SW London Grammar and private senior school entry 2026

That’s true but the volume of applications that the school gets is also much higher than others because of the 1 in 4 chance of getting a bursary. Many parents who would not think of private otherwise but have a bright child will take a chance on Latymer Upper because there is a 25% chance of them getting a bursary if they get accepted.

the main reason the queues for LU are so long is that 80% of parents are incapable of following instructions and arriving at the suggested time. I remember when we came for our 8:30 slot it looked packed but as I arrived just in time, they fast tracked us ahead of all the people with 10am slots who were already queuing completely unnecessarily. If they suggest you come at 8, just come at 8 and it will be totally fine.

Is anyone else trying for Radnor House? We've been successful in the first round and wondered if anyone has experience of what the "classroom activity" will be in January...?
We were unsuccessful with Kingston Grammar, other schools are Surbiton & St Catherine's

DD came out very happy and confident. Given how hard Latymer exams usually are (and she generally finds them) I have no idea what that means. She is generally overly optimistic. But maybe it's reassuring for the afternoon crowd!

Fingers crossed and best of luck to all! Nervously waiting for our post-lunch slot :/

My DD is there today and it’s her first choice. Fingers and toes crossed for all of you! And yes we find out next week about second stage so won’t be in suspense for too long!

Good luck! You are lucky to live close to the school. We are not too far, but with traffic it can take a while.

Our session was 8am arrival for an 8:30 exam. We live nearby and half the kids from my daughter's state school class are sitting this exam despite the school generally sending almost no one to private secondary. (In some ways I find that reassuring - but it's also unhelpful because it means it's the only school DD feels familiar with and hence she's super keen on it!)

We’re not! Best of luck! 🤞🏽

Oh wow, has the first session already started queuing!?

Thank you! That queue is bonkers! DD asked if we should have camped out all night. Anyone on here not sitting for LU?

Good luck to the ones doing the Latymer Exam today! DS gets the day off because of it :)

I remember one great thing is Latymer gives the results pretty quick. I assume the same for this year.

Sounds like an excellent way to celebrate end of exams! A bit jealous as we can’t do the same until January 🤪

ISEB today for us - all our schools are ISEB so it did feel a LOT like all our eggs are in one basket, but all done now and none of our schools have a post-exam interview stage so trying not to think about it until February now!

DD thinks it went well, but that could mean anything so who knows! I came straight back from dropping her and cancelled our Atom subscription, which felt quite satisfying, and I might go and chuck the Bond books out now!

Haha! She missed on the lip balm but got a water bottle - they definitely do the merch very well! Also busy ripping up papers and having a very enjoyable clear out as we speak! :)

@Seasaltlady Well done for getting through to the last exam and sounds like your DD did brilliantly. Mine was very happy to leave with a new lip balm - LEH know how to appeal to girls. We just threw away the last of the 11+ material, very therapeutic!

Sadly no advantages for us and this was probably the paper we were least prepared for as I had no idea what to expect and not having any past papers to go by was hardly helpful. But thankfully my daughter seemed to breeze through and came out feeling confident - she was pleased to see VR especially the code breaking ones which she loves and the maths she thought was as expected from the revision we had done. So I’m hoping we should be ok! Last one yesterday so we are done - SO GLAD this is over!!

@SamPoodle123 thank you, I'm sure you are correct that there must have been other girls that knew the topic from tutors but it was just a shock that it was recycled exactly the same

@Dontknowmuchanymore I'm sure that she has done better than she thinks! I thought it would be questions like in the EPP Problem Solving pack but actually was more VR and the Maths similar to Sutton grammars stage 2. It's been a long journey so far so enjoy the December break before the next assessments/interviews in Jan

@HanSB my daughter actually found it quite tricky and said it wasn’t like any of the problem solving type questions we had practiced! More VR and worded Maths. The creative writing she said was ok but god knows what she actually wrote! It’s definitely the worst reaction to an exam she’s had! Although I think she may have been fed up and over it all as it’s the last one.

It wasn’t a first exam for my son - he found it very similar to the online papers which he found fairly straightforward. I think it helped that he had prepped for Tiffins which (for maths particularly) he found to be much more challenging. It’s not necessarily an indication of how he has done though as he can often make silly mistakes if he thinks it’s easy! It also sounds like Emanuel did a great job of keeping them fairly relaxed and making it as enjoyable an experience as it can be

TBH I am sure many girls are aware of this CW topic. Tutors out there keeping tabs of the different topics that come up in the exams. Schools tend to follow on what they did previous, not exactly, but in some way. We never applied to LEH, but speaking from experience in what I have seen from other schools and asking around in years to follow.

@Seasaltlady @Dontknowmuchanymore how did your DDs get on at LEH today? I wasn't expecting any VR in the paper and the Maths was more typical standard worded format rather than actual Problem Solving Maths.

My daughter ended up having an unfair advantage as a friend told us the Creative writing topic from 3 years ago so she practiced it yesterday and the exact same topic was recycled today!

It was really busy, not sure how many girls sat the exam? There were at least 3 seatings, we were at 9.30am and there was one before and one after us

Sorry - cross posted with the same question. DD thought it was surprisingly easy, but she's prone to both optimism and rushing/being a bit slapdash! Sounds like others may have thought the same though? Or is it that it's a first exam for lots of them and they'd built it up in their heads?

My son found the VR the hardest of the 3, but came out feeling positive (and loved the lunch!)