Part 2: SW London Girl's Indies 11+ Pandemic Panic!

@stellagibbons It's a shame for the scholarship but the process must have been more competitive than ever this year so your DD has done extremely well to even get to that stage, she should be very proud. Assuming you get all the results you want by March 1st, which is your top choice?

@Stircrazyschoolmum @Oceane11Plus just got email with JAGS offer - no scholarship though, which is a shame (but not entirely unexpected - DD isn’t a brilliant interviewee).

Congrats to your DD as well @Stircrazyschoolmum !

Hi all, I've been lurking on the thread as I'm going through the same process but with different schools. Just wanted to agree with MumsRule20 - we did average state primary and 'gentle' tutoring in Y5 and ended up with a place at a v selective indie for one child and an academic scholarship at the same school for the other. We couldn't have afforded prep anyway (we don't pay full secondary fees), but I'm glad we went the route we did. One of the criticisms levelled at private schools is that they're a bit of a bubble, and going to a state primary first is at least some mitigation against that. And if you start at state primary but it starts to look like your child is going to need a bit more support to get them to wherever you'd like them to end up, then you can always move them to a prep half way through. I don't think there's a 'right' way to do it - but I do think that for a bright kid with the ability to flourish in a state primary environment, there are a lot of advantages to starting out on that path.

Anyway, well done to everyone on your offers, and good luck to everyone still waiting. I agree with what others have said - there will be lots of wait list movement this year!

Just popping in from the boys’ thread to wish everyone good luck for tomorrow, and congratulations for all the offers achieved so far. What a marathon 11+ roller coaster this year has been. Hope all the DC end up with an offer they are happy with!

Congratulations to all girls and boys who already received offers!

@Stircrazyschoolmum @Oceane11Plus congratulations on JAGs!

Thanks for your experience stircrazyschoolmum and it makes a lot of sense.

Wow what wonderful news for all the JAGS crew, many congratulations!!! Good luck everyone else for tomorrow!

Thank you all! and congratulations @Stircrazyschoolmum, it sounds like you have some tough choices ahead! Is PHS still your first choice?
@Flossietea Jags is our first choice indeed so we can relax and move on now
@stellagibbons Your Jags email must be in a separate batch for scholarships

@Oceane11Plus I’ve forgotten to say congratulations!!!

@Oceane11Plus we just got jags too!! A big surprise after the abysmal interview! I thought the offer email was quite formal compared to the GDST ones.. I’m thinking there might be some follow up in the post? I’d completely forgotten they were emailing us today until DH mentioned it late last night resulting in a sleepless night! @stellagibbons best of luck with the scholarship offer!!

@SouthLondonMommy my DD is ‘outstanding’ state educated. It worked very well until year 5 when she started getting quite frustrated with some of the less enthusiastic learners.. the ability and behaviour range is quite wide and HS has been an eye opener on what actual work they do (there is little extension and she’s frequently bored.). I think policies vary widely between schools so i don’t want to generalise, but I’d say ‘state till 8’ is growing in popularity where we live. For context, DD has gotten offers at 3 schools so far, she had 1 hour of tutoring a week.

Congrats @oceane11plus! Is that your first choice?

Congratulations @Oceane11Plus! Fabulous news, well done your DD.

Amazing news @Oceane11Plus ! Congratulations to your DD!

SCHS says they are posting results today on their website? Has anyone heard whether they are sending out emails instead (we've not had any post since Saturday so not holding out any hopes we'll hear any time soon if they are relying on the post!)

I was not expecting such an early morning email, I was bracing myself for refreshing my emails all day.
I hope all of you get the results you want today and tomorrow

We've just received an email from JAGS, DD has an offer This is such a relief!

I love your post @MumsRule20 - so refreshing to see it like that! I also fall into the camp of preferring the switch at 11+. Staying at the same school from 4+/7+ to 18 years is a loooong time, and it's difficult to tell what school is the best fit when they're so young. But most of all, I think as parents we have to take responsibility for how our DC perceive the exam process...

Anyway, I wanted to share an interesting development with those waiting on the LEH waitlist. Rather than their normal set-up of four forms of 27 pupils (i.e. 108 in total), for the year 7/2021 intake they are now targeting six forms of 23-24 pupils. I'm heavily caveating this - I have no idea how this all works! - but maybe this will result in extra girls being accepted from the waitlist to fill the gaps.

