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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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

999 replies

SonorousBip · 03/01/2015 21:46

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 Smile

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Eastpoint · 09/01/2015 05:56

Ealing there is a netball club which runs camps in the holidays and at the weekend which would be a way of boosting your daughter's netball - I think it is West London Netball, there is also Richmond Ravers which takes place on Sundays. For hockey there is Richmond Hockey which takes place on Sunday mornings at the University of Westminster grounds in Chiswick (but has a waiting list) & Barnes Hockey Club. Rowing can also be started earlier, there is a club which specialises in getting children rowing. If she goes to a lacrosse school like PHS, St James', LEH or SPGS she can start W4 lacrosse in the summer term (Tuesday nights at University of Westminster grounds). Chiswick Lacrosse run a camp for the last 4 weeks of the summer holidays at the Kings House sports grounds at Dukes Meadows in Chiswick (10-4).

It is well worth joining these clubs, the girls who play in them get so much more practice than those who only play at school. For athletics there is a very good club at the Linford Christie Stadium in White City. grr can't cut & paste to move the Athletics info up.

ealingwestmum · 09/01/2015 09:23

Thank you Eastpoint, that's really useful local info. She'd be up for any of those, and could make a nice change from 11 hours wk swimming alone. The longer I can keep her engaged in contact sports, the less likely she is to grow up 'too quickly'.

That's the theory at least, and thankfully she loves all things extra curricular... for now Grin

DarkBlueEyes · 09/01/2015 09:30

Please can I join in? DD did Surbiton and LEH this week with St Catherine's tomorrow. Putney on thurs and notting hill and Ealing on Friday. I'm seriously packing it as although she's not stupid she's very lacking in confidence and hasn't managed to finish a maths paper yet. Hmm

I'm really concerned we won't get any offers.

Anyone care to tell me to pull myself together? Or hold my hand?

We're state primary and have had some tutoring for maths. But clearly not enough NVR. Maths is not her strong point.

ealingwestmum · 09/01/2015 09:45

Welcome DarkBlue, Sonorous to thank for starting this thread!

I know it's a horrible wait but she'll be fine, you have a good spread of schools and they'll be sure to be at least one match, if not more, on top of the movement that happens post offers day.

Unfortunately I cannot comment on the NVR as there was no requirement in the schools DD applied for except a little in the pretest for SPGS. One more full week to go for her, and mine has not finished a maths paper fully yet either!

ealingwestmum · 09/01/2015 10:01

That was meant to be one more week for your DD Darkblue as well as mine Smile. Going to see Swan Lake this weekend to break up the pressure...spoil yours next Friday when the papers are all over! Then breath before the interviews start...

wheresthebeach · 09/01/2015 10:16

Hi dark - Hand hold.

I know how you feel! We are only doing a couple but am concerned that DD won't get either. Have been telling her that our state options are really good and that this is about options only. Its very hard as she really loves one of the private ones (so do I - sigh)

We've kept to the line that this is about options only. That she'll do well wherever she goes and have talked up the state schools (one of which is her second choice anyway).

Sometimes I wish I'd never started this. We're state primary too so school no help at all with preparing.

amidaiwish · 09/01/2015 10:23

State primary here too. Dd came out of KGS exam cross about the VR. "It was more logic reasoning than verbal. I was not prepared for that!" Confused
Ah well, I hope they take their primary school into consideration. Everyone I know going from a prep has a tutor too [we need a world's gone mad emoticon]

castlesintheair · 09/01/2015 11:23

darkblueeyes, don't worry you could not be in a worse position than us. DD has been out of the UK curriculum for 2 years so has not even covered years 4-6 maths. Before that she was at state primary albeit an outstanding one. She's never had a tutor either. When I compare her to my friends' back home whose kids have been SO prepared (one friend has 3 tutors per child, plus kumon, plus over-zealous mother who is panicking "they won't get in anywhere"), I realise we are basically stuffed Grin She's only sitting 2 schools so we have really limited ourselves too. Oh well.

farewelltoarms · 09/01/2015 12:01

I'm in a different part of London and with a son, but am nodding in agreement to this - the wishing we'd never started it; the state primary; the selling of it as 'increasing our options'; the sense that he won't get in anywhere and his confidence will be shot.

