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.

Sunshine5050- thanks for that, I’d forgotten about Radnor House which is pretty near. I’ll have a look.

Greenleave - it is a dilemma. And open days don't always give an accurate insight into school life anyway? We did go round most of them with dd before the exams - in a very non committal way - and then revisited with purpose once we had the results!

Sounds like you are well on your way now - hope everything pans out for you. Horrible process.

How's everyone getting on? The waiting is so hard! We're expecting results for Nonsuch, Tiffin stage 1 and Wandsworth next week.

Hi Sweet and everyone... also waiting for Tiffin but after DDs feedback not really expecting her to have got through. Just finalising list for independent applications- LEH, SHS and probably KGS although the exams are all really close and DD a bit put off after TGS experience. Back to wondering whether to just back our local state school.

KGS and SHS exams have clashed in the past - is that the same this year?

TheExtraGuineaPig From what I've heard the private schools make the exam experience nicer/more fun so she may feel better about trying? How is your local state school?

"TheExtraGuineaPig", wait until your get the Tiffin result before posting the applications, it will help clarify your mind. If LEH looks unattainable you can focus on SHS the day before.
Some schools are scheduling on same day on purpose to get parents to focus - st George's Weybridge v KGS.

The exams at all the schools you listed have hundreds sitting in each session, it's not really fun but they get given sweets/popcorn etc. The schools are choosing you not the other way round.

Having been through the process twice it is very draining for the dc & parents from Jan - March & worse if you start with Tiffin in Sept. Good luck for the coming week(s).

Hi All,
Can i join in?
We are on this journey very reluctantly. DD has gruop tutor session bt did nothing all summer. Unsurprisingly she didn't get through stage 1 of sutton test (altho very close to passmark), we didn't bother to sit her for Tiffin. Have a good state option and possibly a great Faith option (we are church goers).
Indies - WHS, PHS, SHS, she loved KGS. Didn't get in on 10plus.
She's in state primary which while lovely does nothing to prep or advise. Altho i am aware she is high ability in Literacy, average in maths, as i asked her lovely form teacher.
She seems to see through the entire process and struggles to get down to any work outside of school, but wants to go to KGS. i try to explain the correlation between being prepared etc
loves drama.
I am hating this whole process of trying to get her to do work for exams, manage her expectations, keep calm etc
bearing in mind she was very close to pass mark for stage 1 sutton test, but didnt get through, are our indie choices unrealistic?
I don't want to pay for the sake of it so don't really want to venture out to St Theresa's, Claremont or Notre Dame (no offence to anyone using those schools)
Hate wasting money on all these registrations too.
As tea says it is very draining....

KaliforniaDreamz, please don't give up or get despondent. The Kingston 10+ is very very hard to get offered on . They only make c.20-25 offers and over 400 sit it! My DC didn't get offered the 10+ but got a place at 11+, so it doesn't mean if you don't get in at 10+, you won't at 11+. Also, my DC only really knuckled down a few months before; before that, there was a lot of hair-tearing (from me)! SH take a lot of girls, so your DD has a good chance although apparently the exam was harder this year. As you know, state grammars are very competitive, and it's a great sign that she was close to Stage 1. The main thing is not to let your stress transfer over to your DD - easier said than done, know!

Thank you iwanttoescape

her tutor says she will get offers and not to worry. But it is hard not to!!! She really does very little work...

KaliforniaDreamz, if she is seeing a tutor, then she is at least doing an hour (a week, I assume) with them. The worst thing you can do is stress (too much ;)) as it will affect your DD. Your tutor thinks she will get offers, then that is great, and you have good state options, As I said, my DC only started to knuckle down a few weeks before (i.e. over Xmas!).

k

thanks iwanttoescape
i need to give myself a kick up the backside and stop over thinking it -especially when i vowed I'd never be this way!

Kalifornia, I would advise your dd to practice lots of VR if she wants to go to KGS, the 10plus and 11plus VR papers were similar over past 2 years so she needs to fly through the 11plus paper and attempt all questions etc. Having sat the 10plus gives her a head start in terms of what's coming.

@greenleave I am reading from interest and think you need to visit these schools... Once the offers (or offer, or waitlist) appears you may need to make a very very quick decision.

We had 2 hours to decide to go with a waitlist place - no time at all to visit. I had to drive straight to the school with my deposit.

Once the exams are done there are no general visits to the schools only private tours, which may take 3-4 weeks to book in to.

With the greatest of respect you probably won't have the time to do this and will have to make your choice blind. Not what I'd want personally.

