SW London grammar and private year 7 entry 2024 - Continued

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5152642-london-grammar-and-private-senior-school-entry-2025?reply=137938394

Hi CruCru,

Thank you for setting up the similar thread 2025, is there any link? My DD is doing 11+ this year. Thanks again.

Thank you! Very kind!

Hi JustInvolved! I’ve just set one up.

This thread has been amazing and very helpful with great insights! Does anyone know if there is a similar thread for 2025?

Very interesting @jonnyhatesjazzzzz , thank you for sharing. This time round we’re limiting it to a very few schools. We’ll have to wait and see if the strategy is successful. Last time we did have to move in the end, but cannot do it every two years. Plus, the eldest is already at a secondary school.

We applied to 7 schools and only ended up with one clash in the end. One was running an exam and the other was an interview, so we pulled out of the school that we had a last exam for because it was our least favourite choice anyway. Most ask you for any clashes and a fair few children end up doing two in one day unfortunately.

Although the whole exam/interview scheduling process is complex, most schools (but not all) will have a 'reserve' date and will try to accommodate clashes so it's worth to get in touch with them once the child is invited and the exams are clashing. It happened to us this year and my daughter was moved to another day. Both schools were in the same area. Having said that - 'school A' refused to do anything for us, despite having a few exam days and many slots each day, 'school B' (1 exam day only) kindly moved my daughter onto their 'reserve day'. So - all depends on school but most will probably try to accommodate all candidates.

Thanks all! The only reason I was looking at this so early is that someone asked if I was available to do a thing in January (I’m not).

The time will go faster than we realise.

@Buru - of course, some people will move for schools so may be applying to some that are far apart.
I guess what I'm saying ( and I have a professional insight into admissions at some of these schools) is that the exams and interviews are a HUGE logistical undertaking and they have to go with the dates that work for them. Some children sit 9/10/11 schools and it's madness. Maybe it's a way of cutting down on that.

We applied to both LU and Alleyn’s. Didn’t apply to St Paul’s as seemed a bit of a stretch at the time but applied to a few others. We were ready to move for schools, so it was the right decision to try for all best co-Ed schools, such as LU, Alleyn’s and Highgate.

Schools are generally less flexible on the dates for written assessments but offer more flexibility for interview days, often a wider range of dates to choose from. The dates on website are tentative, for instance, at FHHS, some parents have reported that their interviews were scheduled on different dates earlier this year. Similar case for Channing, where they interview every applicants in the past years. Some schools also offer backup date/multiple dates for assessments.

Unless you apply a few independent schools cross a wide range geographic location you are likely to be able to manage them all.

There were a lot doing Alleyns exam and Emanuel interview on the same day this year. As I recall they were quite helpful about avoiding clashes - think Alleyns asked if you already had something that day before sending a time out. Bit of a tiring day and some people had a tight journey, but just grateful to avoid a clash!

Same- when DS sat it he had first round exams on the same day for St P and LU. St P told you what the time was. LU were far more flexible on timings as they had so many different sessions.

But it's more about location. Alleyns and LU are unlikely to consult on dates as the number of kids applying to both would be tiny. Whereas WHS and PHS would be unlikely to have the same date as there would be a big crossover. Same with SPGS and G&L etc.

A lot of boys applied to both St Paul and LU. The written exam of St Paul (stage 2) is in the morning and you will see lots of familiar faces in LU for activity sessions in the afternoon. LU will send out Google forms prior to that and you can fill in your priority with explanation he is having exam in the morning. We did that last year and still got offers. I won't jeopardise your chance. LU in this respect has been doing a good job

Exactly my thoughts. It is good to have a range of schools. ESP when you aren’t quite sure if you are reaching for stars or if you have a chance (coming from state school). I’ve got a slightly better idea from doing the 11+ last year w my dd. But still, feel like I’m not sure when it comes applying for ds. So we are looking at a range.

At this stage, a lot of schools insist they won't make alternative arrangements for date clashes. In reality, post the 1st round, some of them will / do.

That said, sometimes difficult decisions do need to be made. This year, some girls we knew got through to the second round of SPGS, WHS, LU and CLSG and could only sit 3 of those (SPGS on one day, and two of the others on the next day). For the most part, by that point, there was one school they were less keen on so the decision wasn't too hard. It's also a bit of a strategic choice at that point as to how likely you think your DD is to get an offer from the schools left on the table. But I wouldn't stress about it now - just make sure you have a good spread of schools and if your DD gets through to all second rounds, hopefully the most you'll have to do is ditch one school.

Safer option ... it's all relative, my point is that I don't think the three schools are that different. Plus our school didn't put them in the same group. LU, St Paul's in one group - stretch and Alleyn has in the middle group

think that's the first time I've heard Alleyns described as a 'safe' option?!

How do the dates of Alleyns, Dulwich, Whitgift and KCS compare? Those are far more likely to have similar applicants. I can't think of anyone I know who applied eg LU and Alleyns or St Paul's and Alleyns actually.
But we're getting too hung up on these schools! There's not enough days for everyone to sit every school so it's a good way of narrowing down your options!

St Paula and Lu could be a stretch option and Alleyns a safer option. I don't think they are that different. With school buses these 3 options are all doable

St Pauls/Latymer/Alleyns are very different schools in very different locations?

Think schools with similar cohorts in similar areas are mindful of dates and generally coordinate?

But not many people are going to apply to St Paul's/ LU and Alleyns for example and I suspect they are keen for people to cut down the numbers they're applying for.

Call me a cynic but I wonder if some schools are creating clashes on purpose so they can weed out applicants for whom that school is not a favourite. That way they won’t waste an offer on them further along the process, isywim.