SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

We were lucky enough to receive a yes but know of four others who have had a no and one on the waiting list. Reeds also had the highest number of applications from our prep school.Reeds has changed a lot in recent years and even though he interviewed at Hampton and KGS it is definitely the right school for him.

Waitlist here too with the very encouraging letter. It was a mid/ comfortable choice for DS so I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or not.. I do think the ISEB must mean there are a lot of offer holders who might not have applied otherwise and lots who will have offers at the more "difficult" schools. That's what I'm telling myself anyway!

I have an older DD so no idea if Reeds normally goes to waiting list or not.

@schoolcookie I'm sorry to hear that.\

I'm actually amazed how many people are applying to independent schools given we are living through such uncertain times.

I don't have any experience of waiting lists - maybe call up the school to enquire?

@schoolcookie. We had a similar experience albeit not this year but fairly recently - and from memory the same sounding letter. When I asked about the waiting list position I was told the exact number which was very high single digits but they did also say then that they hadn't used the waiting list the previous 2-3 years. This year is likely to be different though I'd have thought given the strangeness of the process for you all. Fingers crossed.

We got our letter from Reeds this morning, unfortunately our son is on the waiting list. While they said his results indicated that he would be successful at Reeds, there were an exceptional number of applications this year.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will be some movement given that I've heard the iseb option encouraged more applications for those schools using it but maybe the schools have also taken this in to consideration.

If anyone has any experience of waiting list moment I would love to hear! We perhaps naively didn't apply for many schools (3), we've had one no and still awaiting the other results.

@Thisonesfortheroad my DS had a 10plus offer Hampton and had other offers too. I don't think he was particularly advanced in either Maths or English at the time, nor was he heavily tutored - he just had a good grasp of them, and I think his creative writing is pretty good, which I suspect swung it as a lot of boys aren't good at this.

I would say just make sure he's fully confident in both subjects and can work to exam pressure.

DS has since passed grammars too.

I would say keep going you're doing the right thing.

I honestly think the 10plus worked for us because there was literally no pressure so maybe consider a wider net of schools, which have buses from your area as well as a back up to take that pressure off. The schools you are considering are all super selective.

HTH

We heard from Reed's - DS has an offer. We're delighted as this was his "stretch" school and we weren't sure how the switch to ISEB was going to affect him.

Fingers crossed for everyone else waiting for the postie today!

Ours doesn't come until the afternoon anyway. Just to prolong the agony...

Ours is late... of course!

Yep, postman eagerly awaited here. DS is having a real wobble about year 7 at the moment as he's scared he won't get anywhere, so some positive news today would be a real boost, whether we ultimately accept it or not.

Anyone else awaiting the Reeds post this morning?

Among several schooling discussions of recent, DH has tried to rationalise the correlation of outcomes from the exam and assessments for a likely offer (full fees or otherwise).

This year has no prior comparables to ease this part of the waiting game. Obviously success at scholarship interview would give 99% chance of an offer (the unknown being the scholarship offer %), however, for the many trapped in the grey areas (interview & / or scholarship assessment then no final step) what would the outcome 70-80%, W/L? Higher? Lower?

DS was in the "below 50th percentile" for his KGS 10+ maths exam. In the 11+ he was interviewed for a maths scholarship (although no idea if he's got a place, let alone a scholarship). So I wouldn't worry just yet.

While I don't know for certain what's made the difference, a few thoughts might be... I don't think DS had covered all the topics tested in the 10+, or at least not enough to be comfortable in them - I remember he'd had a question about a cubed number, and just added it three times as he didn't know what it meant. I also think there was some definite exam technique that made a difference - showing workings for maths appears to be a requirement for KGS (based on the sample 11+ paper they made available) and DS had never been taught that at the time of the 10+.

Personally I would look at other schools as well - unless you have a good state option. We were advised to pick a range of levels, as those two schools are very academically strong, so you need a bit more of a range if you're going down the independent route.

But honestly, don't worry. Even the experience of doing an exam will have been worth it. We were exactly where you were this time last year, and the experience this time round feels very different - not that we have any offers yet, but DS has got interviews so I'm assuming he did better than last time!

Has anyone heard from Hampton re sports scholarships and if they have made it to the next round ?

Many thanks

@Thisonesfortheroad , KGS 10plus is notoriously hard, you rarely meet any dc who have succeeded. Take the Hampton feedback on board as that will give you guidance for their 11plus and also Tiffin as the ability level for both schools often crosses over. There are many other schools you can consider, dc travel miles across London and Surrey for secondary education, a quick glance at the Hampton LEH bus route shows you that. You can also consider all the Sutton Grammar school mocks which are detailed on elevenplusexams.co.U.K.

re Scholarship at Hampton: School confirmed emails went out yesterday...... DS very disappointed to hear that! #massaging ego today.

Sent you a pm - one for the road

Hello all, looking for some advice.

DS received a nice no from KGS today (10+). This follows a no from Hampton 10+ too. Other than Tiffin and KCS these are our closest (distance wise) school options I believe.

Whilst I wait to receive more detailed feedback from both schools, I’m wondering if we’re on the right path for DS...

At school (state primary) he sits in top sets and get great reports/ feedback. Teachers told us he was a good candidate for the selectives in our area.

We tried 10+ to give us all an idea of what the exams would involve, to give DS a feel for the exam process ie as practice and for us to get a feel for whether such schools would be an option. I realise 10+ is different to the 11+, but the ratio of applicants to places seems on par with the 11+ stage, and ultimately both are designed to select the most able.

With homeschooling failing to stretch him, and our results so far, am beginning to have some doubts as to whether we are overestimating his abilities and/or underestimating the preparation involved. Am hopeful the feedback from the schools will help us assess this, but am worried I am letting DS down by failing to prepare him adequately. After all Prep schools exist for a reason, right? Maybe our DIY approach isn’t hitting the mark? Or maybe DS is bright but not quite the right fit for these schools and we should be trying others.

So, am just wondering... given most of you appear to have seen this through, whether, in your experience:

results at this stage are a good indicator of likely success at these schools?

we should be including other schools in our search?

if we’re doing the right kind of prep? Currently working our way through books mentioned on other MN threads ie Bond, FPTP, S&S and then did practice papers the school sent through a few weeks towards exam. We recently signed up to test teach online. But keep hearing about ATOM here which perhaps would be better? Are there other good resources we should be making use of?

Once we get feedback, assuming it is informative, what kind of score threshold is an indication we can make the gap between now and the exams?

@AveEldon thank you for your wisdom, logistics plus a long day with extra curricular will be a huge wake up to the relaxed routines.
Core subjects for IB or A is a very good point, languages too on that front, thank you.
IB seems to be coming up in favour recently, off to Google the pros/cons - lovely distraction for 2WW.

Yup, same here...like others wasn’t really expecting anything though.

The wait goes on...!

Nothing here either (and wasn't really expected, but for completeness).

Evening all, checked the inbox and I guess we are in for a wait till Feb now as we haven’t got anything through

Back to home schooling then!