SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

Hi @EnolanotAlone do you mean we won’t hear if they have an interview for Dulwich until mid next week?

Hi @1980sMum, our Head has advised early to middle of next week.

Anyone heard anything about Dulwich results 11+ yet?

Singingrain1223 Thank you; it does seem very murky indeed! I've heard some schools say the invite top 20% for 'academic interview', others do the top 15% but I guess they may end up over offering on the academic scholarships as some of the very bright DC would choose to go to superselectives.

@1980sMum , it really depends on the school. I've found that dc from the feeder preps (ie Surbiton juniors) get allocated lots of the scholarships at the SHS senior school. Or if there is a really talented dc within amazing musical skills too they will get scholarship offers from lots of schools who are competing for the dc to accept.

Other schools like St John's Leatherhead use to offer loads of scholarships for tiny discounts, (barely covers the school coach cost) to attract dc who had offers from more academic schools.
For anyone who thinks the entrance process is murky then the allocation of scholarships is 1 of the most "grey" areas I have come across!

Nope. St George’s. DS is going to be so scared he’ll stuff it up at this stage. He DETESTS interviews!

Does anyone know what independents do in terms of academic scholarships. Do they usually, say, invite the top 20% achievers (on the exam, ISEB etc) for a 'potential academic interview'? Presumably they invite more than they offer so what is the % they offer, is it 5% or 10% or...?

Congrats @NoToMisogyny!! Reason for celebratiion tonight... Who is that for KGS?

DS has just been called for an academic scholarship interview. Very exciting! Can I be reassured that he will probably have a place regardless now? 🙏

Congratulations everyone that got kgs my DS currently goes to KGS it's an amazing school

Great news on all the positive news on KGS. Well done to all of you.

I honestly don't know. We fluctuate from day to day - but KGS is definitely up there. I see it as something that will be a nice problem to have if we get a choice!

But as you say, he's done so well regardless, especially given how much he was thrown by the exam format. He was super-excited earlier, although then toned it down once he realised it meant another interview - we're well and truly over this process! I'm very proud of him regardless - as we all should be - they're so little and it's such a horrible process, they're all amazing for how well they've coped, even if there have been a few tears along the way!

Thanks guys. Interesting to know! My DS reckoned he’d answered everything correctly in the Hampton interview but whether he actually had or not I wasn’t sure!

Wow @BookShark that is amazing, well done to your DS! I would definitely see a scholarship interview as more or less a guarantee of a place. And whatever is ultimately offered he’s done so well to get that interview! Is KGS your preferred option?

@FlyingPandas I know DS got the questions right because he asked! His way of answering was "is it 15?" etc. so he got the feedback that way.

Extra good news for us - DS has a scholarship interview for KGS. I'm trying to talk myself down from thinking this means he's definitely got a place, but I'm so chuffed for him either way.

Thank you! I wonder what the likelihood is of getting a place from a KGS interview? They must have a LOT to do on Saturday!

And congrats to you and your DSs, @Queenofhearts1, @EshSchools, @NoToMisogyny!

@FlyingPandas, not silly at all! The first two Qs were verbal, which my DS parroted back, so I knew they were right, when he gave the answers. The next few were shown on the screen, but the teacher gave some positive verbal feedback (as my DS has a tendency to give an answer as a question, always checking his response is correct). The penultimate question he got a bit stuck, and then the teacher suggested a certain approach (to which DS said: "I am doing this already!"--one of those "ouch" moments), and then again got a confirmation the answer is indeed what he said.

Plus he told me afterwards these were "standard" 11+ problem-solving Qs that he was comfortable with.

In contrast, he had two maths Qs in his Trinity interview: one verbal reasoning/logic Q involving symbol substitution and one tricky geometry problem (luckily, this is the area my DS loves, so he was able to use words such as "congruent", "isosceles" and such ).

Good news on the KGS interviews - well done to successful DC! That's a lot of applicants, but I think use of the ISEB has increased the number of applicants, as I'm sure many parents have applied to more schools than they might typically have done in a 'usual' year.

@NoToMisogyny sorry to hear about your DS's stressful Hampton interview - that definitely sounds like a technical glitch too far! Poor boy and poor you. Hope he is feeling better now.

Seems a fair few people had a negative Hampton experience but just to add some balance, my DS absolutely loved his, didn't seem pressured at all and was buzzing afterwards. I wonder if it comes down to luck of the draw on which teachers you get maybe? He did say that both teachers reminded him of teachers at his current school so maybe that relaxed him.

Can I ask a really silly question...for those of you who listened in on Hampton interviews saying that you knew DC had 'got answers correct' in the maths, how did you know? Were they told by the teachers that they were right or wrong afterwards? Or are you all just maths whizzes and knew the answers anyway

Interview here too - hurray!

DS has a yes for KGS too. Then it’s over!!!

@GrammarHopeful awesome! Congrats to your DS!
We've just received the email and through to interviews also. Couldn't believe what I was reading.. over 1000 applications!

Very similar experiences of Hampton interview across the board it seems. We'll, maybe it's our boys intro to the world of pressure interviews, who knows...

Just got the KGS email. DS is through to the next stage with the last interview of this gruelling process on Saturday. Over 1000 DCs for 100 places. Madness!

We're another who struggled with parts of Hampton if that helps. DS needed help with one of the verbal maths questions as he couldn't follow it (I suspect he'd have been fine if he'd seen it written down). He also didn't really build a rapport with the second interviewer - I can't put my finger on why, but it just seemed an awkward conversation. But then his first interview seemed to go really well, and he was almost his normal chatty self.

But who knows? Sounds like it's been tricky for all of them, and probably no more so than you'd expect given they'll be a number of people's top choice. We're just trying to forget about it all now and definitely not stalk the postman as we get closer to result days!

Nope!