SW London girls independent/grammars thread 2020

[autumnnightsaredrawingin]

Last year, there were two amazing threads which were super helpful about exactly this, so I wanted to start a thread for girls due to start September 2020. If anyone from last year wants to contribute please do!

We have narrowed our choices down to 5, sadly not in the right postcode for Tiffin, and decided not to do the Sutton grammars.

So, she will be doing PHS, WHS, LEH, SHS and Woldingham. Also registered for Emanuel but we may pull that one.

I can't gauge much from DD after the Putney exam  She says it went "ok" and then went on to regale me with stories about lots of nice new friends she made and the biscuits offered. She keeps recognising other girls on the exam circuit and is really enjoying the social side
When it came to taking about the papers, she got v grumpy and said she doesn't think she did very well. It was always going to be stretch for her, so I'm not too surprised.
My only worry is that it will put her off for the other exams. Eek.
PS. @autumnnightsaredrawingin DD was a "poodle" and said she met a friend from the Surbiton taster day. Wonder if it's your DD?!!

Good luck to all taking their exams.
DD2 has north consortium on Friday.

She doesn't seem bothered she finds tests like this fun.
Didn't get this from me!

We have been hibernating over the holidays, though DD has done quite a bit of revision. Our next exam is tomorrow - 2 actually! She does LEH in the morning and KGS in the afternoon. It seems such a lot to ask if them to do 2 in one day, but I've kept my positive "makes it over quicker and adrenaline will see you through" message for DD. She does Surbiton on Wednesday, so we will all be glad to get to Wednesday night!

Good luck to everyone writing this week, and those who wrote on the weekend. I hope we get lots of positive news in the next few weeks 🤞🤞

Springboard - we have the same 3 exams as you over the next 2 days. Good luck to your daughter! And to everyone else!

We had SPGS today, which DD enjoyed. See you all tomorrow at LEH and Wednesday at Surbiton 😁

SPGS today, which dd seems to have enjoyed, LEH and LU tomorrow, followed by Putney on Weds. Good to have got started but tomorrow will be exhausting! Roll on Weds night. Consortium on Friday to round it all off. Go girls! They're all awesome.

Giveme and Revolution, Enjoying the SPGS exam is a good sign, so fingers crossed for both of your dds for an interview recall.

Good luck everyone!! This week seems to be the busy one. We’ve got LEH tomorrow and Surbiton on Wednesday. Then Emanuel next week and then that’s it, other than 🤞🤞🤞🤞 an interview for Putney or LEH (or both!). Good luck to all the girls, nearly there.

Enjoying SPGS sounds like a good sign!
We have a day off tomorrow thankfully - sending lots of luck to those sitting LEH, KGS etc tomorrow!
Next up for us is Surbiton on Wednesday and then Consortium on Friday.
DD doesn't finish until Sat 18th, so no end in sight just yet!!

DD met a girl today who is doing 10 different schools. I thought we had it bad!

@Revolution oh my gosh that’s insane?! We did 6 and I thought that was bad enough.

I have to say I am really starting to panic now. As some will remember, DD didn’t get though to round 2 of WHS. Putney sounds like the competition was extremely tough and DD’s description of how the exam went, whilst sounding ok, didn’t sound amazing...

LEH tomorrow and there’s no way she’s done enough work particularly on reasoning.

Emanuel is mega tough and ideally we would like all girls.

Surbiton we loved, and is our best hope, but by no means guaranteed at all. We do have the place at Woldingham but £ wise and for many other reasons it is not what we’d want.

Trying not to second guess, but PHS is our top choice and I just don’t think she’s done well enough. Worried that a bad experience tomorrow at LEH could put her off for Surbiton. Very worrying but am trying not to think about it too much.

I completely get you. It’s hard not to whip yourself into a panic. DS had his first 9+ today and it sounds like it was pretty disastrous, now he’s worried about the other ones this week and next. There’s nothing we can do about the assessments that have already taken place, so you need to turn the page and focus on the next ones.

OTOH, on Saturday you posted that your DD had come out of Putney relatively happy. Don’t second guess it! It sounds like it went fine.

Remember, Surbiton and PHS are back up schools for a lot of girls, if only for geographical reasons. They can all only go to one school! Try and stay positive.

Have you considered Sutton? I was rather impressed when I visited, the girls were very articulate and down to earth. I could see DD thriving there. I doubt they are full - worth a try perhaps if your other choices don’t come through?

@Autumnnightsaredrawingin , when you get home from LEH tomorrow spend a bit of time on the SHS website with your dd looking at all the sports & opportunities. The questionnaire part of the exam is important and she needs to have recall of all the things she is good at & enjoys & why she wants to go to the school etc. She will be asked to write down the other schools she is applying to, if you discuss this in advance it isn't a surprise.