Hi Tickingthebox, was it the Indie starts with letter C? Which had a controversal offer explode. I paid for the registration but utterly unimpressed with the school on the last couple of years chaos on offer days so wont go for it this year(its a shame as we have friends who sent their daughter there since yr3 and had an extremely happy and sucessful time till Univ. Another reason for us to drop is the travelling. It could take 45 mins on public transport on both train and tube and I have no trust in both given I have to do similar jouney on daily basis. We have seen KGS, SPGS and Wycombe Abbey. Couple of the rest will be later, hopefully. Many thanks.

We are very fed up with the waiting but I guess we are all on the same board. The usually “not a good thing” that I dont see her much during week days just enough to send her to bed has become a good thing now as at least we dont have time to talk about it. She is very independent and self studied regarding to her home work etc. We increase the music practice which helps to distract her from the tension a little(I hope so).

Hi Teacakes: she has time, 3 months is a longggg time, if only because she started late then she will definitely catch up. Some kids like mine are fed up now and actually dont do much or as motivated. Mine isnt best in VR and NVR either, we have known her weakness is NVR but I couldnt motivate her for it because unlike maths and English, we dont see the point of learning it at all. We will have to do some practice closer to the time though as its required in the first round of couple the schools she is applying for.

• same boat

Awgg!

Kalifornia- just wanted to also say that KGS 10 plus is very hard! DC also didn't get a 10+ place but got 11+ along with several others. Definitely not an indication as to how they'll do at 11+.
I think they really look at Maths and VR- English not so important.

Thanks winter Sadly English is her strong point - we got really good feedback from the 10plus.
My gut feeling is she should be more motivated to work if KGS were right for her.
However, i do think primary school experience plays a large part. Hers is very relaxed and lovely. SO she can hardly see the point to homework.

Kalifornia: my message about KGS was for you, sorry I had mixed with Teacakes. Mine is very strong in English too and wasnt great with VR. Later on when we know VR better then we realised that strong vocabulary really helps. Others only need some practice to get familiar with the style. My daughter outstanding primary is very anti homework, she has maximum 30mins homework every week too. They learn their own way at school, sometimes we cant judge it just via homework. I am just trying to say, there is time.

Kalifornia I do think that going around a school and really liking it makes a huge difference. Can you do a few tours?

My dd is also at a state primary with barely any homework (meant to be an hour a week, but it usually takes her nothing like that). She’s motivated to do the 11 plus work because she really likes the look of the schools (we’ve looked around WHS three times because she’s so keen!) - when she’s reluctant reminding her of the fantastic choir we heard, or the amazing sports choices on offer, or the interesting teachers we’ve spoken to really help her focus on why she’s doing extra maths.

She basically does two hours at the weekend going through workbooks and past papers with DH, maybe another hour or two of practising things she finds hard during the week, depending on what else she’s doing (this has replaced instrument practice, which is mostly on hold just for this term). So nothing like the hours of work that we hear about others at school doing. I don’t know whether this is enough - we shall see.

Thank you, both!

We have looked round all the schools i mentioned, except PHS, but we are booked to do that. Every school she has seen she has loved!!
Yes, that's what i try to do - encourage her to thnk about all the drama, for example, that she would get to do.

Doesn't seem to work tho lol

Spectacularly bad timing with hornones coming in....

@greenleave - no not the exploding offer, but for us the journey was a little different to that expected.

We had one stretch, one likely and 2 backups.

The first result back was a backup - with a NO!, then the stretch with a No, then the likely with a waitlist.... Backup 2 we didn't really want anyway as we hadn't liked the school particularly but did it as it's very local (like 5 minutes travel).

So when the waitlist came through we literally had to take it or leave it as they want to go to the next on list ASAP. Now we were sure at this point that this was what we wanted to I would have been down there within 2 hours regardless!!

HOWVEVER, we had already seen the schools and picked these 4 (out of about 8) as we liked them.

There really was no time to view once the offers were in.

Exploding offers are just another flavour of the same thing.

All i'm saying is that you don't quite know your DD's journey. You may get two offers and how do you choose if you can't get to see the school?

What a situation @tickingthebox, how is she doing this year!

The hammersmith 3 schools are the same journey, either 20 mins on the public bus or 15 mins on the tube then 10 mins walk to school or something. We have KGS 10+, it will be similar to Tiffin. Then LEH which there is school bus, which takes 20-25 mins. Wycombe Abbey is a really different choice which I am not too sure if I can send her, it will break my heart, her little sister and her dad’s, but we all want her to have different choices and will try our best to stay fair and neutral. We did second round Henrietta too, the school is in the middle of a lovely subburb and small intake but we will have to move. Its still a long way till the decision time.

Greenleave if your DD got into KGS on the 10plus she is going to have offers from everywhere.