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

Best of luck for Alleyn’s!

Best of luck for tomorrow @Tr0ubled I seem to remember it’s one of DD’s favourites? Really struggling to get mine do anything today.. she is done with homeschooling, done with interviews and exams and done with trying to show enthusiasm for schools she’s never been too.. I have to confess she has my sympathy!!

Yes, best of luck for the Alleyn's crew tomorrow @Stircrazyschoolmum and @Tr0ubled !

@WarmAndco3y - sorry you've been unwell. Congratulations on your DD passing the Kent grammars! I suspect that with the grammars and the superselective states the initial scores required to get in on offer day will be higher this year as everyone applied blind in October, but that the waiting lists will move pretty substantially by September as people choose schools - just my theory!

I'm coming round to the idea that ISEB actually worked to DD's advantage - we certainly worked harder at VR/ NVR than we would have done otherwise and we were able to concentrate on covering the Yr 5 maths work she'd missed.

Hello again, I’ve been poorly hence being AWOL.

Came back to wish the Alleyn’s crew @Stircrazyschoolmum and @Tr0ubled, I think, all the best with interviews tomorrow.

Well done to those with offers, GHS is amazing. And @stellagibbons and @stir well done to your DDs on passing the WT

My DD passed Kent and the Sutton grammars. It will be interesting to see the outcome we did put Wally girls as our first choice on CAF. Her scores are pretty similar to my older DD so will be interesting to see what happens.
I’m really not sure what to make of ISEB, DD got a pretty decent academic scholarship on the back of this. But didn’t make Alleyn’s 2nd round, which I know is a very selective school. And I guess being co-Ed makes it that more difficult. Roll on 11th of February, I just don’t know what to think and having wobbly days every now and then.
We are really on the home stretch now. All the best, as we wait.

@BlackRainbow2020 we’ve still got Alleyn’s tomorrow, and then all done!

How was the St Pauls Girls/SPGS online written exam experience? I guess all interviews are done now?

Thanks @LittleBlackBear - she actually had her interview today and it went well apparently, much better than her initial interview! No idea whether it was enough, but she feels she gave a good account of herself!

@Stircrazyschoolmum - I also wonder whether it'll be harder to work out whether they'll get a place by September as the grammar tests and 11+ were sat so late this year that results weren't out by the time the CAF was submitted. Graveney was actually our second state choice as it's not the best journey for us - but DH is very keen.

Well done to your DDs @Stircrazyschoolmum and @stellagibbons for doing so well in the WT! Always good to have options..

@stellagibbons has your DD had her scholarship interview for JAGS? Hope it went well 🤞🏼

@stellagibbons fairly similar here. DD would get Graveney very late in the process this year I think.. too late given the uncertainty. This isn’t a big deal for us as she has a guaranteed sibling place at a state we are very happy with.. makes me wonder if she would’ve made first filter at WHS and JAGS if it had been a non ISEB year though...

@Stircrazyschoolmum Wandsworth Test results out! DD did well, but borderline whether she gets into Graveney on first round this year or not (she would for half of the years in the last 4, but not the others).

Which hasn’t helped our decision making much!

DD is in year 7 at LEH. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about the school (to the best of my abilities). Pease PM me if needed.

In a nutshell: it is definitely not a hothouse, both the school and most parents are pretty chilled (some parents are the exception). Learning is good but not intensive. Very little homework. DD did not get an academic scholarship but is certainly not lagging behind and got an excellent report card. Most extracurricular activities are not taking place because of the pandemic, which is a bummer. The school is doing very well during lockdown, excellent online programme with a mix of live lessons and independent work. Be mindful of the requirement to attend Saturday sports - I thought it was optional, but there’s a lot of pressure to attend, which is tough if you have other commitments/DCs or are single parenting. Overall I’m quite happy and so is DD. I’m a big fan of the head; she’s done a great job in the pandemic and always comes across as level headed. I would recommend the school to a friend 🙂.

@MumsRule20 I don’t have much wisdom to offer.
My DD locked herself in the room and got on with it ! She wasn’t going to let us interfere.
I just hope the schools who have their own primary/year 6 will have had their own cohort sitting the exams which then does provide some useful data/pattern. I can’t think that the exams from the first session will be carrying as much weight as the second session but I really don’t know.
Had they had to show their workings, it would have provided some clues, but that is not even the case.
Admissions will be picking up the phone to speak to schools if they have any doubt. But a few improvements here or there aren’t likely to be noticeable. Interview plus school reports are likely to carry more weight than usual, but again how much tangible information is in the school references when the kids have missed so much school and they were all written after a few weeks of the kids being back in school.

It's not my DS it's a friend's so I only know that she is concerned. I don't know any of the details because I don't like to keep asking especially as my DS is not involved.

@yellowspanner I got you now and in the same place as your friend. Also heard of parents bragging about helping their kids at the first session.
The second session was better organised and ‘time stamped’ which leaves less room for parents tampering (I believe).

@singingrain1223 and @stircrazyschoolmum we are based in esher so for GHS it’s a 2 minute drive to the train station (where I drop DS anyway to take the train to Wimbledon) or for LEH she could walk to the coach pick up point....so pretty comparable for GHS, LEH and WHS in terms of the journey. I would like her to have local friends though so I was always favouring LEH and Guildford over WHS as I felt that there were perhaps more girls from the Esher area going to those schools. WHS always struck me as being quite a local school but I might be wrong. Anecdotally I have heard that LEH is best for drama and GHS is best for sport. I think the academics are pretty similar and she would achieve the same at any of these schools.

@Yossahughes my DD has gone a lot of times to GHS for sporting events .
Some of the upfront advantages v/s LEH are located in the city centre which means the DC can commute back home independently incase of sports fixtures or late clubs which is not the case with LEH as it in the middle of nowhere.
GHS uses Stoke Park and Guildford Spectrum for a lot of the sports activities and they are just next door .
We would have loved to apply had they got a bus or were not a train ride away !

@Yossahughes , well done to your dd. In the 2019 girls thread there was a poster called Greenleave and her dd got GH scholarship early and then went on to get KGS and LU scholarships (she went to LU) although not LEH scholarship. GH play the early game to get in their first esp via LEH when competing with the Esher/Claygate catchment girls, I hope you can see all the offers before making a decision as GH scholarship is a great indicator of offers to come.

@Yossahughes that’s a tough one! How comparable are the commutes?

Crikey - so we are going to have to make a decision about LEH versus GHS before we know if we have a place. The Guildford letter says they will hold the place until 1st March to allow for people waiting for state school applications so we have a little bit of leeway I guess but wouldn’t want to stretch it out too much....DH thinks it’s a no brainier and we should choose Guildford as they have also offered her an academic scholarship but I can’t stop thinking about the lovely airy classrooms at LEH....how are any of us going to choose this year without an offer holders day 😱😱😱

Iamsodone,
My friend's son was one of those doing the exam when the IT failed. She said some DCs have done a full exam and some haven't. And she's been told of cheating once the IT went down. The school haven't yet told them how they are going to handle it. She really wants DS to go to Emanuel and is worried that it is not a level playing field.
But I think this year the playing field is all over the place.
Thank goodness we were last year.

@Yossahughes
Hi my DD1 got in LEH last year and the offer letter was delivered to our home by post on February 13th. It was Thursday just before the half term. Hope you can get result before 12th

@yossahughes LEH post offer letters on 10th February. Although they let the primary schools know by email the same day so you can ask your school if they’ve heard of you don’t want to wait for the postie.

@yellowspanner
Please can I ask what you mean by my friend DS has applied to Emanuel and they are demented ?