I am freaked out by how much other kids are prepared. I was eavesdropping other parents at the exam pick-up yesterday and they were talking about how their child gets an hour and a half of homework every night. That's an hour and a half more than the total holiday homework my boy had! A boy was saying how he had to get on his school's intranet to make sure he could do the homework for that very day.

And the prep school kids have tutors too. ARggh.

The one advantage we state primary people have, well in our case, is that I'm not 100% sold on these privates. It won't be the end of the world if he goes to the local state, in fact it's fine (while those in preps think that it would be a disaster). It's more about trying to make him feel better about himself after the 'failure' of the two ridiculously competitive grammars he tried.

farewelltoarms · 09/01/2015 12:01

ps only sitting three schools and they're all v selective. No bankers.

Scoobyblue · 09/01/2015 12:02

Kingscotestaff - the JAGS english paper has a separate composition (or at least it did when dd took it) with a good range of different titles to choose from.

Alana1975 · 09/01/2015 12:19

Castle, we are in the similar situation being 4 year out of the uk educational system. My daughter attends a very relaxed international school which follows PYP curriculum. Within all these years they haven't done a single reading comprehension paper, reasoning paper at school. She didn't have any tutors, not sure if they are available here. I tried to fill in the gaps but English is not my first language and I found it hard to help with the English. I hope that the fact that some children come from the state schools or applied from abroad will be taken into consideration. I think they understand it.

castlesintheair · 09/01/2015 12:29

I hope so too Alana1975! My DC are totally immersed in the French curriculum with no English at all. I had to explain to DD1's teacher what VR was as she had never heard of it. I keep trying to remember how soon I got "the call" 2 years ago when DS did it. It's all a bit hazy but I seem to remember it was very soon after the exam as I was really surprised. This is the worse bit for me.

SonorousBip · 09/01/2015 12:57

BREAKING NEWS ... they did hand out toy dolphins at the Godolphin exam this morning! Phew! (I wanted DH to send a photo but he sent me a photo of a post-exam DD! Pah - I know what she looks like!!)

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mertonmama · 09/01/2015 13:17

Anyone got any ideas about where to hang out tomorrow while JAGS exam is underway? I know Herne Hill has some nice coffee shops but any recommendations?

I'm quite pleased not to be in Kingston again as when DD did the Tiffin exams I spent a FORTUNE in John Lewis.

Poisonwoodlife · 09/01/2015 14:15

Alana Last year on this thread there was someone coming back from an International school in the same posting as we returned from ten years ago now. She was panicking because she had encountered the uber competitive mothers at the St Paul's exam and her daughter had had no tutoring at all. She is in Year 7 there now. I had the same experience. In fact I have done the entrance process from both relaxed International School and South West London Prep and I far preferred the former, more relaxed and much easier to maintain a healthy perspective. I did do some DIY work with my DD but just to cover the parts of the curriculum she hadn't yet covered, and exam technique, but nothing on the silly scale it happens here. In both cases my untutored girls got into all four schools they applied for, ones most frequently discussed here.

The playground at a South West London Prep in November / December / January is a scary place, and I developed the skills of a SAS hostage rescuer so quickly did I get my DD out of the miasma of competitive / panicked anxiety and away from the Chinese whispers about what was required, which bore little resemblance to what the schools actually require. What you realise after, and especially when you encounter all those bright girls from state schools and overseas backgrounds, is that the children get to the school that they are meant to be at given their ability and personalities and all the tutoring makes minimal difference because the schools don't want heavily tutored pupils who will struggle when they get there, and they are quite good at spotting ability. And yes they take an overseas background into account, as one Head told me when we came back for the interview. "They get so much out of it and have so much to offer our community as a result of all their experiences."

At all these schools you will find plenty of other pupils from overseas backgrounds. When my DD started I asked if there were any other expats starting and the registrar who was normally lovely sniffily said " Yes but she has returned from ... (European country) so they won't have anything in common" She is still her best friend.

