Do private schools favour state school applicants for 11+ (SW London)?

[karmi2010]

Just wanted to get opinions/experience really... sorry for the long post

DD is in state primary at the moment and not getting much education as I am a single mum working full time from home in a quite demanding and time consuming role. We are in a grammar area my I don't think DD will be a good fit for the grammar (she is smart but more into sports/drama/arts than academics). I am also strongly into co-ed schools.

So my plan was for her to get into co-ed private schools at 11+ -Alleyns (long shot), Caterham, Kingston Grammar, Freemens or possibly Epsom/St Johns (not sure as a bit too expensive).

Having done homeschooling for the last year (on and off) now, I realise that I will struggle to properly tutor myself or even insist on doing the homework set by the tutor ((

So keep thinking now whether I should move DD to a nearby not selective prep school?

I can afford it (but only just), and hopefully they will do the 11+ prep for me and she will get slightly more all round education and more sport/music/art but it will be much less convenient to commute there and I will be spending the money that I could otherwise save for the secondary school in case she only gets into the more expensive Epsom College/St John's and I need to top up what I can afford from my salary monthly...

With my job, when I am back in the office DD will be at school and afterschool until 6.30pm every day, so realistically we won't be able to do much 11+ prep outside school and DD won't be able to compete properly with the prep school candidates, but I read somewhere that private school consider prep and state school candidates separately and state schools need less marks to achive on exams to get offers (in which case moving DD to a non-selective ordinary prep school won't do her any favour as she will be compared against the kids from selective academic preps, and staying in her state school is a better strategy as she will be compared against kids from similar state schools)?

Anyone has any views? Thanks very much!

But NB not all schools are the same. The poster above who also works in admissions says that their school would not work in the same way as ours. My advice would be to talk to the admissions departments in the schools you're interested in. They won't give you a categorical answer on the exact degree to which they "positively discriminate', but you should be able to get a sense of how they regard state school applications, and hopefully some advice on the process for a non-prep school applicant. You'd certainly get a very positive response from us (sadly you won't, as we're not in your area)

Hampton told us at the interview stage that they do take state school applicants into account, along with everything else including the child's age. They said that this was also particularly because the last two years have been so challenging re Covid and they were interviewing more boys than usual because of it.

@tentooneon

NC in case outing, but I work at a very academically selective private school. Yes, there are definitely allowances made for state school applicants. It's not an actual pool or percentage - but we are looking for potential rather than just a straight top slice of exam scores, so would 'make allowances' if we felt that a state school child had real potential. We would also allow for the fact that we're less likely to get a polished reference from the current school, and that the candidate may be less confident in interviews.

At which stage do you think you can spot potential which doesn't show up in the numbers? Only after the interview?

No, not just after interviews. Potential can show up in entrance assessments, which are not necessarily just about raw scores (depends on your exam format). There might be other evidence, like results from other assessments taken at primary school. A child's school reports and headteacher references (which might not be polished, but can be very revealing). All sorts of things, which you can put together to build a picture of a candidate before you get to interviewing them.

@tentooneon

No, not just after interviews. Potential can show up in entrance assessments, which are not necessarily just about raw scores (depends on your exam format). There might be other evidence, like results from other assessments taken at primary school. A child's school reports and headteacher references (which might not be polished, but can be very revealing). All sorts of things, which you can put together to build a picture of a candidate before you get to interviewing them.

As someone who came from a state primary I find this interesting

I’m also finding this interesting. I have 2 dds, one at a SS indie and one going through the process right now. Both at state primary, with no CAT scores and no reference.

The older interviews very well, the younger one is stronger across the board academically but is very shy indeed, plus she missed out on lots of teaching because of covid. I’m biting my nails here waiting to see if she gets offered the same school as her sister.

I would caution looking very closely at the independent prep before committing to fees. Some preps do a very thorough job of preparing children for exams, some are more focussed on the extracurriculars and about making sure the children at the lower academic end are included in all the curriculum, which may mean that brighter children are left to be brought on further by their parents.

When we visited Alleyn's someone asked the question re % from state and the answer was approx 50% from prep schools and the other 50% state and their own junior school, so think that the actual percentage from state is much lower than 50% as the junior kids automatically carry on to seniors.

This is great to know, thanks so much. My daughter, state school educated is going through it all now.