Is it too early to start a 2016 girls 11+ W/SW London thread?

[orangina]

What do we think? DD is sitting 11+ for various consortium schools in January 2016 and I am slightly desperate for a thread to compare notes, pat each others shoulders etc..... I lurked on last years thread, but it didn't start until much later....

Just booking up open day places and filling in my registration forms now.....

Hopefully not too many are that extreme on keeping their children off in between!

Your DD sounds in good form. She'll be one of those friendly faces on the circuit. It's really easy to sit next to the same child each school exam, if grouping is by alphabetical order for example, they make friends very quickly and get familiar with each other...all helps them to relax!

Good luck to all this year

I would agree with 'sure thing' schools one year being 'hard to get into' the next year, and so on. Its changing, and has been changing, very fast in London. dd's first choice was a new school which was deemed 'sure thing' the previous year - then suddenly it was oversubscribed, and they turned people away. dd was top of the waiting list, is now there and very happy, but one of her friends (who eventually went to Emanuel) was never offered a place. So much luck involved.

Which is not to add stress, but hopefully to support the shrug-your-shoulders-and-do-your-best-but-don't-beat-yourselves-or-your-kids-up-as-random-is-a-factor point of view.

I have another blissful year+ of not stressing as dd2 is in Y4. And god knows whats going to be happening in SW London by the time she's in Y6

Every year in our school there's at least one child who's over tutored, over stressed and doesn't do as well as he/she could. It's so hard to see. My advice having been through it before is to TRY to trust the system. Schools are good at choosing the children who are right for their school. Don't enter too many schools, don't OVER tutor - it's no fun scraping into a top school and spending the next few years bumping along the bottom - and be kind to yourselves and your kids. It's madness, but it's necessary madness if you want your child to go to an over subscribed good London school. Oh - and most children really like the senior school they end up at, whether it was their number 1 choice or 4th! Good luck to all.

Interesting reading for us SW London parents, in another recently revitalised thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2306110-Streatham-and-clapham-high-school

How we all doing with the open days etc?

Went to PHS yesterday, nice school (not much outside space), nice girls and obvs good academics.

Another couple to see, then decide which ones we'll have a go at!

Hello mummyinatizz.... we went to PHS today actually, a first view for all of us (me, DH and dd...). Interesting that you say that you thought it didn't have much open space, we thought it had MASSES of space, compared to FHS and Queens Harley Street. Where else are you seeing? We are off to NHEHS tomorrow evening, and then that's it! Waiting with baited breath for results of Marylebone music aptitude and Grey Coats Language aptitude tests, both due out this week.....

We went to PHS in Monday - I really liked but DD was rather negative. I'm not quite sure why, she may have just been feeling tired and overwhelmed by the whole process.

As it's easy for us to get to we will apply anyway and if she happens to get in, hope they can change her mind.

I have to say all the Open Days are starting to blur into one - all these marvellous schools with amazing extracurricular activities, brilliant results etc etc and all I'm thinking is "But are you going to give my daughter a place?!"

Thank you for starting this thread! Our DD is due to sit the 11+ for SPGS, G&L, Latymer Upper and LEH in January. Her current school head also recommended FH (SS) for her as a back up just in case. She sat the Downe House assessment recently so we have covered ourselves on all day/boarding fronts. She is bright, sporty but terribly shy so unsure how she will fare under pressure and during the interviews. Her Prep school have been hugely supportive but we are hearing many stories of her classmates being tutored for the exams. I have been against tutoring as I would prefer for her to get into a school that suits her abilities rather than get tutored to pass an exam and then forever struggle. I know that I have missed the boat on the tutor front now but feeling hugely guilty that she may now be at a disadvantage against her overly tutored peers. Are the exams really as "tutor proof" as they claim to be?

Mum, don't worry abut tutoring. Instead do what you can to keep her calm and enjoying the process. Private schools will be looking for fit, and both SPGS and LU particularly, are known to not offer places to some very very bright girls who might not enjoy what can be quite robust environments.

If she does not get a place you could ask for feedback but also perhaps look on the bright side. These schools can have some quite specific cultures and, though you will never know, might have been absolutely the wrong place.

So do some fun things over half term and Christmas, anything that will help with her confidence and maturity. Read some good books and see some interesting plays. Double check that she is getting adaquate preparation at school, but she should be. You might consider a couple of the GDST as back up as they pick up a number of the more able, partly because they are cheaper. However I can see the advantage of choosing a school within the same consortium as G&L.

Shirleycantbe I'm so with you on this - they all seem to offer impressive facilities, results and polite, generally pleasant girls.

At Streatham&Clapham this morning - much less polished than the likes of PHS, but came across well to DD and me.

Now to narrow done the 8 we've seen to a manageable (whats that??) number.

I agree with Needmoresleep. My DS is at LU. It fits him like a glove! I do think these schools know what they are looking for and it’s not always just the ones who come out top in the exams.

Well I've to PHS, WHS and Surbiton High in the last couple of weeks- all 'Highed Out'! I went without DD as she's not yet in Y6 and just wanted to suss them out a bit..Thought WHS was much more welcoming than PHS which was a bit corporate and didn't really try to sell the school- no real chances to ask questions, everyone toeing the party line and all very scripted...I know they don't really need to sell the school as they can fill their places many times over but it would have been nice to give an illusion of choice!
To be honest I think I and DD would be probably be happy with any of them and that's before I've even thought about co-ed...

