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.

Congrats to you too Sweet. Yes our first choice (although still waiting on Tiffin result). Yes Bool our Putney letter was late. There is no rhyme or reason to the vagaries of the Post Office. Well that’s all our results in now bar the state schools, so will concentrate on sending positive vibes to everyone expecting results next week. So glad I don’t have to do this ever again!!

Letter arrived! We got an offer too! Relief.

Congrats to all who got offers - waiting list for us. I’m just wondering whether to phone and ask where we are on the list.

Great news Bool. Yes Flume, I would ring and ask about the wait list position. I can’t remember when they said you could call. Or drop them an email.

Congratulations Bool! Flume, I’m sure there will be lots of people phoning about the wl as we speak, so give it a go.

Was the WHS exam all VR / NVR this year?

Flume definitely ring them now, I'm sure in the leaflet they gave us after the creative day they said if you are waitlisted you should ring them immediately to find out your WL position and they will tell you whether your DD is in the top third, middle or bottom third and what her chances are.

Bool congratulations to your DD and congratulations to your postman today 😂

1ndig0 yes the first stage was VR/NVR

It’s interesting how PHS and WHS are both GDST, similar sized schools with a similar cohort drawn from a similar area, yet have such different selection procedures. PHS interviewed everyone and it was a straightforward English comprehension, story and maths paper. No VR or NVR at all or group work. DD didn’t sit WHS as we would literally have to drive past PHS to get there so there was no point (Hammersmith schools more convenient for us). I know at least 10 girls who have sat both however - and they can only take one of them, if either!

The catchments will be slightly different geographically. I think PHS will get more from London and WHS from Surrey because of the trainline. We applied to both because we live almost equidistant from both and both are a very easy journey for us, although always felt that WHS was a better match for DD.

Yes I guess you have to consider where the friends might be. PHS get a lot from Fulham and Barnes way, as well as Wandsworth.

I did think that PHS had a slightly more “local” feel than the more Central schools though, which is probably a good thing. For instance, my DSs at LU have friends anywhere from Wembley to Piccadilly Circus and a huge proportion come in by tube, so anywhere is accessible. Often they can’t be bothered to meet at the weekends because they can’t face another commute.

Many congratulations on the WHS offers!
Flume: is WHS your first or second choice? Good luck!

WHS and SPGS have been our joint first choices right through this process. So I have my fingers crossed for next Friday - though with rather less hope now, as I imagine it would be very unusual to get SPGS but WHS wait list.

Flume-not necessarily at all- I know girls who have got into SPGS in previous years and not got into other schools. Hang in there!

Flume - she’s got through to the final 180 for 100 places at SPGS which is an achievement in itself. Sometimes they can just have a bad day or if there’s some kind of group-type assessment, who knows? It can be so random and subjective. Maybe there was a particular dynamic in her group or something like that? My DD has skipped out of every exam, but she came out of LU and said, “Well I messed that maths up.” And she was right, even though she’d had no problem with any of the sample papers and she seemed to enjoy the SPGS papers. I have 2 at LU and know she would cope there better than them (academically), but that’s just how it goes. She wasn’t fussed because she thinks the school is too hectic. She likes G&L and she likes SPGS.

God knows how G&L will differentiate between 900 girls though, based on some computer CAT - style test and a brief interview.

Thanks for the kind words, winter and 1ndig0. I suspect (given what the FAQs on WHS’s website say about ranking by the exam results and then taking into account the group assessment) that she didn’t do that well on the exam (probably the NVR element) and that was the issue.

SPGS assesses on English and Maths (and their comprehension paper), as well as the pre-test (which I think is a type of VR/NVR) and the interview, so hopefully that will work better for her. She really enjoyed both the WHS and SPGS assessment days and came out smiling, so no clues there.

We didnt get through the first round of a school’s assessment day, we were told that she scored the top for exams but failed in both interview and group exercise(team building work). Unfortunately the head registra interviewed her on the day and said she didnt think the school was right for my daughter nor my daughter showed any interest in the school at all(it was a boarding school). Its the school decision and to be honest I dont think she is suitable for boarding either, deep down in me I dont think I could send her away( my husband was very happy as he was very against boarding). Things might happen for a reason as the old Chinese say( although I am not Chinese :)).

The V and NV definitely can throw up some some strange results. Hence why girls often get into one of PHS and WHS and not both. Those are pretty good odds now for SPGS, I asssume they must over offer at least a tiny bit? So fingers crossed FlumePlume that your DD ends up with one of her top choices. She’s clearly a very bright girl.

NVR was our killer too although strangely she didnt fail any exam because of it. I am very curious about the actual mark against all intakes per each subject just to understand if it has made a difference to the total result. We are ok with VR mainly because she took the KGS 10+ test and had a motivation to study for it later on.

Flume don't be disheartened, the assessment style was so different. I strongly suspect you'll be having SPGS vs Tiffin dilemma in a few weeks time with a WHS waiting list offer in the mix.

FlumePlume - Our head (she s been head of our prep for years) said in recent years she has seen more and more girls get into SPGS but not WHS, it is partly because the way their assessments are designed. So it is not that unusual at all! Fingers crossed for you!

@FlumePlume - I agree with what others have said, there are always 'odd' results and it sounds like your DD is a bright girl - didn't she get a scholarship somewhere else?

It will be interesting to see if WHS goes to the WL. I think they over offered a few years ago (Sept 2015?) and ended up with an extra class so they won't want to do that again.

WHS went to WL last year- it seemed to move quite a lot in fact, but not until the state school places came out.....

Just reading the discussion and wanted to say last year my DD was offered Tiffin, Leh and Putney but waitlisted for WHS.

I think it's because we didn't get time to go over VR and NVR and her real strength is maths which they didn't test at WHS.

So I don't think being waitlisted for WHS is an indication your daughter won't be offered other good schools.

That’s all very reassuring, plus I’ve gone through all the bumph from our second choice (for which we have an offer) and reminded myself why we chose it and liked it. Thank you all - it’s lovely to hear about SPGS success stories despite no WHS offer.

sandy Yes, she does have a scholarship offer. And it’s a good school, just not such a good journey and maybe a little on the small side as she gets older (though that would be a plus for Y7, I’m sure).

Anyone else waiting nervously for LEH tomorrow after a WHS waitlist?
Just dashed for our post in case it was early but no ...
@FlumePlume good luck for SPGS, WHS has been really tricky this year, glad there are lots of positive experiences from others to help.