Also do not get caught up in the crazy South West London judgements on the schools according to some silly notional academic league table. Schools like LEH do better because they are more selective but these are all good schools and enable bright pupils to get strings of A*s and to Oxbridge (even Ibstock though I have some serious issues with that Head who seems responsible for more refugees from that school, especially amongst expats attracted by it's old reputation of being more akin to a relaxed International School, and those with mild learning difficulties that schools like LEH are happy to support, than any other I know of apart from Hampton Court House, casualties of her relentless drive to rise up those league tables). Choose the school that feels right for your DD and don't be swayed by academic results and green acres (I speak from having made that mistake, in spite of dreaming the night the decision was due that the school that she ended up in sixth form at was set in elysian fields with sixth formers welcoming her in like angels Grin )

Amidai and others. I have a background in using VR and NVR in recruitment and employers and a lot of the indies, and it sounds as if that is KGS included, invest money in making sure the tests are unpredictable and therefore untutorable. It makes them much better indicators of ability. The problem with the Grammar School VR is that they appear to have failed to keep developing the tests so that with practise you can improve your scores, hence the scandalous tutoring industry (much debated on other threads). It may be that KGS have made the test more challenging as well as unpredictable to better differentiate those with higher ability. I wouldn't worry too much as it suggests to me a test that will have differentiated those with the greatest ability as opposed to those who have sat in tutoring factories.

wheresthebeach · 09/01/2015 14:18

I know what you mean about homework farewell. Other kids in DD's class were getting 3 hours of homework a week from their tutors and over Xmas doing at least one paper a day. We didn't do anything like that so I'm worried our 'middle road' approach will translate into 'if you're not prepared to do it properly don't do it at all!'

Whatever you do, don't go to the 11+ forum.

I ran away after reading a post from a Mum who had her son doing 3 papers a day over the Xmas holiday (except Xmas Day and Boxing Day). Shock

Poisonwoodlife · 09/01/2015 14:26

And some more insight from the Prep School perspective. My DDs prep streamed them in Years 5 and 6. Lions and Tigers, I am not kidding Sad, who knew Tigers were better at 11+ prep (or have tutors /pushy parents)?

LEH rejected three of the 10 Tigers and offered places to 4 of the 10 Lions. Godolphin did similar, and gave one of the Lions, who was bilingual having just returned from overseas a scholarship. St Pauls even rejected a Tiger who had had two years targeted tutoring paid for by the Grandparents.

It was all a bit discombobulating for some of the pushy parents........

wheresthebeach · 09/01/2015 14:32

poison interesting what you say about Ibstock. Seems increasingly popular at our school. I refused to go see it as DD is mildly dyslexic and I'd heard they weren't supportive.

Shame really - too few co-ed schools IMO and too many 'only 10 A*'s at GCSE will do'.

SouthLondonParent · 09/01/2015 14:39

mertonmama, you may get a better response from the "Alleyns, Dulwich, Whitgift etc...." thread which is over on the "Education" board. Not sure of the spending potential in Dulwich, but I suspect it's considerably less than in Kingston! Grin

farewelltoarms · 09/01/2015 14:41

Wheresthebeach very wise words re eleven plus forum but too late! I too was freaked by the three papers a day post. There is no way on earth I'd been able to force my son to do that. There was much xbox bribery to do the little we did.

I am hoping they can see potential and they do take the primary education into account. He's a really mixed school and has rather rubbishy teachers the last two years. As I say, I just don't want his confidence to be dented even more.

I worry my son would be in the donkeys stream at your prep poisonwoodlife

Beingfrank · 09/01/2015 14:46

The Ibstock selection process seems somewhat exhaustive - my ds was there for three hours on Monday after the Hampton test (4 hours in the morning). He can't believe he still has the Ibstock exam to do - thought the computerised test was the exam! I haven't broken it to him that the Ibstock exam is a whole day affair....

Anyone else heard a whisper that changes may be afoot at Ibstock, that a certain post has been advertised?

ealingwestmum · 09/01/2015 15:28

Haha Sonorous! Dolphin's cute. It's amazing how something so small means so much to our DCs. Mine really enjoyed today, found the staff to be super organised and kind, and the older girls not looking 'bored' and genuinely interested in them, unlike a previous experience this week!

ClaraMaugham · 09/01/2015 15:38

Hi - just coming on to wish everyone luck - to the DCs with the exams, and to the parents with surviving the next few weeks. I was in your shoes last year so you have my absolute sympathy.

My DD is now very happily at Godolphin, and still keeps her toy dolphin by her bed. She had a lovely time this morning helping the girls coming in for the exam. I can really recommend the school from what we've seen of it so far.

SonorousBip · 09/01/2015 15:40

Dd thought the exams today were "fine" and easier than KGS, which was interesting.

One thing I have learned from bitter experience is not to take too much notice of my children's assessment of their own performance, either way. [hmmm]

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