SW London Girls' Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023

@Daydreamscometrue no idea. Of all the schools, I think Ibstock's process is the most opaque and least communicative. The open day was impressive but day to day contact not so much. Not sure if it reflects the overall school. Is this others' experience?

Any ideas on how many they invite for the second round?

Agree!

@Daydreamscometrue hopefully!
I know they always said that results would be out this week but I do think it wouldn't have hurt to send a friendly blanket email- "thank you all for attending, the children worked very hard, we expect the results to be sent towards the end of the week". Rather have than leave us all to get rsi auto refreshing all week!

@secondaryquandries either way tomorrow then I guess

@Daydreamscometrue nope!

Ok thanks so much, good to know it doesn’t apply across London. It’s a stressful enough process. Fingers firmly crossed.

Anyone heard from Ibstock?

plus 1/3 of 2012 borns are applying for 11+ next year, not this. I am sure application numbers have increased but indeed this is also because nowadays people seem to apply for 5-6 schools rather than 3-4 as in the past.

As @iRobot2022 says, this does not apply across London. Plus we do not know how it is reflective across cohorts more like to apply to certain schools. Plus I think more people might have left London than in the past ...

I wouldn't let it depress you, i don't think it is as clear cut as described here.
Almost all of the net "bulge" is in East London.
In the boroughs that are most relevent to this particular thread the birth rate was either flat or down in 2012.
For whatever reason there were increases in Barking, Hillingdon, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets.

Births in London as a whole:
2010: 133,111
2011: 132,843
2012: 134,186

data.london.gov.uk/dataset/births-and-fertility-rates-borough

The data on the 2012 birth rate bulge has just depressed me. I was unaware of it. I was managing to stay somewhat upbeat until I read it but am now worrying.

Thanks all for the congrats.
Hope others have got good news too.

Well done those who got a yes! @QuiteAJourney just goes to show how we can never know until we get the email!

Thanks! DD came out of the exam rather disappointed so we were not expecting it.

Congrats :)

Congrats @QuiteAJourney!!

Just got email from WHS - genuinely shocked with a Yes.

Whs email are out!

@Sophiste thanks very much for this. I haven't got an Economist sub so I can't see the graph. It's really interesting though and thanks for explaining it to me. I wonder what caused the UK to explode like that. Fascinating that it didn't happen elsewhere.

Yes at DS's prep school and various others locally I hear there are spaces in Reception and lower years, also at local state schools too. For the first time ever a local state school dropped a flyer through our front door last week - I've never been 'advertised' to by a state school and it was for nursery and reception.

I keep explaining this to DS to reassure him that if he doesn't get in anywhere it is very much to do with the birth bulge and nothing to do with him and his ability (trying to soften the blow as much as possible as surely rejections will come).

But in the end it doesn't change anything that this is a monumentally difficult year.

At least this hard data within the Guardian article I can give to him to read so he does see it for himself and know I'm not making it up, it really is true. Thank you.

I can't imagine how hard it must be for schools to plan for this bulge. It's like seven years of plenty, seven years of lean, like something out of the bible. And possibly those seven years of lean will continue on into many more years as I don't think the birth rate is increasing.

It also has some other longer-term implications for university/further study for our children in this bracket also and perhaps the increased competition there again.

Europe looks more inviting/less difficult potentially. Maybe we will have rejoined the EU by then!

@Geville if you are able to access the Economist graph, you’ll see that the baby boom here was not replicated in France or Germany - quite different patterns appear there.

Here is what the Guardian said about it at the time:

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwihn9H9tdj7AhXPTsAKHWkqDKoQFnoECAkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2013%2Faug%2F08%2Fuk-population-growth-baby-boom&usg=AOvVaw0Xac4S5WN5QXHuSW13Pg6W

What wasn’t predicted was the births would fall away as steeply as they did from 2013 onwards, leaving many surplus places in the primary/prep sector as our Y6 baby boomers move on upwards. It’s currently a planning headache for the higher and further education sectors - how to accommodate the approaching bulge without being left with redundant capacity afterwards.

Interesting share. Do you know if the birth bulge was replicated across Europe? Sorry, bit off topic but I’m curious to know now. I’ll have to go digging. Was it a phenomenon across the western world? Cheap money, low rates, a perpetual bull market, few wars. Did that lull many of us into having more children than usual?

Back to schools, yes, as the mum of a girl and boy who’s also done it before the process felt much easier with DD.

For boys the more far flung options from SW London start to appear on the radar such as Whitgift and Trinity.

I never had to think this far geographically for my daughter. Plenty more local options for girls from genuinely very good schools, with a fairly wide mixed ability range.

Within the same radius there’s simply not the same options for boys.

Then there’s the desire for a lot of families with boys to want co-Ed but not nearly enough places on offer. So local co-Ed’s are very difficult for boys to get into.

Just learned from a friend whose DC sat Ibstock on Wednesday that they have not been told when they will hear re: round 2. Wondering now if that lack of commitment re: timing might mean thar we might not hear from them this week after all or whether they would release at different times.

It depends how strong the scholarship application was and how weak the exam performance was. It’s a case by case basis. But yes there would be a cut off point if exam performance just not good enough, even with exceptional ability elsewhere. They have to protect their 9s and A stars above all else!

@Sage2025 which stats are you interested in? The nationwide baby boom circa 2012 is well-documented - here’s the Economist’s illustration of the consequential peak of 18 year olds in 2030: www.economist.com/britain/2021/08/19/the-number-of-young-adults-in-britain-is-about-to-rise-sharply

More locally you will find that London boroughs reflect the same population peak in their planning for state school places. My own borough (Camden) has its education-demand planning online, very transparently, and I am sure other boroughs will do the same work.

Regarding independent school places, the ISC is a good place for stats, and their most recent stats show demand for independent places continuing to grow.

Regarding girls v boys - the GDST schools have long offered (between them) a large number of girls-only places in London. Then there are the Hammersmith schools and the Francis Holland schools and smaller “dame schools” like St Margaret’s in Hampstead - between them there is the whole range of highly selective to gently selective to non-selective. What were previously non- or less selective boys’ schools, on the other hand, have in several cases boosted their fortunes and standards by going co-ed: see e.g. Highgate, LU, Emanuel. This has increased the choice for girls, but diminished places for boys.

As an independent school governor I see a lot of stats, but as a parent of an older girl and a younger boy in London I experience what hordes of other parents experience: it’s a tough process, and this is a tough year.