As the Tiffin deadline looms, is there a girls SW London grammars / indies thread yet?

[FlumePlume]

I just realised that I need to get the Tiffin Girls form in ASAP, and wondered if anyone else is in the same position? I could do with company in this process!

We’re not yet decided but probably applying to Tiffin, WHS, SPGS, Sutton High and maybe one of PHS / Emanuel / KGS.

Seven schools is a lot and a lot of money spent on registration! Poor girl! My dd sat 3 indies plus Tiffin but it is such a lottery. Maybe the sheer numbers of children sitting the exams are due to the multiple schools they are trying for. I actually think there should be a limit put in place to the number of schools you can sit. I also agree with Patience that if you already have a child at a secondary independent (as I have) you want the same for the next child to treat them the same so you have little choice but to join in the madness of 11+!!!

I remember a boy who was a friend of my older DC who sat about 10schools including the two grammars (one begins with W, I think) in Merton, Tiffin, KCS, Latymer, St Paul’s, Westminster, KCS, Hampton and CLBS. The prep strongly advised to do 5 max but they refused. He got into them all with about 5 scholarships. He went to Westminster and had a complete mental breakdown in the second year there. Since then he’s been home educated in Khan Acsdemy.

We did 5 schools each time, but in this DD’s case, 2 schools were through the Consortium exam and that was only 1.5 hours long.

Anyone with an SPGS interview tomorrow? DD has another one in the afternoon as well!

We did more schools than we planned to however didnt study for 11+ as we were supposed to. The end of yr5 was a roller coaster for the family as her dad was hospitalised oversea for 5 months then once he was back the whole family (or my) focus was on his recovery which was alot of ups and downs. Couple of years ago when she was in yr3, she self studied ABRSM g5 from zero within nearly 4 months and had a distinction(no one in our family plays and we didnt send her to class/tutor et. for it). Then this year so far she has taken a complete control of the whole process too, she marked homework herself, asked us to buy books which could imprive her weakness, asked to sit for schools and insisted for it. There wasnt anxiety from taken exams at all, could be because she has so little pressure from us. We still are in the middle of it all and still a long way to go however whatever of the result I am absolutely proud of her and couldnt ask for any more.

Uffff final interview done today. And now the waiting begins

2 more to go, it's going to be a long month....

(East London 11+ mum here - I lurk, there's not thread for us.)

@PatienceVirtue

Interesting what you say about applying for more schools with the younger child.

However, with subsequent children we became more set on private because we didn't want to feel an inequity between their educations.

Our current DC has actually applied to fewer schools than the first one. We were more sure this time that we weren't going to take 'any private option' given the choices we have near us, whereas with the first I felt we had to ensure she had something. There were schools in the banker category that we saw the first time round that we just decided - no. Not going to bother this time.

The whole process is much more competitive than it was even three years ago. There is one school in our area that is discussed on these boards that people from Central and North London have started applying to more actively as a back up for Highgate and UCS. Cheers for that! They are now introducing a pre-test next year to cope with the volume.

As I understand it, these have been common place in West London for a while.

@OVienna - I'm a NE mum lurking/occasionally posting. I rather like it as I can be endlessly speculate about 11+ without the schools here directly affecting dc, if that makes sense. Feels like a nice friendly place. Well done you for applying for fewer schools - we should have done but it's so tempting to stick another one on the consortium forgetting that it's still £100-150 to register and yet more time of work/school for interviews.

Which is the E London school that more Central/North London are applying to? F?

Yes, F. I feel like we couldn't have a thread for our area without really outing ourselves. We're Essex borders. So Chigwell, Bancrofts, Forest, City etc. Further out too: Brentwood, New Hall, Felsted and Haileybury are becoming popular.

Ha guilty of applying to F though it's not too far away and I genuinely like it. But it is noticeable how many more people are applying from Stoke Newington, Islington, even Camden to there now than before. I think it's both as backup and because it's genuinely seen as good school with lovely grounds, plus the diamond structure is bonus.

I applied to fewer with DD than i did with DS
i have another DS coming up through the ranks too.
i think you just start to become som blood disenchanted with the whole process that you don't wnt to waste the money...

Yes, i think people do definitely like it for 'real' reasons and the demographic may change over time.

900 applicants there year, up from 750 in 2016.

jaysus my typos

OK I'm in a minority in having applied for more with subsequent children then. Same amount of exams but got sucked into the 'might-as-well' of the 3-4-1 exam of the consortium we have in North/West London. Regret it now as really we're only interested in two of them, both of which she's passed the first hurdle for

It depends what your options are though and how painful it is to go through the process. If it's ticking a couple of extra boxes as part of a Consortium and going to interviews in Central London, schools are an acceptable price point, and commutability isn't an issue is there harm in it? For example, we didn't go for St Ed's in Ware this time around. It is very popular here but we just felt - nah, we'd never make that call this time around, for various reasons. You just know more about what the decision making process involves and when push comes to shove what you're likely to do.

So, we’re done. Just the waiting now.

Dd has absolutely refused to tell me anything about the interview (though she was posted back into the waiting room still talking), so I have no idea how it went.

As for next time - I think my lesson learned is that Tiffin stage 1 is a useful diagnostic. And that in a way the numbers don’t matter, the process will either end with an offer or not.

Do you have another DD FlumePlume or do you have to start all over with boys schools? Good luck with the SPGS outcome. When do you hear?

she was posted back into the waiting room still talking

Haha, sounds like mine. Good luck!

Jimjam Yes, another dd in a few years. And we have a two week wait for one result, three weeks for the other. I’ll be refreshing this thread a a lot to see if others have had their letters while I’m sitting at work, I’m sure!

Which results are you waiting for @FlumePlume?

expo We’re waiting for WHS and then SPGS (which is a week later, I assume they align with the consortium dates?). How about you?

We are waiting for WHS, PHS, KGS, SHS and Ibstock. Love the acronym list!!

I got the email on 1st week in Feb for SHS but is anyone else still hoping they might be out this week.......

Ive been told Surbiton results are being posted early this week

Justwondering- where did you hear that? I was trying to tell myself next week so I wouldn't be stressing to get to the post every day!

I've been focusing on w/c 4th too - to manage my expectations rather than DDs!