Sir William Perkins’ or St George’s, Weybridge?

[Tenthouseandspoon]

Hello, we’re looking at both of these schools and wonder if there is anyone on here who has children at either and might be able to give their opinions, please? There are a few other threads with posters giving mixed reviews but these are based on things they’ve heard as opposed to first hand knowledge. Particularly interested in anyone with sons who have attended SWPS in the new co-ed system and how that has been? We’re coming from state, so anyone who has navigated that would also be brilliant to hear from. Many thanks!

We have a daughter at Swps (so may not be helpful to you) but I’ve got nothing but positive things to say. Excellent pastoral, nice girls and staff who are on it. It’s been a fabulous school for us

Thank you for that, @incognito119that’s lovely to hear. Can I ask how your daughter found the interview and entrance exam and also if you happen to know roughly the ratio of girls to boys this year? Thank you.

My sons went to St George's and the girls went to SWPS. I liked the girls going to a girls' school rather than co-ed, but that has changed now with boys just starting at SWPS. However, I suspect it will be a while before boys really impact SWPS, if ever.

St George's has better facilities, if that matters to you.

@Tenthouseandspoon she found it straight forward and the school were very good through the process.
My daughter is further up the school now but she says there are approx 30 boys in year 7 this year so it seems that their marketing has paid off. This is just under half of the year group.
Swps are number 68 in parent power league for results this year and have had another great set of results.
For pastoral and academic support I would sing its praises all day long

@CraftyGinand @incognito119Thank you both for your replies and I’m so pleased to hear positive accounts of both. My son’s first preference is St George’s but I think both look great. He’s been getting on ok with practice papers but it’s mad how much of it isn’t on the state school curriculum, so I’m concerned about how much of a disadvantage this will be. The admissions team at SWPS said they prefer people not to be tutored but that does seem unfair if he’s unfamiliar with some of the questions due to attending a state school… although perhaps that’s factored in? This is all very new to us so just hoping we can give him the best opportunity of being accepted at at least one of them 🤞

@Tenthouseandspoon good luck with the process - it seems brutal when you’re in the thick of it.

Do you have a back up school? Most children doing the 11+ will have 3/4 schools they are applying for - 1 is aspirational, 2 is the one you should get an offer from and 3 is the banker which is the school that you’ll definitely get in to if you underperform others.

Thanks @incognito119🙂 I’ve found it quite hard to gauge the likelihood of acceptance at each school, as I’ve not been able to get an answer from any in terms of average number of applicants etc - St George’s were particularly evasive and reading between the lines suggested that VAT means that the number of applicants is decreasing significantly.

My son has consistently been at the top of his class academically throughout primary but no students have gone on to private schools (in that they’ve not applied in the first place) so it’s also difficult to estimate if being top at his particular school will be enough…

If you are close enough to Swps and St George’s, I would also suggest Halliford (its boys only though so might now be your thing) Their entrance process is much more gentle . You are right though - VAT has meant that places are not as sort after as they once were and your likelihood of a place is higher. Most schools will consider that a child has come
from state as opposed to private preparedness and take that in to account.

Thank you - we looked at Halliford and thought it was great (plus that one is actually in walking distance) but ultimately decided that co-ed was more important to us / our son than private per se. Hopefully his ‘raw’ enthusiasm and ability will indeed be taken in to account!

My DD had applied to SWPS around 10 years ago and it was pretty much a shoo in. The process was pretty much non-selective. In today’s climate with VAT most schools in that area would be mad to refuse a fee paying customer/student. I think you’ll get into all 3 with very little prep.

I’ve had a daughter and two sons at St George’s and overall we’ve had a positive experience. DD actually moved there from SWPS 3rd year, mainly because she was very sporty and St George’s was a better fit for her, although there was absolutely nothing wrong with SWPS, this was a few years ago as she is currently in her second year of uni.

My two boys are currently at St George’s and both have been very happy there. Sorry I can’t really help with the current admissions process as my youngest is already in 3rd year, so it’s a several years since we went through it although I know of a child recently who didn't get offered a place in 1st year as didn't pass the exam so not sure if they were accepting everyone who can pay.

As the PP said Halliford is a great second option too if local and definitely less competitive, well it used to be anyway.

If your DS is at the top of the class in his primary school, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

SWPS has traditionally taken pupils that are in the top 50 - 55% of their cohort (ie average and above).

When my DSs were at St George's, they said at the time that, for Year 7 (110 students), 1/3 of the students came from their own prep school, 1/3 from other prep schools, and 1/3 from primary schools (the ratios were not set in stone - just how it worked out). The also added on 44 students from Common Entrance in Year 9 (pass mark 65%).

