7+ exam

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Anybody taking the 7+ exam this year? I have noticed there isn't a thread on it this year. We are going to be trying for St Paul's and Kings. At the moment we are really struggling with the comprehension. Anybody else in the same boat?

@2minutesplease thanks for sharing your insight after the school tour!

@Jesse21plus could you please let me know what your son preferred at SPJ apart from the engineer room? my son really liked that and the fact that they could watch cartoon during the group assessment as it was pouring rain on that day lol.
My son really liked the open day at WUS so we will see only a few days left :) I also liked the fact that intake is smaller so maybe more nurturing for smaller years.
Any inconvenient for WUS I should be aware of?

@londonswmum DS also loves the huge space and sports ground at SPJ but he also likes WUS open day. To be honest these three schools are so similar in my view so if we are lucky to receive offer from WUS, may just let DS decide :)

@Jesse21plus thanks :) How far are you from the different school. Wus would be less than 20 min journey for us whereas the other would be more 40/45 min.

@londonswmum KCS is 20 min drive for us but think we will have to move home

@Jesse21plus can you tell me why you crossed kings from your list?

Hi All, still waiting here (we are on the waiting list for SPJ). Does anyone know if the waitlist have moved already? or if the school is waiting for the acceptance deadline ? Does anyone know if the number of 70 offers mentioned earlier in this post is true? Our school told us that it is very unlikely they made that much but maybe that was just to reassure me..

Good luck to everyone attending WUS assessment tomorrow.

I started reading ISI reports in the last 5 years for these schools ( When I finish I will share) I also find useful to compare A level results
( very minor or not any differences), university destinations ( as @2minutesplease shared us before thank you ) and the subjects that the children are choosing to study at the university in the last 5 years.

In addition to this WUS doesn’t have a school bus but easy to travel by public transport. The other two have school buses and I think easy to drop or pick by car.
WUS is a small school and the staff seems to know every single child but the class size bigger than other two( 22 WUS, and 18 or later less for others).
Only WUS has a Saturday school.( That is ok for me so I can work half day on Saturdays instead of a full weekday
Girls are joining King’s at the sixth form ( it is very positive for me) also girls are joining WUS at the age of 16.
St Paul’s is on the river side easy to attend rowing club.
St Paul’s and King’s have huge spaces.
All three are competitive on sports and highly academic. I spoke to current parents for these three schools they are equally happy.

Please correct if I am wrong for any of above and feel free to add any small differences you have spotted.

@Jesse21plus Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.

Thanks so much @Curiousma
This is so helpful. Personally I found that buildings were cosier at kings than at St. Paul but was very impressed with the engineer lab at St. Paul. I really liked Mrs shaw approach and thought that she really worked on the nurturing side of the school which was lacking apparently in the last. But with her leaving and Mr snowball replacing her I am not sure what will happen on that front which is so important for me.
Wus intake is lower indeed and as you say you have the impression that everyone knows each boy which is lovely (again for me this nurturing is key).
Exit results in terms of exams are very similar and in any case I found it difficult to compare as there are many other intake points. 8+ 11+ for all three and 9+ and 10+ at kings as well.

@Waitlist1234, we’ll let go our place at St Paul’s this week. Don’t know if the school will wait till the deadline as I’m sure they have placed each candidate according to their ranking (Kings insisted they didn’t have any rankings and that’s why they’ll look into WL after the deadline).
Fingers crossed that you’ll hear good news!

I already mentioned 2 more differences I found out about about Kings and St Paul’s -
King’s is very good at chess - they keep stressing it at open days and all mums I spoke to confirmed it’s one of the school’s strengths. St Paul’s have better results at maths Olympiad in Senior school. However, all parents advised that the strongest chess players at Kings and members of maths Olympiad team at St Paul’s work hard at home and with outside tutors/teachers/coaches.
Because of Hammersmith Bridge closed to traffic Barnes is extremely busy at drop-off/pick up times and it may take much longer to drive there/back.
@londonswmum, I have similar feel about KCS being cosy and warm with plenty of kids’ works on the walls and gorgeous engineer lab at SPS, but a bit stricter feel overall at this school.

10+ at Kings is for state schools only.

@Curiousma thank you for sharing your research and much appreciated!

Also @londonswmum
Our thought is although it’s only 20 min drive to KCS - the traffic around KCS (i.e. Ridgway) could mean it would take longer and we may have to move home anyway. For SPJ, other than space / engineering rooms which DS seems interested, my impression is they put a bit more emphasis on STEM which is DS’s favourite. The other aspects are, again my impression (may not be accurate), SP used to place more students in good US universities and this may reflect their good connections and established experience of their placement office but this might change in a few years time as last year the no of students heading to US are not significantly higher than WUS or KCS. SP senior school also have their new buildings in place and the library looks quite nice …. But guess these may be just marginal difference

@2minutesplease. Thanks for sharing your thoughts which are helpful. On transport wise, based on my limited experience (limited to taking the DS to exams and interviews for these schools), I notice SP have quite a lot school buses and actually when we were there, parking don’t seem a major issue ( can park in the school car park or along the Lonsdale road easily). For KCS, we were a bit late for the interview because of the traffic at Ridgway - not sure always like this or we were just not lucky. For WUS, I gave up trying to drive there but again good public transport access with Pimlico station in 10 min walk. But not sure if the roads will be fully parked as they do look narrow and busy on the day we were there.

Evening all. Just for info for people interested in Kings there is a leaflet online with info on school buses you can find it here : issuu.com/kingscollegeschool/docs/travelling_to_king_s_2020?fr=sMjFhMzE2OTU2Mzc
There are 12 different routes with detailed of all stops :)
Hope this is helpful.

How did everyone feel about the WUS interview?

@muminwood DS said it went ok. How do you feel about it? Have you done your parents interview? I wonder if it is a proper interview for parents or just a friendly chat?

A bit difficult to imagine how parents would be interviewed if the child’s performance won’t be discussed

DS said it was as fine but he was said this so can’t tell anything. Heard they went in group of 3-4 for interview with the head.

From what he’s told me, a few bits seemed intense. Clearly very out of the box and designed to really see which boys are the perfect fit. Interview was in a group of 3. I’m hoping the parent interview is a friendly chat!

It seems to have been ok - I was also surprised at the interview being in a group. We had expected a proper 1:1. Otherwise it seems to have been relatively uneventful (but the degree of detail coming from my DS is very low!!)

Does anyone have their interview on Wednesday?

@puzzledmom Hi Have you done your parents interview today? If you don’t mind to answer was it a proper interview or just a chat?

@Curiousma it was more of a chat; he asked a few questions but just conversational

@puzzledmom Thank you very much for your reply it makes me feel relax. Many thanks

@puzzledmom. If you don’t mind, would the head discuss DS performance so far during the interview? Thank you

@Emily201 there wasn't any talk of DS' performance