SW London grammar and private year 7 entry 2024.

In contrast to the interview experiences above, when DD (and her friend) did the SPGS interview last year, it was quite short, about 15 mins, no academic question such as English or Maths asked. Both offered a place in the end.

Sorry, failed to take my own advice. Bad Bonjour.

Like @HighRopes my eldest DD also did spgs 2 years ago and found the maths paper straight forward in section A, more challenging in section B and downright tricky in section C - I can’t remember exact details but feel sure she would have left a fair few out. She enjoyed the comprehension paper and felt she’d done well in that and English is her strongest area. She went through to interview and was asked 2 maths questions in that - one, she had to explain how she did a question that she got right and two, she had to - with a bit of guidance from the interviewer - try to tackle again a question she had got wrong in the paper. She was offered a place and is currently in y8 there loving it. Happy to share more (feel free to DM me) re interview for those that get good news next week.

My dd had a similar experience a couple of years ago, and was asked about some of the maths questions at interview, and was offered a place.

From the school’s website “The first section will feature questions that are fairly straight-forward ‘sums’, designed to establish fundamental arithmetic concepts are in place. The second section will cover questions which are more problem-solving in style and the third section may have multi-part questions; these questions will be based on material the students may never have seen before.”

I take that to mean that part C is designed to stretch the most able and not to be finished by most. I know one parent with Maths A level who tried it and couldn’t do it in the time!

Of course one should take the story from many moons ago a spoonful of salt, as I always did to those repeated ancient Ads on MN.

@BrightEyesMum I forgot to add, the school will also weight in the CEM performance into consideration too. We have heard the marking and weighting info from the real parents in the undecided meeting last Feb.

Also there is another post last year where you can find the similar information.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4697901-sw-london-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023-part-ii?reply=122816790

I am fairly sure that Preplex has no more info than you do on how it is marked, @BrightEyesMum so take that with a pinch of salt. If she (?) does, she should state her sources.

Thank you to the above OPs for sharing their experience from previous years. I noticed there is not much about SPGS on this thread for this year. I would love to hear from parents of DD’s who sat SPGS this year.

@PreplexJ thank you for replying back as well and providing the insight on how they will mark it in terms of weighting - much appreciated. I am hoping it all goes well for my DD.

@BonjourCrisette thank you so much for the prompt reply. Really appreciate the feedback - my DD also really enjoys English and Comprehension as well and felt she did better at those. Keeping my fingers crossed!

DD did the SP exam last year, she said she have 1-2 questions not sure in maths section C, but last year's maths was not really difficult according to her. Anyway I think it is less about the absolute mark but about comparison against the peers who took the exam at the same day across three papers (heard they have some internal weightings), as well as other non-academic criteria. The school aim to cut the number by half for interview.

As for CLSG interview, last year is 15 minutes, well structured, firstly some questions on 2 picture shown for comparison, then some general questions to find out your DDs interest etc.

Good luck

Sorry to hear. When do you hear from Alleyns? We didn’t apply there as too far from where we live

When my DD sat the SPGS exams (some years ago now), she did not finish a single question in the third section of the Maths paper and was still fine. So please do not stress unnecessarily. If she's done well in other papers, like English or Comprehension, it may still be fine (DD loved both of these and probably did well as that is where her strongest subjects are).

My daughter took the SPGS test on Monday and the CLSG test and LU interview later the week. She thought the maths section B was harder than section C, and she was not sure if she completed it. She also felt the English was a bit rushed, but otherwise she thinks fine. She also moaned about the lunch was not very filling :) We have the CLSG interview next week and she is feeling happy now.

By the way I contacted SPGS and was informed that the results will be out by next Wednesday

Hi Everyone

Thank goodness I finally found this post. I have been really worried and stressed as my DD sat the SPGS exam on Monday. She found section A of the maths pretty straightforward but she missed out 3 questions in section b and 1 and 1/2 questions in section c. My DD said it was very difficult to finish the paper. How did your DD’s find it? Is missing these questions critical? Would appreciate if someone could shed light upon on this and even those whose DD’s have sat in the previous years

Anyone went for G&L interviews today? How was it? Anyone sat SPGS on Monday?

School websites with their offers and acceptance are not always correct and should be taken as an indicator. One year, Prep school got wrong for GL, SPG, LU, FHSS and Emanuel plus putting offers in 13+ for others years where the offers were not confirmed and dropped due to not maintaining standards as required or during 13+ process were required to do more exams. Also, we had City offers and no acceptance when Year 5 DCs, a few took their offers but not Year 6, they counted the offers in Year 6 tally.

That is really not ok!

Everyone being quite cagey about it at our school, as it should be IMO. Only say if asked directly.

Another no for us. That just leaves Alleyns to hear from which will almost certainly be a no.

@Summerma same here !

Same for us @SilverLake ☹️ah well - not meant to be, so there it is. Sorry you didn’t get better news x

Finally an email but it's a no for us.

LEH invites are also out! A yes for DD. Any tips for interview at LEH would be much appreciated.

Still waiting here. I was also wondering about an IT issue.

Fortunately only one other child at DS' school is applying to any independent schools. He's a really good friend of DS and there are only 2 schools that they're both applying to.

So crash! One thinks that the parents should know better but unfortunately this process tends to show people's true colours ..