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.

So pleased for you Kalifornia! That is great news and such a weight off.. I've been with you on this crazy process!

Yes, it is a weird one as DD had a general interview for KGS. I guess that made me think SHS would be likely, if not certain so the no was a bit of a shock.

I wish I could FF to the 15th! And I'm really not sure about doing this again in 2 years

Patience - my DD is also at a prep and nobody has any idea as to how the new Consortium exams will pan out. One of the schools my DD has sat has interviewed all 900 candidates and I suspect the other one has interviewed similar numbers! You have no idea where you place in that 900. As I mentioned on here, one if the schools did specifically ask if my DD has got through to interviews at SPGS, but they didn’t ask about any other school in the area which is just as well because she didn’t get an interview at the other local one because she messed up on the maths in the day. Even though I have 2 DC at this school (and this youngest DD is the more academically-inclined of all of them), I wouldn’t have bothered asking our prep head to intervene to try and swing her an interview. Partly because it wouldn’t have been her first choice anyway, but mainly because they deal with such huge numbers they can’t make exceptions - can you imagine? They’d be inundated. But I do agree there’s a lot prep heads / you can do if on a w/l.

Thanks 1ndig0 for backing up what others have said. The friend also said that feedback is that the consortium exam was 'too easy' and that lots of girls have done too well on it. That wouldn't favour dd who's bright but careless. Nor did she find it particularly easy!

Do you want the consortium school?

Ahhh useless speculation is all that's left to us. But I'm very grateful for this feedback.

Tbh Patience, we’ll be happy with any offer. This us third time round this process for me and I see the whole thing as a lottery.

In a prep, they track CAT scores throughout the school, but there is a margin for variation term to term. I think they allow 5 marks either way, but generally, if you don’t have the scores for a certain school the head will tell you in no uncertain terms not to apply and guide your DC elsewhere. So I can only presume that anyone sitting for say, G&L from a prep st least, has CAT scores in the ballpark or they probably wouldn’t be there. And that’s hundreds of girls!

Well done for your DC, Patience! It's nice to have a local buddy here.

Plenty of state school DC's in my older daughter's school, incl those who have done very well with academic scholarships. I find parents of private school kids whose children are overlooked can make the excuse that the private secondaries are avoiding the ruthlessly prepped and tutored kids in favour of state students, whereas the state parents then say the gap is too big to bridge against the private competitions. Funny, isn't it? I do think it's actually the outside tutor and the parents and the child's determination that makes the real difference, on the margin. Parents who are as well informed as possible though. That is the key. Also I am sure this is true further down the line at uni applications.

"Kalifornia" so pleased for you & your dd, I hope the offer letter makes reference to all the info she gave in the "All about me" part of the exam!

"GuineaPig" probably worth getting feedback from SHS but fingers crossed for KGS.

Good luck to everyone for coming 2 weeks & congrats on all SHS offers, make the most of the "open day for offers", it's a step above the normal open day and worth attending. You can directly ask a Year 7 girl questions about how they are getting on, what after school sports clubs they take part in, how do you get home afterwards etc.

PatienceVirtue you've jsut summed me up !!
The offer is a huge relief but it doesn't change my mind about the process. it was still awful!!!
And the thought of doing it again with youngest DS leaves me cold.....

Poppy i just reread the letter and it does mention it, yes!

Thanks all and good luck for those waiting x

Phew, finally received the post (so late today!) and we have an offer from SHS. How lovely that they personalise the letter to include what she talked about in the exam and include a letter for the girl too. Well done to those with offers. Sorry EGP about your daughter but fingers crossed for KGS. I’m a firm believer in fate and things happen for a reason. This whole process has been very stressful though!

@PatienceVirtue please don’t feel like an outside. Our DD is at an independent (not a prep) and we are second time around and I still don’t feel there really is an inside gang. Not sure what that can do anyway. It is down to how your child does on the day. They are not going to prioritise prep or independent above state if the results are simply better for a state child. I just have focussed on ensuring my kids are ready for the exams as best I could - I helped them personally with maths (and I work full time) and I do nothing with English (as am useless). No tutors. In the end the kids have got to keep up in these schools and enjoy them so let them fall where they belong.

Many congratulations on the offers, great news for the coming weekend!

Kalifornia - big congrats to your DD on her offer today.

Also, GuineaPig, unless things have dramatically changed in the last 5 years, it was pretty much common knowledge when one if my DC sat KGS that a general interview equates to an offer there. Put it this way, the head told me that’s she had never known it to be otherwise, unless the child literally said nothing or did something particularly bizarre. It’s essentially a screening exercise to make sure there are no reasons why that pupil would be difficult to teach. Also they have to offer more girls places because there are more alternatives for girls at 11 plus in SW London. Most of the ones with subject interviews should at least get w/l places, if not a place. So I do think you have every reason to be confident. Certainly in my DC year, there were about ten with general interviews and all of them without exception were offered a place, plus most of those with subject interviews.

