SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

Feeling the pain on the home learning - our primary is actually not bad with provision and DS is well motivated, but finds it all fairly easy and races through the work (recorded rather than live lessons) and really they need to be doing more to extend the more able ones tbh.I encourage lots of reading here too and we have a morning screen ban but it’s still not ideal. But I guess they’re all going to be in the same boat to some extent.

@BookShark I had the same thought about scholarships - we were never expecting one anyway but as DS was not invited to the scholarship interview day for RGS, I would be literally on the floor with astonishment if he got invited to a Hampton one!

Snap! Limited provision on our side as well. Trying to ban screens during school day and main strategy is asking DS to read as much as he can. Letting him go and watch documentaries/ online lessons on things he finds interesting

He just isn’t interested now 11+ done in doing too much more, feels - probably fairly - he has done more than loads in his class already.

Also, anyone else struggling with home schooling? DS's view is that there's not much point as exams are done. He has a couple of live lessons which are fine, but the rest of the day needs some sort of activity. If he were in school they'd be doing Young Enterprise type activities, but there's no home alternative as yet. I'm trying to get him Year 7 ready by doing some advanced maths etc. but all ideas welcome!

Agreed on the waiting. DS also sat Reeds, and I think their offers come out fairly soon (Friday?), so hopefully we get good news there and then the pressure's off. Purely based on the fact that it was the same exam as Hampton (ISEB) and my assumption is that a Hampton interview is indicative of a good exam performance. Plus I listened in to his Reeds interview and thought it was one of his better ones, so fingers crossed.

That said, Reeds didn't invite him for a scholarship interview, so given that they used ISEB, I'm guessing that rules out Hampton. But I was never expecting a scholarship, I'd be happy with a place at a school that DS wants to attend. Which is all of our choices, so we'll see what happens! I just want the next few weeks to go very quickly...

Pretty much down to waiting now I think. I’m not expecting an academic interview at Hampton - though that would be a good sign!

How are the nerves holding up? Twiddle thumbs and hoke school till the end of term....

Reading the posts - it seems like a lot of applications this year. Hopefully for my sake it is just multiple applications being made rather than a massive increase in boys applying..... not good for the nerves

Re Hampton coaches.r
Vast majority pick up 7.30 inwards and drop off by 5pm. Clubs run at during a long lunch break . You can look up all the coach routes online.

@Northernsurreyandconfused, we thought about the weekend sports fixtures too... a Home fixture sounds good, but it could be that the Away matches are closer to your actual home. We ruled St. Johns, Leatherhead out on that basis - 40 min drive from us.

Originally, I was keen on schools with coaches. Depending on the school, the coaches only depart at a fixed time after school - meaning that if your DS wants to do an after-school club, they'd miss the transport home and you'd have to pick him up, yourself. Some of the school buses pick up at 7am and don't drop the boys home before 6pm (depending on where you are on their bus routes) - a v long day, before they even think about homework.

The Esher-Guildford train service is pretty regular and part of the RGS social life - they meet each other, the Tormead and GHS girls. DS has friends at RGS that live in Walton, Esher, Weybridge. In some respects, the train is more flexible for them to do after-school clubs and the boys build more independence.

Good luck with choosing. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to visit the schools in person... and you'll see how much your DS is at ease and sense what he feels about the school. At Reed's, I had to push my DS through some doors to see what was on display (odd, as he'd played cricket and tennis there for 3yrs), whereas at RGS, he'd chat to the boy showing us around and get involved with the demonstrations. Still baffled why there was such a difference...

Flyingpandas- that's interesting and hopeful!!

Re Guildford - lots from our school apply to RGS especially if they have easy access to the train. Reeds, Claremont and St John's are popular as closer to home. We picked KGS as it fits with my work and it's a more academic co-ed but it's not that easy to get to in normal traffic.

We're also in Esher and for some reason people don't generally look at Guildford. Those considering further afield schools look at St. George's or St. John's. That said, DS's prep isn't super-academic so we get a huge range of schools, rather than just focusing on the "top" ones. But for what it's worth, we looked at overall journey time and used that to work out which schools would work best for us - and then narrowed it down further from open days, although that's obviously harder at the moment.

FlyingPandas that link is really interesting. I guess it just shows how many offers probably go to the same children, hence the need to over-offer. Fingers crossed that goes in our favour!

@Singingrain1223 thanks - and makes sense. We shall see, we may not be even given the choice given the competition

@Northernsurreyandconfused , re Hampton v RGS yes I would say it's the population density, the school bus network is massive whilst for RGS you need to be on a Guildford Train line or change on the way.
Also Hampton has football whilst RGS rugby / hockey only, the football at Hampton is a massive draw because you can play it for Autumn and Spring terms and avoid rugby.

Again - thank you, plenty to think about. Think Hampton, RGS and Reeds makes sense but hearing RGS isn’t necessarily the obvious choice for the Esher area.

