SW/W London Independent Schools thread part two

[Chillaxalready]

There. I've done it and started one.
1001 messages and counting!

I think LEH moves a fair bit - lots of girls north of the river sit & decline places if they are offered G&L, NHEHS, LU, PHS or SPGS. They used to send out a card with offers for you to return asking how likely you were to take the place - firm acceptance or possible. As soon as dd was offered a place closer to home we declined.

Thanks eastpoint, I hope when Godolphin and NHEHS come out tomorrow those not taking LEH will be kind enough to decline quickly!
PHS out already (for us also a waitlist)

A lot in Twickenham will decline LEH if they get Waldegrave (so early march).

What are people waiting for tomorrow? Bit odd to think the letters are in the post by now. One of the schools we are waiting on is Godolphin (see thread passim re whether DD was going to get a fluffy dolphin as a her only momento of the process) and its all a bit odd as she did the exam ages ago, plus they interview every applicant (why?) so we have no idea if she is in the running or not; she could have scored 5% or 95% in the process and at this stage we have no way of knowing. I think I prefer the "gateway" interview approach, ie that you have to do sufficiently well in the exam to get an interview, and even the "tiered interview" approach (general vs targetted) at least shapes your expectations. We've had it before where we've had the "sorry, no interview" letter and we got over it pretty quickly and moved on.

Godolphin also grouped interviewees by schools, which must make a lot of work for them, as we were asked to indicate what dates we could not make. So in considering DD's interview date they also had to look at the availability of other girls in her year .

Someone I know has a daughter at the junior bit of a GDST school which expects everyone to go on to the senior school. I'm assuming that the school must have know she was doing entrance exams for other schools as they would have had to write a reference, but my friend was somewhere between silent and disingenuous to other mothers as to whether she was applying elsewhere. Imagine her delight when she turned up for interview at Godolphin and found she was alongside a number of other children from her DD's class (some of whom had been open about applying elsewhere, some who, like her, had definitely not).

At work today - hoping to get back home to a huge envelope clogging up the mailbox ;-) We recently installed an external mailbox as the hounds used to shred anything that came through the mail flap.

If you are sitting on the porch waiting for the postman, please post here as soon as anything from KGS arrives so that I can hyperventilate.

DD's state primary's yr6 group had a great year by the sounds of it - a friend's DD and 5 of her friends all got all their choices (a combo of PHS, WHS, SH, LEH) and all will go for WHS as it is closest. Don't know about the boys though.

Some schools interview every candidate so they can take a view on borderline cases. I think a lot depends on whether they think the DC fits and there are probably a lot more DC's that do 'well enough' than there are places. We were told by one school that they likes to interview so they were sure to get a mix of academic, arty, sporty and that the interview often told them more than the school reference.

Frankly I think it nice to interview all the kids; quite hard IMO to get an interview but not a place...

Hmm. I think it is much better to be let down before interview than to be interviewed and then not given a place - hard for a DC to draw a conclusion other than "they didn't like me".

I've still not got to the bottom of how important interviews are. They really cannot be the clincher in the process. I just cannot see that being articulate and making good eye contact is going to move you from a low mark to an offer. So it must be that, the top, say, 15-20% in the exams are virtually bulletproof and the bottom 30% are in an unimpovable situation. The remaining 50-55% must have it all to play for, but a different starting position for someone at the top and bottom of the range.

Just musing - I like working out how "systems" work.

Oh, absolutely how I feel! If they are all interviewed by different teachers, what criteria can they objectively apply?

SonorousBip - if the schools aren't transparent about the relative importance of the interview it is anybody's best guess.

My DD (in Paris) is in the process of going through admissions to several schools. The relative importance of background files (past reports), written tests and interviews is transparent for some of these and, in some cases, the interview is at least as important as the other things.

Agree Sonorous - the middle ground is where it might matter.

Some schools use written exams as an elimination tool and then start from zero with the interviews i.e. everyone who gets over 80% in the written exam gets an interview but no points are accrued from the exam score (i.e. if you score 80% or 100% it makes no difference to your final score post interview).

Think it's been a real mix in our playground. Everyone getting something (phew), but few getting lots of offers despite sitting quite a few exams.

sonorous we are waiting for JAGS, Alleyns and Francis Holland Sloane Square.

I think all the Foundation schools are posting today, as is Emanuel.

We're waiting for NHEHS but anticipating a no...

Chocfinger, a waiting list for LEH is a very good result, well done to your DD and I am not the slightest bit jealous at all. But I suspect you are right, that there is not a massive amount of movement simply because they are bound to have over-offered (as all do) AND it will be the number 1 choice for many. I hope I am wrong though, and you do get your offer.

I've just come back from SHS open morning which is the invitation only session, saw quite a few girls from local prep schools and clocked several stripey blazers..... My head is spinning. The Registrar could NOT have been nicer, gosh what a fab woman, if the teachers are half as fab as she is then it must be an awesome school!

She said that they DO over offer so although they have had declines at this point they are nowhere near the waiting list, though she hopes that this week with KGS and LEH and all the others offering things will start to move. She said "keep the faith" several times which was nice. She has asked me to call her the day before acceptances.

DD also LOVED it, much more than she did last time, and the two girls who showed us around were fabulous - such great ambassadors for their school.

Anyone care to join me in the corner, rocking silently with a blank expression on their face?

Well done to all of you who have had multiple offers, hoping like mad to join you soon!

Interviews - I am all for them, even though the rejection is hard to deal with at our DCs' age, and definitely lots of good kids can slip through the net, especially with schools having different interviewees with no core competency baseline. In my work world, candidates may have been perfect on CV but what a difference interviews make to changing a view. Don't think it's hugely different with small people.

All with DDs on LEH waiting list, try to keep the faith - I know of many girls who will reject their offer in favour of G&L/SPGS etc, especially due to location and hassle of transport (though all of their girls love the facilities and feel of LEH).

We're waiting on G&L, LU and CLSG. Best of luck to all those still waiting news.

Interviewers!

One more sleep ladies...one more sleep...

My DD got LEH offer, she loves both KGS and LEH and its quite difficult to decide. We found both schools fantastic and my DD has no preference at all. We won't hold till the last moment, planning to release one offer tomorrow.

I'm with Sonorous re interviews - I can't see how they can be anything other than a very crude tool to get rid of any massively socially inept pupils. You've hundreds of kids, some of them interviewed in groups, for quite a short time with various different interviewers. It's not very bespoke. I suspect you're right that they have a top tier of definites (short of pulling their trousers down), a middle tier where some weight will be given and a rump who have little chance.

I much prefer the gateway system, possibly because we've made the cut in the three applications we've made (each of them, as far as I gather, interviews between 30-50% of those who sat the test and offers to about 60-70% of those). I'm really glad that we know a little where we stand and almost feel sorry for the siblings that are interviewed at one of them regardless of how they've done in the tests.

lvmh, TIF and SKS letter are out! great stuff

With co-ed do they aim for equal numbers and have a wait list split girls and boys so the balance stays the same? Know most of you are girls schools but there are few Emmanuel and Alleyn's I think?

Alleyns definitely goes for 50/50, so I suppose it must arrange its waiting list to maintain that.

Emanuel always seems to have more boys than girls, so I've no idea what they do.

Hi city. I think LU aim for split numbers for boys/girls places but not sure of how they do the wait list split. There's a South London thread running parallel, they may be able to help?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/a2258026-The-Trinity-Whitgift-Dulwich-Alleyns-10-11-thread-2015

apologies citymum...I didn't read the thread in full to see you know of it