Congratulations to all who got their Surbiton offers today!

TheExtra I'm sure the right offer will come along, I have my fingers crossed for Kingston for you.

Thanks so much Indigo and Sweetnhappy.. objectively we should be feeling good about KGS, she said the interview went well, had plenty to say for herself and it was just a chat - didn't sound like any trick questions. On the other hand it's hard not to have the fear!

Well done everyone and good luck to those hoping for news today!

Congrats to HeadSpinning, littlemiss, Kalifornia, Jimjam!

And massive fingers crossed here for TheExtra for KGS.

Is it PHS that’s due today?

I keep wanting to turn all the information in this thread into some sort of infographic, to help other (mostly non-prep, it wouldn’t be as good as experienced advice from a Head) parents through the maze. I keep thinking there’s a pattern to be found somewhere about getting through stage 1s (or not), getting offers from groups of schools etc.

DD has a place at PHS. Phew!

It’s an A4 white envelope if anyone else is waiting this morning. Good luck!

Flume go for it!!!
I reckon if schools are going to use reasoning tests (eg WHS) then state school kids need to be doing them at home on a casual basis from earlier on. I looked at an example of a boy's day at Downsend prep and this year 4 kid was doing Reasoning in lessons..... it's on their website. no great shakes, no pressure, no cramming, just a casual inclusion in the curriculum and oh what do you know by year 6 he's well versed in it.
this is not a slight on any of that i am just saying how we can help those without this in their school day.

Well done 1ndig0 on PHS great stuff. loved that purple uniform.

Huge congratulations 1ndig0!!! Still waiting for the post...

Congrats 1ndig0 and fingers crossed Sweet!

Kalifornia I don’t have the technical skill, unfortunately, but I wish I did. I know from work that there’s all sorts of very interesting things you can do with this data. About the best I could do would be some sort of table of applications, which stage child got to, offers (maybe scholarships, too?).

Do you think the scholarships for SHS (and other schools) are more likely to go to the juniors moving up? As a sort of thank you for the commitment type thing. i have heard that SHS offer a lot but i don't know of anyone who has...

Oh, and I had meant to say to PatienceVirtue that I’ve also found it very hard to know what is ‘usual’ in terms of pushiness. I only told one school that my daughter had been ill (as in, in bed or on the sofa) all week and was Calpoled up for the interview because a friend with kids at a prep school told me I should. It hadn’t even occurred to me that this was something the school would care about or take into account. I think the advice you got up-thread about waiting until you know about offers / waiting lists sounded wise, hopefully it won’t be a problem you need to solve!

Kalifornia Dd has been offered a scholarship from a school with a junior school (not Surbiton), so I don’t think it’s necessarily the case that schools prioritise girls coming up from the juniors. I had assumed that they were purely based on exam results, but I’m sure others will know more about how it works.

Well done 1ndigo! Another nail biting morning waiting for the post. We also have a scholarship offer from one of the schools with a junior school (prefer not to say which one), and we are from a state school. So it can be done, and I’d say if anything they are more likely to incentivise external candidates who could be holding several offers.

I think the problem with VR / NVR is that it comes in and out of fashion. For instance, LU used to use it as part of the entry exam, but then they made a statement about how they had tracked pupils progress throughout the school (ie those who scored very highly versus those who didn’t) and came to the conclusion that it was meaningless. I remember the head stating in a talk to parents that it just meant uneccessary tutoring for thousands of DC who would be far better off learning something useful. Hampton didn’t use VR / NVR either and tbh most schools didn’t, but now the Girls Consortium have made the move to use it exclusively.

Also, I think there’s a difference between VR / NVR papers (that you can bang away / hire tutors for Tiffin etc) and CAT tests. As I understood it, CAT tests are more like the IQ tests used by Ed Psychs and you can’t really alter your performance in these tests by repetition.

I know at SPGS the computer CAT test was “adaptive”, so a correct answer leads you into the next level. I’m not sure you can really prepare for this too much as it’s very different to the kind of VR or NVR in Bond books etc. That’s just my understanding though. It will be interesting to see how the new exam works out for the Consortium girls schools as nobody really knew anything about the format beyond the example on the forms they sent. I did no extra VR or NVR with DD at home, but they did have at least one weekly session on it within school. There was some homework and there was an after school club as well which they mostly all did last term.

The post has finally come, it's PHS waiting list for us

I’m sure that w/l will move a lot SweetAndHappy. Could be worth giving them a ring on Monday and see if you can find out where you are on the list. Was it your first choice?