who go there and the other 3 are very similar and all in Hammersmith). Yes, it feels many but it feels safe and less pressurised if we have a bad day. We might drop 1 nearer to the day. I have a last minute panic today I think as I thought Tiffin is GL and some reason in my head it doesnt do multiple choice and my daughter told me today that the first stage is multiple choice. She isnt great at multiple choice type rather than tricky, hard questions type.

I don't think the numbers applying for Emanuel will be any higher without the cap. I know many people who were panicked into registering way before they'd seen any other school and sat the exam even when they weren't that keen on the school. I think now they have moved to the same system as everyone else they will get a more sensible number of applicants- although I may be totally wrong!

montenuit- I totally agree it's not a safe option- yet many people still think it is! But- lots of people don't take up their offers from there so I suspect they still over offer by more than some other schools, especially for girls.

TVfriend, yes, I know parents who were, as you say, sniffy, about Emanuel. Big shocks all around on offers day!

Agree. Emanuel is not safe, and will be even harder in a few years with no cap on applications (could get to 1500, easily!). The fact it's co Ed and its central location makes it tricky. Same with Kingston Grammar it felt like a lottery this year. I would argue single sex safer, but not everyone's cup of tea.

Emanuel is NOT a safe option. It is one of the most oversubscribed schools !

I don’t want to go private for the sake of it, it needs to offer something extra that we couldn’t provide with extra-curricular stuff. Completely agree! This is how we felt too.

Completely agree with you- yet people do consider schools like Emanuel a safe option and can be a bit sniffy about them and surprised when their children don't get in. We live sightly too far from the safer GDST options- all a bit competitive around here and I've got to go through it all again soon!