Does anyone have any inside info about the number of offers made vs applications for the West London day schools? Many of them seem to have 10 applications for every actual place - which seems impossible odds - but I'm assuming they must over offer since most girls are applying to a selection of schools. I just don't know to what extent - do they offer twice as many times as they have places for e.g.?

It varies Shirley, depending on the 'desirability' of the school. SPGS, for example, probably has a ratio of something like 1.3:1 offers:places (I am making these figures up btw, total guesswork).

Most of the schools are pretty opaque on this subject. However, somewhere on City Boys Governor's reports I remember reading that take up of offers was between 25 and 33% (in other words, they would have to offer 3 to 4 places per spot). So there are probably other schools that offer up to 10 places. It must be a nightmare to find the right balance and sometimes they get it wrong and have to put on an extra class.

Most people are applying for at least three schools and some as many as 10. Oh and they're also weighing up their state options. The odds are nowhere near as bad as they appear and everybody seems to end up with at least one offer they're happy with.

Hi, been a lurker and posted a question on another ( more local) thread, but thought I'd ask here as this seems to be more active. We will be looking for DD soon, and wondered what the general feeling about CHS is. Croydon high. I have a DS in a boys school fairly local to it.

thankgod, I suspect one thing that makes a big difference is how good state alternatives are. So some schools will regualary be used as fall backs for, say, Tiffin and Nonsuch and some of the better Richmond schools, and so look as if they are hugely competitive, but as long as you have a steady nerve and are willing to be on a wait list till after the state school allocations come out you should be OK. Lots of other variations too. It can't be easy for Registrars, as popularity will vary from year to year, and there are always a couple of schools which then add bulge classes or go through their wait lists faster than espected.

I don't think knowing the ratio would help. Better to understand where your DD fits academically, which can be quite hard if you are not in a school that regularly sends pupils to West London Indies.

That's actually really helpful thankgod.

We are in a slightly unfortunate position in that although DD is very high performing academically (96 - 99+ percentile in standardised tests) and her current prep school say she should aim for the most academic options, she has a significant processing speed issue which means she hardly ever completes the test papers. Especially English. But it's not quite bad enough to qualify her for extra time at most schools.

So we're being encouraged to apply for schools where she might only finish 60-70% or so of the English paper and I think knowing the ratios are a bit of a help in this situation.

If they really are only offering to 1 in 10 applicants I don't think it's worth putting DD through the stress - they will surely just bin every applicant who doesn't make the cut off mark.

It's hard to decide how to focus our applications without knowing how the schools might approach the issue. I don't want DD to come away feeling rejected all round.

The applicant to offer ratio is a Black Art!

Firstly, one of the reasons some schools ask where else you're applying is because they are trying to get a feel of how many applications each candidate is making (and it has risen from 3/4 to 4/5/6).

Also, all the registrars talk to each other about their numbers, and views of number of applications per candidate. So they some idea of how many actual children there are behind the application number.

They then have to take to account their numbers in previous years and their own ratio of offer to acceptance; and whether they needed to use their waiting list at all, and if so how many.

Also they need to knock off the number of those expected to come from their junior school (if they have one) and siblings (depending on policy), leaving the number of places which they want to fill with newcomers.

And chuck it all in a cauldron, mutter incantations and come out with this year's target figures.

There does seem to be a rise in the number of candidates across London, and it's not been matched by expansion in number of private school places. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't apply. Some schools do go very much by exam score, others interview and at least claim to attach importance to those interviews.

Shirleycantbe You need to talk to the SENCO about your DD's exam difficulties and see what they can do. They may not be able to offer extra time if her EdPsych report does not recommend it, but if they have seen it they might be willing to take in into account if they do consider all (or borderline) candidates in the round. A Head's report which highlights actual (non-exam) levels of achievement would probably be helpful too.

LAST school visit tonight, thank goodness they are all done! NHEHS, loved it before, still love it now. Dd loved it too and is feeling very motivated (long may that last.....). Now to just get through the slog from now until January.

how crucial are extracurricular activities? for example, grade exams on musical instruments, sports etc.

Not crucial at all unless your child is applying for scholarships.

So long as they can talk about the things that interest them, if asked at interview...whatever that/they may be!

mumofthree if your dd is already in a prep school then you really should be able to leave it up to the school- after all, getting children prepared for senior school is their raison d'etre ....

Our experience has been one ds at local v ordinary state primary, no tutoring (and tbh v little preparation of any kind as he seemed to be allergic to practice papers ) - got scholarship to his preferred school and has been comfortably in the top sets all the way through. Dd went through this 2 years ago from a private primary (not a hot house) - she did practice papers etc at school, no extra tutoring at all, sat two exams, one v selective, one less so and got hefty scholarships to both. Unless your dd has particular difficulties in one area I'd not worry about tutoring - it's very easy to get caught up in the tutoring arms race but for the most part it's unnecessary

Noitisnot - have your kids always been unusually bright/academically able? Obviously they've done fantastically well but I wonder if it's because they are particularly gifted rather than the system not being difficult to navigate?

They're bright but not off the scale gifted - I do think there's a lot of unnecessary panic around school admissions. But I realise that if everyone around you is getting infected with 11+ hysteria it's hard to keep your nerve ...

How are we all doing this half term? We are trying to keep a little bit of work going over half term, with plenty of treats and relaxation built in as well....

A question for any of you in the know. I am busy working through last papers with dd, and getting her to do them timed, as though under exam conditions. What marks should we be aiming for? I can't really safely mark the English papers, but I can more or less manage to mark the maths.

70%? 80% Too high? Not high enough? I was wondering if I might call some of the schools we have applied for, for guidance.

Any thoughts?