SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

I can add to the reassurance on the Halliford front (haven't had any other interviews yet!). The head is great, and took time to reassure DS that there were no right or wrong answers, this was just to find out a bit more about him etc. DS was quite happy afterwards and said it was much better than he was expecting so a good first experience. I'm expecting Hampton to be a bit more intense!

Hiya. Hope you don't mind me jumping on. My son is going for an indie up North but although competitive, there aren't many forums for those that I can find.

So we have re- signed up to Atom and down the tests but what kind of scores should we be looking at?

@GrammarHopeful totally agree, Hampton admissions have been great.

@NeverEnoughCake2 my older DS sat Halliford and Claremont years ago (he's Y12 now) and we concentrated on little and often in terms of Christmas holiday prep. Don't overdo it, as you say they need a break too. We did literally 10 minutes a day, first thing in the morning after breakfast, and then cracked on with Christmas holiday fun stuff. From memory the Halliford exam is near the end of January so there is plenty of time to gently up prep a little once back to school.

I don't know Reeds at all but in terms of the Halliford and Claremont interviews - they were fairly gentle and informal interviews and really what the teachers wanted to get a feel for was how much he wanted to go there. They talked about favourite subjects, favourite sports, favourite hobbies etc. Halliford also asked him to name five authors whose books he particularly enjoyed. But at the end of the day the exam will be key - these schools are not going to make offers unless exam performance hits the desired grade unfortunately no matter how amazing a child might be at interview.

I think the key thing in terms of interviews for all of these schools is to bear in mind that they are very very used to 10/11 year old boys. Some of whom will be a bit too chatty (this will be DS2 ), some desperately awkward and shy. Some will be horribly over-coached and over-prepared by the tiger parent types. They will have seen it all before and know how to deal with it. My DS1 is on the autistic spectrum and was at the time incredibly awkward with people he didn't know but the Halliford interviewer was great at putting him at ease, so please don't worry too much about a shy boy. I am actually far more worried about DS2 coming across as silly/cocky/arrogant in his Hampton interview (which can be his default way of dealing with nervousness).

I hope that is helpful BUT please bear in mind DS1 was interviewed for those schools a good few years ago so things could have changed in the interim...

Hi all,

Congratulations to those of you whose DSs have interviews at the schools you're hoping for! We're applying to Reeds, Halliford and Claremont for DS. Reeds and Halliford are interviewing all candidates, so though DS has interviews at both, we can't infer anything about his exam performance from that. In fact, his Halliford interview is before the entrance exam day.

DS is pretty shy with people he doesn't know well, so we'll definitely be doing some gentle interview prep over the holidays. We also need to do some practice on the VR and NVR for the Halliford exam, as we've not looked at those v much since doing the ISEB in early December. However, I think he needs some time to chill and decompress after a long Autumn term first!

Those of you who've done this before, do you have any tips for maintaining momentum over the Christmas holidays?

Hampton's Admissions department are really doing a great job engaging with the parents and children from what I can see. Their Christmas newsletter and the 2019-20 highlights were just excellent.

DS is really excited about the interview now!

@JustJuice187
I don't disagree that 11+ and CATS differ.

Because DS comes from a prep school, Hampton asked that we provide his CATS results for past 2 years as well as school reports.

@FlyingPandas and I wondered the criteria for interview selection, and what is taken into account above and beyond ISEB, that's all :-)

CATs are a completely different type of test to 11plus - ds had high CAT scores but he found 11plus a completely different ball game. I really wouldn’t get too hung up on them.

@Sterou I didn’t mention CATS, the poster after me did

I don’t think CATS can be part of the selection process for 11+ because as you say they are largely a prep school thing. States don’t do them as far as I know? (We are state(. We got CATS done privately for DS, purely to see if Hampton was a realistic proposition for him, but they were just for our interest.

I guess the school may have given more significant weighting to candidate school reports than they might have done in the past I suppose.

@FlyingPandas
Agree that CATS is certainly a pre-requisite for 11+ and 13+ entry, but only aware of CATS being done in prep school.. I am not aware of state schools doing CATS?! so not sure if this weights in on interview selection or not for 11+ ?

Wish CATS were taken into accounts in State Grammar Schools, as my DS scored high in these ... sadly they don't !

@FlyingPandas ISEB + CAT scores and HT reports have possibly driven interviews at this round. CATs may carry a heavier weighting towards GSCE potential?

