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

Just a thought, have you considered requesting more exam taking time for your DS? I believe some schools permit this. It may be helpful to him.

How do your kids all get on with cpg/bond books? My son does pretty well on Atom sas scores but struggles to finish these written mock tests and also is overwhelmed just looking at the amount he is expected to read in eg. The bond comprehension tests.

An example would be a verbal reasoning paper with 60 questions and 20mins to complete. Are other kids motoring through these with full focus? My son could get very good marks in his own time but in the time given no chance.

A rule of thumb is 3 offers per place, if you look at the destination schools for Kensington Prep school in 2022 they received 21 offers from Putney High but only a handful will have been accepted.
If you talk to parents in year 7 at a leading school each child in the class will have had 4 other offers they turned down.

The unknown this year is Surbiton High because they used their usual offer ratio last year and had too many acceptances so this year they will greatly reduce their offers as the school site can't cope with another large intake .

@Firenze12 As mentioned above it all depends on the school, so very difficult to generalise: I assume that SPGS will not over offer by much (if at all) whilst others might be aware that they are less likely to be the top choice (in fact, some schools ask you which other schools you have applied for). Geography also matters. Kingston is an interesting one, as it is first choice for quite a few people but their geography means that they are in Grammar area so competing with the grammars. Others are also competing with grammars because of the area, but the grammars in question would have already offered by the time the private offers come through (I am thinking of the ones in the Surrey / Kent border, for instance).
Also, some schools don't over offer by much but have a long waiting list... whilst others seem to go down the route of over offering but they hardly ever go into the reserve list.
I think that over time the tendency seems to be to be a bit more constrained with the offers and rely more on reserve list. Some schools have got caught in the past over-offering and ended up either doing 'exploding offers' (that went down, as you can imagine, really badly) or having to increase cohort size (which is not optimal either).
Very interesting that you have already been to a taster day as most schools (as far as I am aware) have not yet offered and 'taster days' are usually come after offer and for offer holders - or was it of a different type?

@Firenze12 where did you go? How was it?

I don't know how much they over offer by. But I think it depends on who their competition is I suppose. KGS for example probably are in competition with places like Tiffin and imagine a lot of people would choose the free option if they get an offer from both!

Went to one of our taster days today, very busy. Any idea how much schools over offer by? Appreciate this varies depending on schools.
Hope all exams have gone well so far!

@secondaryquandries @Trickleg it's such a long time. What on earth will they be doing for all that time?

Hope the Pitney test went well. Wishing your daughter all the best!

Yes we are applying to Claremont too. It's a long session there!

Yes we are applying to CFS. The email with exam timings went to junk mail!

@Sugar118 . Our DD is not sitting PHS but some of our friends are. Will let you know if we have any insights

Is anyone applying to Claremont Fan Court in Esher?

DD sat Putney exam yesterday for occasional place in year 6. It was very heavy on the reasoning side and not much math or grammar. It’ll be interesting to see if the 11+ is also reasoning heavy or math and English too. Putney gives very little away…

@travelturtle Many thanks, really useful to know.

@QuiteAJourney I’m pretty sure they have 80-90 external places, and most of their prep school from Y6 join as well to make the Y7 group. Some confusion when we applied last year whether the prep school kids have to sit same test or get an automatic place. I’m still not sure!

Anyone knows how many places at IPS for year 7? Not sure of size of cohort or how many people come from junior vs intake?

@boredboredbore and @NellyCortado , thanks both (I was aware that this year's Stage 2 was only depending on Stage 1... had not appreciated that all DC did both parts in previous years).
Oh, well. Let's see if there is more information forthcoming when IPS sends confirmation of slots.

@QuiteAJourney - Ibstock is two stages again, but I think they are only inviting shortlisted candidates back for Stage 2. In DD's year, they all did Stage 1 and 2 which was pretty intense, especially as all the other exams were squished into January 😖

Yes- I think DD had similar. I'm getting flashbacks now! She came out saying that the English paper either didn't have a comprehension or an essay but I can't remember which. I thought she must have missed a whole chunk out but all her friends were having the same discussions with their parents! ( it may have been no comprehension as I remember feeling relieved as she could be spectacular awful at it!)

Hi. If it helps anyone, my son did IPS last year and got an offer (but went elsewhere). I struggled to find info about the learning workshop last year too. It turned out to be “quite fun” according to him. It was a small group activity, based on a discussion around a written “whodunnit” type scenario. I don’t think it had any “right” answers either, but was designed (I think) to look at how they interacted with others and got their point of view across. I’m sure someone told me the year before it was based on something around Harry Potter! Nothing the kids can prep for, which is a good thing in my view. Good luck!

@NellyCortado , it is two-stages this time round too. The school website refers to Maths and English papers as Stage 2. Stage 1 is just referred as 'computer test and learning workshop'. As you say, we might have more information once they confirm the slots.

I should add - I have NO idea if DD was right about the computer test being only VR and NVR, plus it was years ago. So I think best to be prepared for all subjects to be covered!

DD sat for Ibstock just before Covid and I am pretty sure it was a two stage process for everyone. There was a computer-based test first (which she said was VR and NVR) and an interview. Then all candidates went back a few weeks later for an English and Maths paper, so a bit different this time around.

We haven't had a confirmed slot for Ibstock yet, so hopefully they will provide some info on the computer test and workshop at the same time.

@boredboredbore Thanks. I am just trying to gauge in very general terms what might happen - as things stand, I am assuming that the computer test will cover everything (all usual, Maths, English, VR, and non-VR) and that the group exercise will not require any prep either... which suits us :)

Yes it was pre covid. I'm not sure about the workshop thing to be honest. There was definitely some sort of interview thing but I can't remember whether it was individual or a group thing. I think it's best not to know too much in advance sometimes- I remember giving all sorts of advice about what would happen and then it never did!