I'm a weeny bit cross that there hasn't been a SW/W London Independent schools thread this yr.

[SonorousBip]

Every blinking year there is one - and I read, and nod, and note. Sometimes they go on for months and pages. But this year, when I'm actually doing it - pah, not a sausage.

If anyone wants to do a last minute SPGS/Latymer/Godolphin/ KGS/LEH/WHS/PHS thread, please do! (disclaimer - I'm not doing all of those.). But views welcome. Because I've got several days to form my final views

According to dd (in U6th form now so won't affect us) i think there are moves afoot again at LEH to change both the uniform and the 6th form dress code.

Yes I heard the new LEH head is tackling the uniform head on!

Parents' position on Uniform often seems to vary depending on the distance students have to commute. Nearby parents want something that will impress the neighbours. Those further away don't want something that shrieks "private school". The pattern seems to be that the former start the debate but the public transport users win it.

As for non uniform, stand outside SPGS in summer. Those shorts could not be any shorter, and in some cases simply are not suitable daytime wear in a city, let alone at school. When they turn up at a sports tournament or something as a group, the girls can look unkempt and unloved and somehow pityable. That said the ones who get it right, and in our experience it is the girls with French links, they are seriously chic - a real life skill. Perhaps Europeans do casual dressing better than us, so don't need uniforms?!

I think that's true about french kids needmoresleep. There certainly is no competition and being Catholic (in name) schools can impose rules such as no shorts above knee, no bare shoulders, no heels. Seems to work well. I was surprised.

Thinking about it, if you go past Lycee Francais CDG at kicking out time, the Lycee kids have evolved their own uniform on the lines you describe. The other noticeable thing is how many seem to light up a cigarette as soon as they are out of school doors.

The last Head at LEH came in saying she was going to tackle the uniform head on and got as far as the skirt. It will be a test of the new one's charisma and ability to command respect, but already she has introduced a parental agreement which makes some of the shenanigans some pupils get up to (at all schools) explicitly the grounds for being expelled.

The Head before last at LEH once came on stage in one assembly dressed in the uniform as a typical transgressor, short short skirt, laddered black tights, sweat shirt with frayed holes through the sleeves for resting your thumbs, pashmina. She was very tall and had a very dry sense of humour, and just stood there stone faced for five minutes whilst the school fell about. She didn't change the uniform but the girls really liked and respected her. When she retired she bemoaned the fact that she never had won on the uniform issue and wondered whether she should have posted pictures around the school of her in her school uniform in the 60s to undermine the coolness of wearing short skirts (she probably was no stranger to a Gauloise either.....)

I think wherever they draw the line on uniform it will be pushed as far as they can get away with, hence at some of the schools where the sixth form are supposed to dress as if for work, it is a more draconian form of dress code than any industrial tribunal would see as reasonable eg plain cotton shirts, no spots, stripes or patterns........

This was DD last year and just popped in to say good luck to all your DCs and try not to get too sucked in by the panic and scare stories when you are waiting for results.

DD is so happy at her new school it almost makes up for the stress of waiting.

good to hear how happy your DD is cake, a year on and the pain must be a distant memory!

ditto cake, I was in a nervous shredded heap this time last year. Things didn't pan out as I had originally thought (my DS sat 4, and we ended up taking what had originally been my bottom choice).

He couldn't be happier, is doing well academically and has the nicest group of friends. I am over the moon about how it has all worked out.

Do hang in there, and don't set your mind on something (oh the tears when we got the first rejection). The worst part was getting 2 rejections a week ahead of 2 acceptances, it was hard for DC to overcome the disappointment in that week of waiting.

But I am a firm believer that it really all does work out for the best - and I am not just saying that, DS really couldn't be in a better place.

Reporting back from the scholarship exam: not a shiny badge in sight and plenty of state school and non white pupils. Good to see.

sanaya123 at KGS there is no (And never has been) a scholarship waiting list . I asked. Just one set of scholarship offers.

Agreed amidaiwish re shiny badges, etc.

As a secondary school teacher (male) in the state sector, I have followed this thread with interest! There I was, thinking the 11 plus was all about Maths and English... But no - this year it all seems to have descended into "Uniform Gate"!

