SW London grammar and private year 7 entry 2024 - Continued

I’m mainly on here to see if the waitlist places have come up, especially Dulwich for you @Wondermumof4 - have my fingers firmly crossed.

I can only speak for our prep (no academic entry requirements). No clue about others. At ours only 3 boys got offers out of 15. None with CATs below 130 and all in top set for maths and English… I don’t think the CATs or set matters, just depends if the exam style suits the kid. I think the maths and words and reasoning are somewhat unknowns which makes Hampton possibly harder to tutor for (but not impossible). KGS provide a very helpful 11+ pack with mock papers and according to DS the exam format was identical.

@farfallarocks - yes poor boy had to drop everything outside of school, including music and the school’s own prep / homework. I think his parents feel they did the right thing, when he was going through it, I really felt for him.

Hampton also offered to kids that academically are in the average band, heavily tutored, and they are not part of their prep school top set in maths or english.

all these schools have to feel lots of spots, and taking into account some parents really want the STP, KCS and maybe LU they will have KGS and Hampton next in the rank, which means these schools have to feel all the spots they have. Especially Hampton , since they have 200 boys per year from year9.

Surrey say "the evening of" so I doubt it'll be before 5pm.

I'm so glad we're all sorted as I can remember the amount of refreshing I did on Primary School day!

16 hours a week plus homework. When did they even fit this in? Poor child is all I can say. That’s 3 hours a day on top
if school! Assume
he had to drop all extra curricular too??

This is an interesting question. My experience only relates to DS’s prep (non-selective). KGS appears to have taken a very wide pool of abilities for example kids who frequently sit around average (which is still high at 117 for standardised tests - we get the standardised average figure on reports). I think the pass mark is fairly high for KGS entrance exams (I’ve heard 80%) but as I said, the exam can be easily tutored for and I know people who did just that - targeted multiple choice English, short composition and maths tutoring (either themselves or with a professional).

In my fairly limited experience it appears that King’s and Hampton are possibly more “tutor proof” as those who tend to sit in the average band but were aggressively tutored received offers from Claremont, Epsom, Reeds, Ibstock and KGS but did not make it to second round of Hampton, King’s or St Paul’s (only a handful applied to St Ps and King’s). Re Hampton only 3/15 got offers. One such boy had 16 hours of tuition per week plus 8 further hours of homework… (offered KGS etc but did not make second round King’s/Hampton).

If it’s your top choice I think Atom could be useful for the maths and comprehension and then continuation writing for the written element. Good luck!

Yes when my dd went through this 4 years ago we didn't the email until 8pm... it's going to be a long day for many! Good luck all

Same here farfalla 😬 I did wait for an acknowledgement email but that’s all …

I’m sure if there are any technical issues they will approach you to fix them rather than tear up your acceptance though!

Goodness it didn’t occur to me to check they had received the paperwork and all was confirmed. I just paid deposit , sent form and declined the others on the same day. Hopefully no issues there! Wobble.

This is a really good point, and also perhaps explains why WL aren't moving as quickly as people would like.

Most people we know turned down offers they definitely weren't going to take pretty quickly (as did we) and maybe kept 2-3 to consider post offer holders' visits. Some people I know are still debating that shortlist, while others are awaiting state school offers tomorrow.

And then the final piece of the jigsaw is awaiting confirmation from your chosen school that all the paperwork / deposit has gone through and your child's place is confirmed before you turn down your second choice school. That has taken almost a week for some people I know, so they're only now in a position to reject their second choice.

Anyone with state school / grammar offers is going to take the weekend to mull things over, so I suspect many won't accept / reject until very close to the wire - Mon / Tues next week. Very hard for those on WL (and esp for those having to pay a deposit on another school). I'm not sure there's a better way to do it, but wishing all those on WL very good luck.

Thank you !! Yes i think no WL movement til Monday 😬

Re KGS - don’t think it’s become less selective. I know a few bright kids who got offers at Emanuel / Alleyns but not KGS. That said - I did notice these rejections were coming from the preps. There were 5 kids at the local state primary with offers.. I wondered if their state / independent ratio is more in favour of state than other schools but just a hunch.

London is at 5pm not “by 5pm” so unfortunately that means waiting list movement Might happen only on the following days. Good luck everyone.

HI Wondermum, apparently they release results by county. I've heard that London will be at 5pm, but its just what I've heard, rather than read myself.

Do anyone know if they really send state outcome emails / text in the evening tomorrow ? Which they would send morning !

Does it imply that KGS has become less selective this year? The school is top on our list with co-ed is our preference.

@Vive42 My DS at IPS (year 9) and we are happy. He is in Rugby squad. They do it 2nd term not 1st like some schools. There are two teams - As and Bs plus the touch team (non contact). You can choose to be non contact and you dont have to be in a squad but it’s encouraged. In terms of Games lessons during 2nd Term for boys - it is rugby and you don’t get to opt out of that. Hope that helps. They do a lot of other sport and a new climbing wall… football, cricket, tennis, rowing, cycling, golf, waterpolo, swimming, athletics etc

I think it will all move on Monday like by end of day …. It’s stressful

We turned down Ibstock this morning, great to hear WL is moving now! We had held on bc we had this silly fear that something goes wrong with the admin / acceptance of our first choice. Ibstock sent out an email yesterday asking people to reply asap so that may have prompted some decisions finally.

it’s a really good sign that WLs at several schools are starting to move and there should be much more on Monday morning once Tiffin /HBS offers are out tomorrow afternoon.

best of luck to all those waiting!

@minipie that is really good advice. We had friends last year who had to move at speed and having everything ready to go is really useful.

Also, that very reason explains why decisions take time to trickle through the system - even when people accept, it takes time until everything is checked and the school confirms that all is in order... and then people feel comfortable releasing any outstanding offer.

Alleyns. DD’s preference. Have just turned down Emanuel which was SO hard to do.

@minipie where did you decide in the end?

Yes I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are a bunch of WL offers on Monday.

State school offers knock on, plus a lot of people like us who have found that final decision between their top two really hard. I have just sent the acceptance in but it has been such a difficult choice. I know a few people making their final choice around now.

Plus, something I hadn’t fully appreciated (perhaps stupid of me) - an acceptance requires quite a lot of admin - both parent signatures, birth certificate, passport, medical info if relevant, and of course the hefty deposit - all this can take time to pull together which may add a few days to when people send it in, even after they have decided.

If you are on a WL and may need to decide quickly, suggest having these things to hand and maybe have pre scanned copies!

DD got a waitlist place a few years ago. It was the day after State school offerings and there was a deluge of late acceptances, wait list offerings etc. don't give up yet!

We’ve released G&L today so I hope if anyone here is on WL that it comes to you!