Does Greater Depth status matter for Dulwich College 11+ applications?

[Meforthree]

Feeling very stressed about the 11+! And I've just spotted that Dulwich College - our preferred choice - says it prefers boys to be at Greater Depth in English and Maths when applying. My kid isn't but it feels like that sort of thing on a report is a bit subjective - eg at the end of year four he got 136/141 in his English assessment and still wasn't listed on his report as at overall Greater Depth for English (although he was for writing).

Any idea whether the Greater Depth thing really matters?

I think they look at everything. If he scores really well on their assessment that helps. Is your ds doing Atom learning? Ds got a spot there and so did a couple other boys from his year. He was at greater depths, but for a state school. The schools look at the school report, letter from the head and assessment scores for the 11+. Make sure he is scoring well on the online assessment mocks.

As PP mentioned, they consider entrance exam results, reports, and recommendations (as well as the interview at the final stage).

So I imagine reports will make a difference unless entry test scores are tremendous. Best to ask his current teacher for their opinion and also what he needs to achieve greater depth (particularly if he's scoring high). It was my son's state school teacher who recommended we look at Dulwich.

Edited to add: the writing part is the part that really matters and isn't part of Atom prep. So it's great that this is already at greater depth. The rest will be SPAG and I think that's the easier stuff to prep for.

This is interesting - what makes you think the writing is most important?

I wonder if greater depth is a different thing between schools (esp from state to independent)? Looking at some of these responses, it feels like some of the stuff my DS is doing in other subjects would be considered greater depth elsewhere. (Eg I notice at one point on Dulwich admission pages they say Greater Depth OR standardised scores of 120+ - my DS consistently gets 129ish or even 130s, which puts him in the top 2pf of the country I think, but isn’t listed as greater depth.)

The entry exam includes a timed creative writing section. So the ability to craft a compelling narrative is super important. Of course there's a natural ability required for the reasoning, as well as maths and SPAG sections. But those areas can be "drilled" to improve as there's always a correct answer. But writing is a lot harder to study for so having mastery is a big tick mark.

(My son only did a month of Atom to get familiar with the test formats so I'm not sure about scores or numbers. I focussed on the line to make sure he was improving and meeting/exceeding the threshold they suggested)