SW London Grammar and private senior school entry 2026

Hi! We are keenly waiting for PHS - excited to know it could be early in the week next week. Two years ago they sent offers on the Thursday before half term

Also- there can be big movement on W/L on state school allocation day particularly on the schools that may have lots of people waiting on Tiffin. And yes to phoning the school if you’re on a WL and are interested. We phoned on state school offer day and got an offer then and there.
And (finally!) we had a few people saying that if someone gets in off the WL they will struggle at the school. Please ignore, it’s rubbish!

Good luck to everyone… a year on here and can absolutely remember the stress of it all. A couple of points -

Prep heads will sometimes get the results earlier, and depending on the nature of the relationships between the schools may know now (as I know they will sometimes have input into who goes on list or w/l depending on other likely offers). It doesn’t ring true for all preps though and definitely depends on school to school relationships.

Some admissions staff will be around half term, but there will likely be a lot of emails etc so don’t expect immediate response. Once they have sent offers and w/l it’s in their interest to make sure any people with offers feel like the school cares. The tables definitely flip at this point - as they are now likely competing with other schools to get your child to go there! Those with W/L for preferred schools definitely ring/contact and tell them you are ready with a deposit of something comes available.

Finally if you child gets an offer for multiple schools and some are safety / just in case ones for you please please turn down the offer/s ASAP. Definitely hold onto offers where you are unsure and want to go to offer holder days. But if you know the school is a no please don’t hold onto it. There will be people where that maybe their first choice on W/L and the quicker you say no the quicker they can have certainty themselves.

Good luck to you all!

Our state school head definitely got some results a few years ago- not sure if they got them from every school. They did ask a few weeks later for all our offers etc but suspect that was to make life easier for the secretary and to ensure none got missed. This was a state school that sends (sent?) a lot to independent secondaries.

Prep heads usually get results day before parents. No idea how that works for state schools but I know this is true in prep schools.

Our primary school (admittedly state not private) definitely doesn’t get notified as the headteacher had to ask parents last year where they had offers from for their reporting. Whether that is different at prep or not I don’t know

Does anyone know if the admissions team work over the half term for queries given that results may arrive on the Friday before and offer holder dates are the week after half term?

That's interesting - I had actually understood that prep heads didn't get results from schools.. they got notifications for 2nd stage exams, interviews, etc. but not admissions results - clearly I was mistaken!

PHS usually sends results early - the Mon/Tues/Wed before half term.
G&L and LEH traditionally the Friday before half-term (along with most other schools for 11+).

Does anyone know when LEH, G&L and Putney High will notify their results?

Of course the schools won’t indicate anything before all results are released, the registrars are professional and this is their job. The biggest “in” is via your prep/primary school head who often gets the results a day in advance of parents.

I'm mildly paranoid that it will somehow annoy them and lead to rejection. Which is objectively ridiculous!

If you have an in and can find out sooner rather than later, why not?! Doesn’t change what anyone else will receive next Friday.

@Somewhereinlondon81 DD1 is already at our favourite school for DD2 and we're going in this evening for parents' evening - it has crossed my mind to ask someone (anyone!) whether DD2 has a place or not! I totally agree - they know by now!

Congratulations and jealousy in equal measure coming from me as well! The wait for the Feb 13th schools feels endless. I have some random connections at two of our favourite schools and am pondering (I think jokingly) contacting them to see if I can be put out of my misery early. I'm sure most of them have long since decided and it's all sitting on a spreadsheet somewhere...

Congratulations to everyone with offers! Must say I’m feeling a bit jealous, I think we get all our results next Friday! :/

yes we got SCHS too. Keeping everything crossed for PHS and JAGS. Feels so long to way till the 12th!

SCHS off for us in this morning (via email) so that is good news. Just waiting on JAGS now.

@Hereweg0again ha same! In fact Surbiton was one of my 2 panic applications in the very last day which annoyingly meant that we weren't able to apply for any scholarships. We're just waiting for Putney, SCHS and Jags now. Putney is my top choice and my dd's (they do gymnastics in addition to being academic and she loves that) but we'll see... Fingers crossed to us all!

@lg1040 quite a few! We panicked a bit but the main ones we're waiting on are LEH, KGS, Putney, Harrodian and Ibstock. What about you?

Thank you @Hereweg0again and congrats to your dd too. Which other schools are you still waiting on ?

Congratulations to your DD @lg1040. We also got an offer today which was such a lovely surprise as we definitely weren’t expecting to hear today! Good luck for the next few weeks!

We got our first offer to Surbiton today which we are delighted with (to put it in perspective my DD didn't get through to the second round of Alleyn's so swings and roundabouts). I feel so relieved to at least have one offer in the bag it almost makes the next 2 weeks bearable. Good luck everyone, at least the weekend is here!

I think some schools say they will post results on the 12th, but emails will also be sent on the 13th. It basically sounds like everything comes out on the 13th aside from a few specific schools who tend to say on their webpage/next steps email if it’s a different date.

My son felt this on the first interview he had; it really threw him off balance as he felt the teacher wasn’t interested in him so he must not have done well in the exam. He then got invited for an academic scholarship interview at the school! I wonder if some teachers are like this when someone has done very well in the exam and they know an offer will be forthcoming (so they’re frustrated because it feels like a waste of their time?). Fingers crossed that’s the case for your DS!