Not sure how I feel about this change as that's a lot bigger year group, but I'm glad at least we've been informed in advance and I see the smaller classes as a positive thing for DD.

@MumsRule20 thanks for your perspective. We can comfortably afford the fees which makes it harder to turn down actually. We are both state educated so there isn't any snobbery in the decision and my daughter is pretty advanced for her age so I think she'll do fine.

I'm really just thinking about if is it worth paying to avoid the stress this must cause everyone, especially my DD when she's 10.

The different answers suggest it really comes down to how we all react to and view stress and there isn't just one right answer.

[quote SouthLondonMommy]@flumeplume that's interesting. From what the schools say there isn't a lot of homework at primary. They are both a short walk from our house and full of local Dulwich children from what I can tell.

My main concern is if it is just a waste of money versus an outstanding state school at primary. I've even heard some parents say some of our local state primaries are pushier than the private schools.

However, the ever escalating war for places seems to be increasing the amount of prep and tutoring every year for the 11+ and the money might be worth it to avoid the pressure for DD.

I might just be soft as where I grew up schooling wasn't anything like London. It all seems so much at 10 years old.[/quote]
At private primary you are paying for smaller class sizes and a higher staff to kids ratio. You may get more sport.

Consider what will happen at 11+ if you decide you want coed or a change - will your private primary support your move or will you end up tutoring at home?

@flumeplume that's interesting. From what the schools say there isn't a lot of homework at primary. They are both a short walk from our house and full of local Dulwich children from what I can tell.

My main concern is if it is just a waste of money versus an outstanding state school at primary. I've even heard some parents say some of our local state primaries are pushier than the private schools.

However, the ever escalating war for places seems to be increasing the amount of prep and tutoring every year for the 11+ and the money might be worth it to avoid the pressure for DD.

I might just be soft as where I grew up schooling wasn't anything like London. It all seems so much at 10 years old.

@SouthLondonMommy

From my experience, I think a good state primary has many advantages (basically no homework so lots of time for other interests, local friends, short commute to school, mixed environment, no fees). If doing it again, I would stick with state primary and then move to selective secondary.

I didn’t find it super stressful doing 11+. I’ve definitely done more stressful things at work, though it was a bit hard not to obsess about it as it was all so uncertain. And I did have a bit of a worry about finding the right tutor (ended up DIYing in the end). The tricky bit was mostly the scheduling - things like getting forms in on time, getting time off work to take dd to so many different places at different times etc.

Anyone know what the ratio of offers to interviewees is for LU? Presumably lower than PHS as it'll be more people's first choice.

two thirds of those interviewed sounds way too much as they would have interviewed atleast 300 if not more . 200 offers for 60 places ?

that number doesn't seem right as they interviewed around 270 . Does that mean that they gave offer to almost all if there are 210 offers ?

Schools that limit interviews generally make offers to 2/3 to 3/4 of interviewees. Flipping those numbers upside down, they usually interview something like 133 to 150 children for every 100 places they expect to offer. The exams are the primary filter for these schools; there's not much point in calling in children whose personalities will not be able to overcome their exam results.

As for how many offers PHS needs to make, Falkner House reports that their girls received 10 offers last year, only 1 of which was accepted. Kensington Prep reports that their girls received 20 offers, only 3 of which were accepted. Back when they also used to report offers along with acceptances, Bute House and Glendower girls regularly got 20 places, very few of which were taken up. So girls from those four schools alone might decline 45 out of 50 offers.

@SouthLondonMommy yes, absolutely. That would be the smartest move to avoid the madness in year 6. They are both fabulous schools and although I have no doubt you are near some fantastic state primaries to have a pretty much guaranteed place at a sought-after senior school would be wonderful for all of you.

@Flossietea and @eglantine7 yes my DD has an offer for Jags junior which should guarantee her a place at the senior school (they don't need to pass the exam anymore but if they don't think you are up to scratch they may 'suggest' you look elsewhere around year 5 though apparently this is rare).

If we got Alleyns its definitely a guaranteed place but we won't know about that assessment until tomorrow.

I'm thinking that despite having great primaries, since we can afford it, we should just join a through school now and avoid the stress.