7+ 2024/25 - Final Part

[Caps44]

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How have your children’s peers performed this year? I am hearing from other parents in our current pre-prep that this year’s competition was particularly hard, and know quite a few children who either have not been offered anything or are waitlisted.

@Caps44 I was there too. I love the Head at City! V intense process this year with 3 hour exam, then 2 hour activity day, and yes they have learnt their lesson and not over offered this year. Appears there are about 80 or so offers max. Very very impressed with clubs and extra curriculars. It will be a tough decision either way.

@FutureWestLondonMommy Do you have both City and Latymer offer?
What do you think about these two schools?

@FutureWestLondonMommy do you know what made them offer less this year? I assume plenty of movement on the WL!

Spoke to our Prep Head this morning and he mentioned same thing, schools are not over offering as much any more, as some schools had to open up extra classes! This year expect a lot more movement from the WL.

City seems great. Only trying to understand how they justify their fees though?

Is there a coach that runs from North London to the school?

Would just feel guilty for DS to sit on a coach 2 hours a day!

@familyguy83 1 hour each way is a lot. If you have Highgate / Habs which should be nearer, then I would suggest those. Plus you have the additional benefit of on site facilities.

Makes sense. Thanks @Caps44

Difficult to make the best decision for your DS future.

Habs would be also long coach journey for us.

I heard from multiple sources that Highgate and also South Hamstead had a spike in the applications this year, it seems like the VAT rise has a bit of an opposite effect on super selective schools as supposedly a large number of kids from non-selective preps sat 7+ (perhaps parents want to justify paying the fees in that way). My niece sat a few selective schools and got offers from South Hamstead, City, and Latymer but Reserve List on Highgate and its their first choice, so they are anxiously waiting for RL movement. From the cohort of kids who sat 7+ in her prep school this year quite a few got City offers but all got either RL or rejection from Highgate (no offers), South Hamstead at least got a couple of offers but the rest is a mix of rejection and WL.

I think city is a great school. Really good pastoral and ethos. Based on other parents I think this year was very tough. Especially Highgate.

does anyone have the detailed 2024 SHHS exit (a levels and uni) results? I just saw the stats but not the uni by uni subject by subject breakdown they have for 2023 and earlier..

Apologies, I don't have the answer to your question, but would be grateful if you could share a link to the 2023 university stats you mentioned

DD is at a non-selective N London girls' prep and a handful of the year group did the 7+ (not DD, we are happy for her to just do the 11+ in a few years). None of them have got a place and they will be staying at our school unless a WL place comes up. It seems that Highgate was very tough. None of them applied for the more distant schools like Habs or NLCS.

Very difficult for one family as their younger daughter is at Highgate having done the 4+, but the older daughter didn't get in at 7+ so they will be stuck doing a long school run across town and potentially clashing events.

Yes there are two coaches from North London. 1h is much but we resigned to the fact that it’s kind of always the case when going to these types of schools. And I wouldn’t pick one school over another if the bus is 45min vs 1h.

DS has offers from city and Habs at 7+. Both are commutable using the coach although Habs is harder to get to for parent events. Is it true that the standard of academics has gone down at Habs and city is doing better now? Main attraction of Habs are the campus/ on -site facilities while for city, it is the diversity and potentially better reputation? Grateful for any feedback.

@JustNewt If you look at Highgate, Habs, City, SHHS, NLCS, UCS etc..they tend to get roughly the same % into Oxbridge give or take.
Commute, facilities, co-ed or not should be the main considerations as results and academics are much of muchness.

+1 This. The schools are similar in academic rigour, GSCE/A levels result and Oxbridge offers (give or take, with little variations from year to year), and the type of students attending. In terms of diversity, there is also very little variations. All schools are generous on bursaries (City and Highgate in particular).

My DN haven't heard from Highgate RL yet. We are slowly losing hope:( I think they put more stringent acceptance bar this year, there are even cases of WUS St Paul Kings offers and Highgate RL-ed those candidates. The rumor mill went around that given the current year is the same year Young Royal will be in (if they end up choosing Highgate which I doubt!), they have raised the bar.

The entry requirements are not academic, as in I think you have to get a minimum, but then no idea what they look for. We know WUS offers who have been WL at Highgate this year.

Latymer have been incredibly incredibly selective as well! Observations: excellent cohort of kids (and parents) and much tougher schools. We were shocked to hear the stats.

They could have raised this minimum % ( or bar) to pass in the Comprehension/math etc? they also said an exceptionally large number of candidates applied this year for 7+ so perhaps they had a bigger pool of kids to choose from, also the last minute news about royalty visiting Highgate didnt help at all:( My niece said the first round was more difficult than SH and other selective schools she sat (and got straight offers from!) I'm not sure how they chose but interestingly few kids we know who got offers are state-educated and exceptionally bright (geeky type kids) also they were not even North London-based. Anyways, we are hoping for some movement after the acceptance deadlines pass.

Any comments on Latymer VS City ?
We are struggling to choose between two for my DD.
Thank you so much.

@FutureWestLondonMommy How can we find out the stats? I am curious about how many applicants Latymer had this year and how many offers were given. Thanks for sharing!

You can call the school registrar. There are only 44 spots and 25% are bursary spots.

@wisdomdreamer The feeling from our prep head is that they are not after the top academic kids. He said that the papers are not so difficult so many do well and once above the minimum, then they base everything on the 2nd round. WUS offers did not get firm offers from Highgate. This 100% the case for Highgate - judging by who got offers and who didnt.