Thanks so much to you all for your feedback and support. I’ve just spoken to the tutor who has been helping us this term with any non-curriculum bits and she believes that St George’s won’t account for the fact that he’s at a state school but rather they take the highest 11+ marks until reaching their quota. I now have massive mum guilt for not having started with all of this earlier as, on the one hand I wanted him to get in to a school where he can keep up and therefore intense tutoring for an exam felt pointless if there was a risk that he could then struggle once there. On the other hand, I hadn’t realised quite how much of the exam is outside the state curriculum and now feel like he’s at a huge disadvantage. He’s bright but obviously anyone would struggle with phrases or concepts they’ve never come across. Ultimately, we can only do what we can to support him between now and the exams and we’ll just have to see what happens. It’s reassuring, though, to have positive feedback of both schools if he is accepted, thank you.

If it's any help on the day of his exam one of my DS completely freaked out and couldn't finish, I had to pick him up early. This was both for the St George's and Halliford 11+. We still don't know why this happened but he was able to resit the entire thing for both schools (yes we had two takes at two schools🤦).
When your child is accepted you will never know what grades they got in the exam btw.
What I'm trying to say is the admissions process does have compassion for circumstances where needed so don't worry too much, it does sound like your DS is bright and the schools will be able to see this. My child who thought he couldn't finish the 11+ is now applying to Oxford.

What have you been told about aspects of the exam that are not covered by the state curriculum? Surely, they only expect the student to have concepts that they have been taught for the Key Stage 2 curriculum. He will be well drilled on this for his SATS, even by January.

If you want him to do some extra practice, then get a few Bond papers.

@EverybodysinthehousetonightI’m so pleased that your son was well supported in those instances, that’s really reassuring, thank you. Huge congratulations for the progress he’s clearly made, too! Did he enjoy his time at school? Our biggest reason for private is that we hope he will have (mostly!) enjoyable experiences and opportunities, to want to attend school and not be discouraged for a love of learning. A bright child will, I think, be ok anywhere but if he can thrive rather than survive then that would be fantastic.

@CraftyGinVerbal and non verbal reasoning are completely new (although luckily he’s taken to these very quickly) as is algebra. They’re only just touching on things like probability in school now, but the 11+ exams are in November and December. The SPAG questions are all very similar to what is taught in KS2, but the 11+ texts used for comprehension are vastly more complicated and therefore a lot of the language unfamiliar. There are also a lot of questions specifically designed to catch children out - not a bad way to test their knowledge but I’d say this again is a level of complexity they’re not used to.

We’ve been working through some Collins and CGP 11+ books but will look at the Bond ones too, thank you.

@CraftyGinI would also add that exam practice and the speed this requires isn’t part of the state curriculum, or at least hasn’t been so far. They’re working towards SATs now but won’t ramp up with things like practice papers and pacing until after Christmas, which is obviously too late for us.

Swps doesn’t do VR and NVR - their exam is
a more straight forward maths and English papers - have you printed off the exam papers that are on the schools website? These will give you a good indication of any gaps in learning. Just remember they don’t expect the candidates to be able to answer all the questions , a lot of them will be stretch questions

@incognito119You’re absolutely right in relation to SWPS. The St George’s one is more complicated so we’ve been more focused on that, but it’s good to be reminded that he should be ok with the SWPS one. That exam is first, too, so will hopefully give him some confidence before sitting the next one.

The schools will be well aware of the primary school KS2 curriculum, and won't expect him to answer questions on concepts that haven't been taught.

My DD sat the st George’s entrance exam last year. She got in. She was at a primary state school. Very little prep, just had a weekly tutor the term before the exam to practice the exam Technique and wording as that helps what to focus on.
also the NVR. She’d never done that before but once you highlight the patterns she got it pretty quickly.

she was near the top of her large primary school in achievement. Scored greater depth for all subjects and got scores of approx 115-118 in her SATS.

don’t panic! Honestly we found it a very chilled process
as she’s a capable child. Sounds like your son is too.

good luck.

@LifepolicyThat is hugely reassuring, thank you! I hope she’s settled in well to the school.

Yes, he's still there actually, in L6 so final two years, younger one in 3rd year (y9). Apart from COVID years for DD they all had great trips and experiences for learning and sports.

@EverybodysinthehousetonightThat’s great and a testament to the experience that he’s stayed on for 6th form too. I can only imagine how challenging and frustrating to Covid years must have been.