Hampton applications to places seems super high/in fact quite scary. Is it academically much better than RGS, league tables would suggest not? I guess it draws from a more densely populated areas.

Definitely a complex procedure and I don't envy admissions teams one bit!

This makes an interesting read though - it was posted on another thread a while back and whilst it's from a girls' prep rather than a boys' - Holy Cross in Kingston - it does illustrate very well that even schools seen as massively competitive/desirable in SW London will have a significant number of offers turned down.

www.holycrossprepschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Destination-of-Leavers-2020.pdf

So KGS for example: hugely popular and 1000 applicants this year, maybe, but as the attached shows, they offered 15 places to Holy Cross girls in 2020, and only 4 accepted. LEH (arguably the girls' equivalent of Hampton, highly respected, competitive, sought after) had only half of their 14 offers taken; Putney High had five out of six offers turned down, Surbiton High offered 20 and only 1 child accepted!

So not a straightforward (or easily predicted) process by any means...

DH and I have been discussing the odds - it must be fascinating to see how the admissions teams work out how many offers to make.

Logically, the top 100-ish boys will get an offer at every school they apply to. But they can only attend one. So presumably the Hamptons of the world only need to over-offer by a small amount as they'll be first choice for a lot of people. But then if you're a less academic school (I won't say one in case I offend someone!) you'll need to make a lot more offers as you won't be everyone's first choice. Which means you probably run the risk of having too many acceptances.

But, if you don't over-offer, and rely on filling places from your waitlist, you have to accept that some people will have already paid deposits elsewhere by the time you offer to them, and won't want to forfeit these. So actually, you can't rely on the waitlist as a solution, because then you may not get your first choice candidates.

So long story short, it's presumably a massively complex process for the schools, and add into that the fact you have to factor in exams, interviews, references etc., so it's also a fairly subjective one in some respects. So on that basis, we're going to try and forget about it until 12th February! (I think offers are being posted on the 11th?)

@Sterou I just asked for feedback from a school we got a ‘no’ to interview
Good luck everyone

126 in RGS First Form this year. 400 sat the exam in school, but more sat the exam overseas.

Reeds was 600 taking the exam for 60 places, last year.

All pretty competitive, every year.

Good luck, everyone! DSs will land in the right schools for them. Keep faith!

Hampton is over 800 for 90 places this year.

Last year RGS had around 400 applicants for their 140 ish places, 11 and 13 entry. So quite good odds. From my experience it is easier to get into RGS than Hampton or KCS. Hamptons numbers can be ridiculous, think it was 800 applicants for 80 places 11+ 2 years ago

@Northernsurreyandconfused , I'm located near to you with a ds at Hampton.
KCS is much harder to get into than all the other schools in the area, some of my ds's classmates got KCS offers and turned them down (often sport related reasons) but many would not have got in.
My ds has been at Hampton for several years and his class is made up for ds from every bus route so Ascot/Wimbledon/East Sheen/Ealing/Twickenham/New Malden/Leatherhead. Across the year there are several ds from the Esher station/Esher high st/Thames Ditton area. They are all able to use the train line and TFL bus routes to meet up in Twickenham/Wimbledon/Kingston in the holidays.

I know if you go for RGS you can end up driving right down the A3 for meet ups.

Agreed, just getting to interview is a mahoosive achievement, regardless of offers. I am so proud of DS and all of our boys here

At this point in time I think I'm quietly going to assume the best we will get is waitlist and quietly sow this seed in DS's mind (stressing the achievement of even getting interviews given the large numbers involved) and then if we do get any offers it will be a nice surprise. Though I think DS has forgotten about it all now anyway. I think it's hard for them to be massively invested when they've not seen the schools properly. How on earth we (as a collective thread of parents) are supposed to make decisions about schools when many of us haven't even seen much more than the school websites seems bonkers doesn't it?!

@EshSchools do you know roughly how many applicants there are per place for the Surrey schools you've applied for? I read on the Tormead girls' school thread that they average 3 candidate applications per actual places (so, 270 for 90 places). Effectively there are triple that number for Hampton!! RGS Guildford haven't released any applicant stats unless I've missed something. They did however interview every single candidate who applied during a 2 day period, which suggests to me that their numbers are also nowhere near as high as the London schools...

Thanks to everyone, and good to know about Hampton and football. That is a real positive. Not sure how I missed that.

@EshSchools and anyone really. For Esher, do boys tend to apply to RGS, Hampton or KCS? They are both going to be great but I’m thinking of social life as well. My gut feel is that the natural flow is to Guildford but I’m not sure that is just because of who we happen to know.

I feel like I might be wrong because when I look at a map Hampton and Wimbledon are closer.

Again my gut is saying - apply to Reeds, Hampton and RGS. I think with RGS as preferred.

Yes - I was so pleased for him just getting there. It's toll such a crazy process. We are in Esher so have Surrey schools which don't seem quite as crazy as London / Kingston but still full on. And they're only 10/11! KGS was the last interview, so glad it's over.

Good luck to everyone on the thread!