SHHS (South Hampstead High School) 7+ entry

[Ma1234]

Hello. Are there any other parents with daughters who will sit the South Hampstead High School 7+ exams this week? Would love to have this discussion open for the whole process until January to try to gauge the feelings after the exams / how many candidates they are expecting / how many will be going to round 2 and so on

Hi there,
we are sitting the exam remotely (from the US) this week! Hugely under prepared for it though and not expecting to get through the first round, unfortunately. How is your daughter feeling?

Didn’t know they did remote tests. How convenient for you! Assuming the 2nd round would be f2f?

I can’t say our daughter is super prepared in the same sense as I’m sure some of the girls will be. She had no tutor, the whole idea of taking the 7+ was to avoid all the stress and pressure of the 11+, so we thought tutoring her would defeat the purpose. I have been told by various people not tutoring for this is a mistake - I guess we will find out soon enough…

She is bright and enjoys maths and reading and is at prep school atm. Her school doesn’t prepare the kids for 7+ though, as they go up to 11+.
I got her all excited about the prospect of checking out the SHHS playground ;-). Though she’s a bit apprehensive about going there and not knowing anyone. I am guessing there will be a big cohort of girls from schools like Hampstead Hill who will all know each other.

Is your daughter going to school in the US atm?

Yes, the second round would be face-to-face… if we make it!! But the US curriculum is quite a long way behind the UK one at this age group, so I really hope they take that into account. We’ve had tutoring to get her up-to-speed: but it’s still isn’t the same as having been taught the material first hand in school. I also have an older daughter applying for 11+ entry, so need both girls into the same school, ideally - or at least a combo that could logistically work for four years, until my youngest is at 11+ stage.

Yes, we’ll find out soon enough!! I wonder when they let people know if they’ve made the second round? Are you applying to other schools for 7+ too? With us moving back to the UK, the one advantage we have is that we’re not hampered by geography, so have been able to apply to several schools across London - but we used to live in Hampstead so know this is an area we really like.

Many years ago my daughter sat the 7+ for SHHS from the US! I also worried about the discrepancy in teaching but I took the approach that she was a bright young thing and so if it was meant to be she’d get in. It turns out that was right and she did and spent many happy years there. The only issue was the time between finding out she’d got through and needing to rearrange work to get on a plane for the second stage.

Good luck to you both. DD was super happy there and left with excellent results and even happier memories.

Oh that’s very reassuring to hear, thank you! Yes, I’m adopting a similar philosophy too - if it’s the school for her then they’ll accept her. She’s a smart girl and comes with a fantastic school report, but the school will decide whether she’s a good fit for them I guess. Luckily, we’re able to make definite plans for London now as some of her other assessments are in person in January, and round two would fall in the same window of time, if she makes it, so that wouldn’t be an issue. Does anyone have any idea what the stats are for 7+ entry? How many applicants apply for the 24 places, or what percentage they typically take through to round 2?

The e-mail last week said they would tell us next week already if she goes through to round 2! Which is amazing speed

And Re your logistics: there are so many schools in Hampstead within a mile off each other I would imagine it won’t be difficult to find a year 3 entry prep school. Many girls leave at this stage for the likes of SHHS and Highgate or City of London juniors, so a number of prep schools will have openings. So if your older daughter gets the 11+ SHHS place, I’d consider calling around the preps in the neighbourhood. I see a lot of families with kids in different school uniforms in the mornings.

We only applied for SHHS for now. Depending on how round 1 goes, we may consider Highgate too. Or city of London. But they are my backup options (more from the logistics point of view than anything else)

Oh wow, that's amazing news! Thanks so much for sharing this info. I didn't receive an email, presumably it was about the arrangements for the assessment, but SHHS have been liaising directly with my daughter's current school about that, so I haven't heard anything from them for a while. It will be so good to know one way or the other how she got on - for both logistical reasons and my own sanity!!
Have you heard much about the Creative Writing element of the test? All I know is that it's 45 minutes, but don't know whether it's a picture prompt, 'continue a story', 'write about a time when...' etc.

Also, that's great advice re finding a Year 3 space for my younger daughter if she doesn't get in. That's the reassuring thing: she has a second shot at 11+! We would also have applied to CLSG, but they wouldn't let the girls sit the tests remotely, and it was too much to bring them back to the UK just for one-off tests. Need to get myself a bottle of something cold and fizzy for Friday night - either to celebrate it going well or to drown my sorrows while I research alternative schools! 😆

Just sent you a PM @louiseCasey

Haha, yes, definitely a glass of something. I doubt I will be able to get anything reliable / indicative out of my daughter after the assessment. She will either say she doesn’t remember, or that it went awful (even if it goes amazingly well - if she feels there was one Q she didn’t know how to answer), or the other way around :-). I’m glad they said they will let us know in the week of the 13th and we can either move on with our life, or know there’s more to come.
I tried to gauge how many candidates there are going to be. As per my AI search the number may range from 120-220 for the 7+ entry point. And approx half of them are meant to get the invite to round 2. Then apparently they tend to over-offer by about 150% (as all schools do) - knowingly that some girls will get 3 offers or so