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

@EmotiveBubblez thanks!

@secondaryquandries , we are at the mid-morning slot at Ibstock. It seems the 26th is popular, as we have friends that are, on that day, combining Surbiton and Ibstock.

My son is in the morning. I think it must be staggered throughout the day. We've booked the afternoon for Ibstock as he has Hampton in the morning!!

Loads of luck to those doing KGS tomorrow and Saturday and also for Sutton High on Monday. Lots of kids from our state primary going for KGS too, mostly in the afternoon also.

@EmotiveBubblez for following up on the change of name (and for creating the thread in the first place).

KGS tomorrow will be interesting - it seems that really popular (not sure how it compares with other years but about 1/3 of my DD's indie seems to be entering). We are due to attend in the afternoon ...not sure if there are other slots, as everybody else that we know seems to be in the same slot as us (wondering if they create the groups according to school of provenance).
Our next one is Sutton High on Monday.
We also got now bookings for our slots for SCHS and Ibstock, so all becoming very real.

@NellyCortado welcome! As @secondaryquandries says, all welcome! Not sure if the title of the threat can be changed but if the number of messages get too long I think that we would need to start another thread ... and then we can rename. In the meanwhile, let's use this one!

Hi Nelly. I'm a boy parent interloper sitting kgs Friday too! I have been welcomed, I'm sure that you are too. There is no boys thread as far as I can see. Which schools is your son sitting?

Hope you don't mind me joining. DS has first exam on Friday (KGS). We are applying to two boys schools, and the rest are co-ed. If it's any help I have been through the SW London girls process with DD (now at WHS) and happy to share any insights.
If there's an equivalent boys thread (which I haven't spotted), feel free to point me in that direction instead!

My niece barely spoke a word in her WHS group interview (was online so her mother was eavesdropping!)- she is very socially anxious. She nailed a couple of off the wall questions though. She got offered a scholarship. They can't have a year group full of uber confident girls. Definitely need a mix!

The challenge with WH was that some kids clearly got easier things to debate. What's more important on a desert island...food & water or music?

WH last year sounds similar to the year before when my eldest DD sat it. I can't remember the exact details but I think it was like they were on a desert island and could pick one person to take with them e.g. builder and they each had to give an argument for why they would take that person.

They also, from memory, had to pick a word and explain why they had picked it e.g. environmentalism. It was friendly and online but they were clearly observing the kids and their interactions with others, even though it was online. Some kids were very well prepped and had big speeches to give about certain things (although obviously they couldn't have known what would come up). DD came out of it upset that she hadn't had as much seemingly prepared chat as others but got a scholarship so I think they must really look at the kids rather than being bowled over by those who have been exceptionally well prepped.

GL showed her 5 images and asked her to group them or rank them for any reason she wished, they then asked if she could think of an alternative way to order them. Then they asked her to select one image that stood out to her and explain why she had chosen it. It was friendly but definitely more academic and there were two teachers interviewing. She was offered there too.

LEH and Surbiton were more straightforward and friendly. PHS was a bit intimidating as she had a slightly odd teacher interrogating her about how much she knew about Classics (absolutely nothing as it turns out 😂), he was the classics teacher!

KGS was just a nice chat.

Hope that helps!

@futomaki , thanks for the insights. I am always quite mystified about group exercises and how they will cater for different personality types... really useful to see how it may play out.

As I recall, WH allowed each DC to state their case, then afterwards there was opportunity to put their hand up.

Thanks Futomaki. In the group exercises do they put their hand up to contribute or all just have a chat? At least our kids will be well experienced by the time they get to job interviews!!

Last year, different schools asked different questions. GL was a 2:1 and my DD said it was the most difficult of all interviews. WH and FHRP were group exercises. WH had everyone pretend to be going a space colony and debate which things were most important. LU and SHHS were straightforward interviews. SPGS was easiest one, tell us about you. Good luck everyone.

Same for us. All exams finished by second week in Dec phew! What was the interview like? Do they do regular kind of questions- favourite subject etc?

@secondaryquandries hope all goes well. As you say, all rather hectic in coming weeks... very much looking forward to Christmas for a break (also, we do not expect to have much in January, mostly interviews).

Yes I think so. We're at kgs on Friday too! Feels like next few weeks will be super hectic! We have nearly finalised the list.

@secondaryquandries we just did some prep for interview the weekend before and then a creative writing mock. By the time we got back home and had lunch it was 2 pm so we did not go to school that day. She was really tired in the evening that goes to show how exhausting this is for DC. Our school has not said anything when I referred to "she has an exam to won't be coming on that day". I get the impression they are rather relaxed and trusting our judgment

Have you finalised your list? I think we may have some in common 🙂

Well done to your daughter quiteajourney. Did you do anything to prep for the exam. Our school has suggested to go in on the morning/ afternoon of exams but to be honest we are tempted to give him the rest of the day off. Bit of time to relax after exam and he has worked hard to prep so will not get behind with school work.

@QuiteAJourney

The school that's our #1 choice had their 11+ day today so I'll drop you a DM if that's ok?

@Dido2010 Thanks for the experienced voice. I think that we might be going down a similar path. As you say, the travelling adds to it (today we ended up spending more than 2 hours in the car, plus the over 2 hours she spent at the school) and also need to consider how close some of the exams are (we seem to have a bit of glut in early November and another one at the end of November, so those will be periods to watch out for in terms of energy levels).

We cut out sleepovers completely for the full exam and interview period. (Our daughter still mentions that 'sacrifice'!)

Otherwise,we played it by ear. Her energy levels needed to be carefully monitored, especially with the whole enterprise being new and so unusual. Travel/traffic had to be considered as well - one day was one of the toughest snow-and-ice days we can recall! A morning session was usually followed by a lunch out as a treat and returning to school slightly late. An afternoon session was generally preceded by a quiet morning at home. Her primary school neither encouraged nor obstructed. We just kept them informed.