What I find astonishing is that (some) of you are so quick to judge children coming from the very same education system that you are obviously so desperate to get into! The only difference between you and "the shiny badges" is that they joined the curve a few years earlier. By next September, nobody will be able to tell your children apart from those whom you are so quick to make judgements about on these pages.

There are good prep schools and others that are decidedly average - just in the same way as state schools. Count yourselves lucky that you have obviously got state primaries in your area that you are happy with - not everybody has.

There are so many factors determining success or otherwise at 11 plus. I would argue that having a parent who is interested and bothers to research the 11 plus curriculum etc is far more important than the school they are coming from. Those "shiny badges" will be children with the same insecurities, ethnic diversities, quirks and learning difficulties as your own.

You can not claim the moral high ground simply for having experienced the state primary sector. The fact that you are now considering sending your children to private secondaries means that you are just as privileged as everyone already in it (maybe you've just saved a bit more money along the way)?

When your children are swanning around Kingston in their Kingston Grammar uniforms, I only hope that parents with children in the local state secondaries will not be as judgemental about you!

Lose the bags of chips mums - you're just as ambitious for your kids as any prep mum and well you know it!

Excellent. Well said!

Yes I certainly am as ambitious for my kids as any prep mum.
What would make you think otherwise? Why would I be willing to fork out otherwise?
The shiny badges comment was meant to be tongue in cheek but it is quite intimidating to come across kids in full almost ceremonial dress for an exam. The number of badges on some of them was actually bordering on ridiculous.

Phew! DD invited to Art interview this Saturday so has obviously done enough in the entrance exams.

I know KGS pride themselves on having a huge state-school intake, so it wouldn't surprise me if they actively favour state school pupils for academic scholarships, given the supposed advantages a prep school primary education is supposed to give (preparation vs 'natural ability' and all that! Not that there won't be scores of state primary children who have had intensive tutoring but that's another issue...). If it's true that they have had a lot of people turning down scholarships in the past, they might also be looking for the brightest cookies who haven't applied to many other schools or who they already accepted at 10+ (and therefore have a baseline for progress made and proof of strong parental commitment to the school already) in order to have best chance of gaining an acceptance.

However the children are chosen, they obviously get it right because it seems to be a very happy school where the academic results are very good and the co-curricular life of the school clearly very active.

As lolteacher says, once you start Y7 (sorry...Y1) no one cares where you went to primary school and they all end up as extremely privileged senior school children anyway! Especially ones who can afford to live in Kingston!

Has anyone had a call for an ordinary interview at KGS yet? I'm sure we'd heard by now when DS did it.

Lolteacher. - you really cannot compare the uniform of KGS with the sort of prep school ones we are talking about. All the independent secondaries I know locally have very down to earth uniforms. The type of prep uniforms I am talking about are totally pretentious - check out Garden House coat and beret, as mentioned earlier. Or Hill House knickerbocker and jumper combo. Or pastel coloured blazers in finest wool (not sure which school). No child needs to be trussed up in a felt hat or velvet beret, do they really? All for show, IMHO.

So Lolteacher - you've come on the thread to lecture us then? You've nothing helpful to add, nor does it appear that you a child going through the 11+.

Just lecturing us.

Castles - when ds sat 4 years ago we heard from Hampton and KGS on the same day - equivalent to today in terms of number of days after the exams.

Castles I don't know anyone who has been called yet and 20+ in my school sat it. I'll let you know when the calls start!

And lolteacher - if I am judging anyone it is the schools, not the children.

lolteacher (mansplaining) doesn't appear to grasp that 'peculiarly uniformed' is not a descriptor of all private schools. Perfectly possible to be goggle-eyed at the extremes, whichever sector your DC is currently in.

Also, he's overlooked that this is a SW London thread. I'm not sure any of the preps in that area are 'decidedly average'.

I'm wondering if his secondary is indeed in this part of London.

Thanks Beingfrank - am feeling very out of the loop here

I'm just so grateful to lolteacher for taking the trouble to point out the inherent contradictions in my discomfort with be-ribboned blazers of which I had been previously been utterly unaware.
A man and a teacher no less.

Farewell