SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

Hi has anyone had any news about a music scholarship interview for Hampton?

No question, best comms of all Admission teams award this year goes to Hampton. (Got the email too).

I must praise Hampton, communications has provided some much desired perspective of this years 11+. The numbers to deal with are horrendous. I guess I now know what my plans are next Tuesday. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@Jumpalicious Well I'd love to think you're right, but who knows? Just seems a bit odd given that they haven't interviewed him at all yet - normally I think it's a two-step process - but then this isn't a normal year!

The bit about the number of interviews was in the attachment on the e-mail - there was a "next steps" (rather colorful) pdf which had the figures in it and a bit more information on the process so far and what happens next.

Ha, cross post with @Jumpalicious. I'm afraid I saw it as a round robin, but I like your thinking!

Assume everyone's had the email from Hampton. Over 400 boys interviewed for 90 places. I wonder how many offers they actually make? You'd assume it'll be most people's first choice, so they wouldn't need to significantly over-offer, but that makes the odds pretty scary!

Oh well, what will be will be. And interesting on the scholarship discussions - we haven't applied for any, and not holding my breath on an academic one, despite DS's upcoming KGS interview. But to be honest, I'll be happy if he gets a place, any sort of discount would just be a bonus! Although not a huge one if it's just £400...

Not London but my DC was offered 2 academic scholarships one at 10%, one 15%. We accepted the 15% as it was their favourite school. Only condition was to do their best.

@JustJuice187, it sounds so indeed. On the first one (the NVR-not-NVR one), he actually got the answer wrong at first, but then when asked to explain his reasoning, realised he got it wrong and corrected himself mid-way. The second was right up his street, as I said, as he much prefers geometry to word problems, for example (not doubt ASD makes the latter more difficult due to slower processing), so he had no problem with that one and actually sounded very convincing (even if I say so myself).

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On the scholarships front (although, it doesn't seem DS is considered for any, despite my wishful thinking), my research showed the following (officially):

Hampton: 5-25% (hamptonschool.org.uk/admissions/fee-assistance/)
KCS: £400 pa (issuu.com/kingscollegeschool/docs/11_plus_scholarships_brochure_2020?fr=sMDI2NDE2OTU2Mzc)
Trinity: up to 50% (www.trinity-school.org/admissions/fees-bursaries-and-scholarships/)
Emanue: up to 25% (www.emanuel.org.uk/admissions/fee-assisted-places/)
CFCS: up to £1,000 (www.claremontfancourt.co.uk/31/scholarshipsandbursaries)

My understanding that the charity status of the indepedent schools means that fees remission over 50% is no longer possible (but the same outcome can be achieved in a combination with a means-tested bursary, of course).

As far as I'm aware bursaries are purely means tested - certainly at the Whitgift schools, otherwise they would be scholarships.

Highly interesting —distraction— discussion and potential numbers discussed for scholarships. If you received a specific award - 100% fee paid is achievable or up to 50%, however, anticipate 5 - 25% to be in the norm. I had thought there was more bragging rights within an offered scholarship than actual monetary incentive. Would love to be in the privileged position to be proven wrong.

Can anyone elaborate is the offer one of/ annually renewable subject to performance, and if performance based - does the school outline the metrics - or can you simply be bumped off the programme when a new, shinier candidate comes along in subsequent years. Is the extra effort and stress worth 5%?

Interested to hear from recent experiences and those perhaps with DC yrs 9+.

Morning everyone.

Interesting discussions on scholarships! Agree that when a dc is highly sought after some fairly large ones can be given. I heard of an 80% scholarship offered by one girls school once (didn’t work, the dd in question went elsewhere, but shows that they were clearly super keen to have her).

Overall though I think “typical” scholarships - and certainly at the two schools we’ve applied to - tend to be more in the region of 5/10% and it’s more about the glory and prestige than the fee discount.

Hypothetical discussion for me as I’m not expecting DS to be in the scholarship pool at all - but interesting nonetheless.

Is it three weeks till results day? Many schools are posting results 11 Feb I believe. It’s going to be a long wait...

@Sterou I have heard max scholarship 50% but have heard of actual cases where it is usually in the 10-25% region (sports, arts) and up to 40% for academic (though range being 20-40%, not personally heard of a 50%). Some less academic schools offer towards the higher end, the really selective lower or none.

@Sterou yes in the past St George's have offered 50%.
I know this is the boys thread but on the girls thread 2 yrs ago a dd got 50% scholarship Guildford High, 50% KGS but went to LU on a 100% free place which is what I mean about the really big offers often go to the same child from several schools. Also all the scholar offer % are confidential esp from KGS and the school will withdraw it if you disclose, the Mumsnetter of the dd had to withdraw her posts when she realised.

@1980sMum >> not au fait with scholarship allocation, so it is very interesting to read about distributing scholarships like hot buns at St John to attract parent/DS.. surely that defeats the purpose of gaining the prestigious title.. I for one, hoping to get a grammar school to avoid continuing paying school fees, scholarship or not.... I was told by current prep school headmaster that academic scholarship can be quite meaty ( upto 50%) if DS is academically very strong... not convinced that was real ! any views?

@1980sMum my son had the Great School interview over a week ago. He is a current student at WUS, applying for 13+. Test next week, same day as your DS, I suppose. Your son will be asked a Q on current pandemic/news; hopefully he can provide his thoughts on it. Interviewer will give him some time to evaluate the Q (while s/he is jotting down notes).
Sorry don’t check here oft & reading through the thread now, but standard interview Qs will be asked (have posted a v detailed list on the previous thread). Good luck to all the boys.

Thanks, that's really helpful info re DC.

Thanks for the info. I’ll stop refreshing my email feed constantly now!

@EnolanotAlone thank you for the info. That aligns with the timetable they previously provided (taking into account the week’s delay because of exam rescheduling).

Agreed @Magicmum101 our Head us reliable on such matters, long connections with former students who went to DC. Monday is likely to be a target date, most comms have been Fridays or Monday's.

@GrammarHopeful sounds like we got the same questions at T. How did your DS find them - our DS was ok with the NVR one although he insisted it wasn’t NVR. The maths one he worked out in the end - but needed a hint - he was a bit annoyed about that - think he was being too hard on himself.

Well done to everyone who’s got through to the next round of KGS