SW London Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023 (Part III)

@Parent123456 Sorry cross posted! Hope it was good news for you

SPGS email is out

Spgs email out

I spoke to Emanuel admissions just after the exam and they confirmed they had just under 1000 applicants and are interviewing two thirds.

Has anyone called Emanuel for feedback? It's often vague but I wonder how far DC was off the mark for interview cut off.

Yes agree that seems a huge amount to interview at Emanuel for 96 places available for external applicants

A no from Emanuel for DS. Disappointing, but unsurprising given the numbers and the fact that Emanuel is very hard to predict.

We haven't told DS yet, as he has his final exam coming up and don't want to knock his confidence. The slightly bizarre thing is he was reflecting on all the exams yesterday and said the only one he feels positive about is Emanuel. Eeek!!

In regards to Emanuel I can't help but feel it sightly odd to me that you would still interview that many after knowing the academic capabilities of the DCs.

I can understand if interviews came first and you had a policy of interviewing everyone as standard, because then it's just the first step in the process.

But now it almost seems a bit tough on a lot of kids (possibly 200-300+) to offer hope via interview to those who may have just passed academically, but realistically are outside chances.

Seems to be a slight case of not wanting to lose that 'everyone has a chance' ethos of interviewing all applicants, but also coping with increased demand and exam expectations. Bit of a worst of both worlds. I'd be surprised if in subsequent years they inch away from the interviews for large numbers process.

Well done for those who got through Emanuel. For those considering Emanuel, what are the other co-ed schools you've considered? Seems that all the co-eds have had huge numbers of applicants this year, but my focus is further south, so Ibstock and Claremont. They too seem to be quite the unknown in terms of how many interview vs offers - does anyone have insight on those (particularly Claremont!)?

Thanks for the correction on numbers - Good thing I am not the one doing the 11+ maths 🤣.

People always said Harrodian was hard to presict when it came to offers but seems Emanuel is a bit of a mystery, too.

I am just glad we are nearing the end of this all - should start thinking what to do with all the spare time and brainwidth 😊

So sorry to hear it's a no @11minus for your DS. The whole process feels brutal.

My DCs state primary used to get quite a lot into Emanuel. Very few have got in in the last few years including academic sporty all rounders who ended up at KCS, Hampton, Putney High etc. Also know quite a few bright siblings who didn't get in either so who knows what they're looking for!

Wow, 640 is still quite a lot! I wonder how many they make offers to. I think it is a backup school to many. We like it, but it is not first choice. My dd favours Godolphin and Francis Holland atm. However, we need to look at the schools properly (we only went to one open day). Our experience of Emanuel was just the exam day and my dd loved it. She had a great experience. However, from reading on here and speaking to others it seems impossible to know how they select dc now. At my daughters school no one has gotten in the last few years (not many go for private, but every year there are maybe 3-5 that apply) and my friends dd that got offers to Godolphin and Putney did not get an offer from Emanuel. I am very curious if we will know anyone that gets in.

All I read in the email was that it was decided after the exam, interview and reading of school reports.

It's not even 5 days either, it's 3 afternoons and a Saturday. That's some impressive throughput.

Have they not already assessed for these, at least for sport (pre-exam) and art (this week)? Or is it different for the other types?

The school invites based on exam performance and sounds slightly different in format as in addition to the group activity there is an interview with an English and a maths teacher.

How does the academic scholarships work? Did you apply for it or the school invites based on exam performance?

Has anyone who applied for a co-curricular scholarship at Emanuel heard if they are invited for an assessment for that? I just wondered whether anyone had been invited for a second round assessment when we received the group interview invite? I don't want to bother the poor admissions staff with this question when they must already be so busy. 😅

They usually invite all applicants which is usually 1000+ so they are very good at it and well organised.

We're delighted that DC has an Emanuel interview too. I just wondered if anyone had been invited to one of the Academic Scholarship interviews? It sounded like they would be run in a slightly different way and I wondered whether anyone had been told that they were in the scholarship group?

Considering Emanuel had 960 applicants and that they invited roughly 2/3 back, likely they will have 700+ kids to interview over 5 days - quite a task!

@SamPoodle123 I reckon for academic schools exam results are always given higher weights, 15-20 mins interview is more like a filter out (red flag) session.

Longer interviews or group assessment with academic questions will be a different story.

Do you think that the schools that interview more students still put more weight on the exam results or do you think if you passed by a certain mark, they are more just looking during the interview at the person, their character, how they work with others, how they answer the questions?