@Jumpalicious - any day now, friends mentioned interviews start 6th

My DS also has an interview at Hampton but I know of others who have been advised they have not been successful - so they are definitely screening out candidates based on ISEB score (though no idea what their threshold score was to be invited to interview).

RGS Guildford on the other hand are interviewing every candidate who has applied regardless of ISEB performance.

Re scholarships, I think the original info from Hampton said that boys who achieve highly in ISEB and impress at interview will then be invited back for a further scholarship interview, and any offers of academic scholarships will be made based on that combination of ISEB score and interview. I’m guessing they will make the scholarship interviews quite rigorous to enable them to differentiate between similar high ISEB scores? It’s a good point though that there may well be larger groups of boys clustered at similar mark levels.

Have to say I’ve been very impressed by the efforts made by both schools we have applied to so far. All very efficient and doing the best they can in these strange covid times. DS went to Hampton to sit the ISEB and they made a real effort to make the boys feel welcome and relaxed. Yellow box was a definite hit but his favourite thing was the little Hampton branded bottle of hand sanitiser they were each given and allowed to take home, can’t get much more 2020 than that

Good luck to everyone for all their applications!

Question on Hampton - everyone I have spoken to seem to have an interview in Jan ... has anyone got stats- I guess first year on ISEB?
When do we find out about academic scholarship? Before or during / after interview ? Thanks

Just to share my experience. Four years ago my DS passed for SGS but not Wilson’s . We weren’t given any score He got into our local comprehensive on offers day ( where his elder brother goes). He went on the waiting list at about no 35 and we are out of area so I wasn’t hopeful, but by the end of the summer he was at number 2 and he got an offer on the second day of term. So especially if you are in area there is certainly a chance he’d get into SGS ( which is an excellent school).

Yes @lookhappy I know boys who have passed SGS and not Wilson's but still got an offer from SGS.

The numbers include many of the same boys who passed Tiffins and St Olaves, many who will end up going to the nearby indie schools, plus some who were taking grammar exams all over the place to hedge their bets.

Only 15 WCGS places are reserved for Sutton children. 25 Pupil Premium and 110 rank order.

If he passed two of the three, there's definitely still hope.

I know my child's score, since he just failed Wilson's. I imagine, therefore, that he won't be in the top 500 of SGS - and won't get a place at SGS - or have there been children who have failed the second round of Wilsons, and still passed to SGS?

It's really tough since he is very very good at maths and always has been, from a tiny age! Maybe his written English let him down... but nonetheless, I would have thought his maths might carry him (and we didn't get a note saying he'd not got the right mark for English). Really not sure what happened.

Ultimately, 600-odd children scored better than him! On that basis, no Sutton grammars right? Or maybe a chance with WCGS (tho we are outside of Sutton, and I know they award places to locals first).

Funny thing is that he actually scored really well in both of the Sutton Mocks - got very high scores (in both maths and English). Goes to show, doesn't it!

Ug, so near and yet so far. It now means that I'm concerned he won't get into anything!

@Sterou My understanding is the schools apply the same method of marking and just use the results differently - both by putting different weights on the tests and setting their own pass marks. The second stage English especially is quite labour-intensive to mark, so I doubt this would get done by each school individually.

The boys who pass stage 2 for either school but don't get a SGS or Wilson's place do have very good chances of getting a WCGS place.

@TeddyDidIt
Having thought about your comment. DS strength is maths so that would make sense, he must have done very well in the maths round 1 and 2... do we know if SGS and Wilson share the same scoring methods? ( the paper score rather than the ratio round 1 and 2). Follow me here ... in the thread I shared from 11+ forum above, the analysis showed that SGS had to offer up to rank 500 to fulfil its cohort, leaving sadly 300+ students with no place .. as we are in the dark about DS ranking, having visibility of where DS failed to succeed (English) it would be interesting to work out if he is in the top 500 ranked for SGS ... extrapolating my thinking here .. arrrrggg

From another thread : very insightful

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=61489

@Sterou It sounds like your DS did very well in the SET and stage 2 maths if despite not meeting the required standard for English, he still got above the pass mark for Wilson's and passed SGS.

@Jumpalicious

In order to be eligible for a place at Wilson’s a candidate must have met all four of these requirements:

· the required standard in the Selective Eligibility Test

· the minimum threshold in the second stage English test

· the minimum threshold in the second stage Mathematics test

· the overall pass mark of 475

Unfortunately your son did not meet the minimum threshold in the second stage English paper.

It may help you to know the following information about your son’s performance:

Minimum threshold standardised score in Second Stage English - 175