I've been through the process with my dc and to be honest you don't start sleeping properly again until mid Feb. The comfort is you start seeing the same dc over & over again & realise everyone is applying to so many schools & can only go to 1.

Thanks both. @Gingercat1223 she has been shortlisted for a sports scholarship at SHS (and Putney) so has a really good idea of why she wants to go to both those schools, but an excellent idea to look on the website as well. We knew about the questionnaire and have practised remembering all her hobbies etc. Thanks again.

Best of luck, I'm sure she will do really well over the next few days.

Autumn - I just came in to say you won’t be the only one to feel that way. I’ve gone through this process four times with girls and boys (it’s even worse with the boys)! and now here I am on this thread, reliving the stress vicariously Says it all really!

The thing to remember is, the differences between all this schools is wafer thin really. SW London is very much a bubble. As a pp just said, children are all doing 5 schools and ultimately, can only take one place. Nearly all the schools will go to their waiting lists. Hopefully this won’t be an issue for your DD anyway, but last year both PHS and WHS definitely went into their WLs by some way. Also, (and this is only my speculation), there was a bit of a dip in GCSE results last year at PHS in terms of the headline stats of 9-7 grades. This was also the case at Ibstock. Rightly or wrongly, parents do look at the most recent headline stats when deciding in schools, so this may have some impact on take up of places this year?

Last year DD found Putney the hardest of the 4 indie schools she sat for, particularly the maths (which is her strength). They definitely put some quite difficult stretch questions in there. She still got an offer by the way so don’t lose hope. WHS definitely went quite a way down the wait list and were still offering the odd place in June/July.

Just popped on to say @autumnnightsaredrawingin I feel your pain. Had a total panic over Christmas that DD not anywhere near the level she should be (and that I have to admit I thought she was). Am actually glad we have started the exams now, we can't do any more! And (repeat as nauseam) whatever happens it really will work out one way or another! Regardless of outcome DD seems completely unfazed by the whole circus, so I'm super proud of her resilience (just wish she had a tad more self-motivation!!).

By the way what happens if you have an offer from one school but are on waiting list for your preferred school? Would you have to accept the first place to avoid losing it, and stay on the waiting list for the other school in the hope a place becomes available? Presumably you would end up losing deposit 1 if you then were offered and accepted a place in your preferred school?

Coming out of lurk mode to give you all a really big hug and say your DD’s are amazing! I think the jitters at this stage are completely understandable but as PP’s have said, each child can only go to one school and in DS’s year everyone ended up somewhere (indie or state) and by large all are very happy and settled.

As far as waitlists go, yes, my understanding is that if the deposit deadline passes before a place comes up at a preferred school then you have to be prepared to pay up or release the place. They have to do it that way to avoid gridlock whilst a small number of applicants sat on multiple places. Watch out for ‘exploding offers’ too as that caught a few out a couple of years ago.

Best of luck for those with exams today/tomorrow. xxxx

Thanks to Stircrazy and all the other posters who have been through this - appreciate the support and words of wisdom.

Autumn - hope today goes well, thinking of you and all the others who have exams today.

DD seems to be taking it all in her stride so far (we have almost 2 weeks to go...), but won't talk about the exams other than telling me about the biscuit selection and new friends she's made!

We have a week's gap in written papers coming up and I'm not sure what prep DD should be doing during that period. She has the Wimbledon Stage 2 assessment during that week, but other than that I was wondering whether a few 10 mins tests would be enough to keep her ticking over? Or looking through a few papers? Or absolutely nothing? Any ideas? Thanks!

@autumnnightsaredrawingin (and everyone else who did LEH today) - hope your DDs came out smiling. Mine said it was ok, and she did have a smile on her face. Apparently the snacks were good - we have given LEH third place in the snacks race so far. Sutton were top with home made cookies, and WHS are bottom with a cereal bar DD didn't like!

DD is currently writing KGS, she seemed cheerful as she went in but it is an awfully long day. @PhilippaFawcett - hope your DD is also doing ok right now! We have icecream planned for dinner

And then Surbiton tomorrow, with whatever traffic carnage the road works throw at us...

@Springboard she came out of LEH happy so hopefully KGS will have gone well too. Think she will be shattered though. Hope yours has survived.

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the kind words, glad to know I’m not alone!

So bizarrely, LEH, which I was the most worried for her about and was sure would be the hardest for her she said she really enjoyed (?) that she finished all 4 papers and although it was hard, she could do almost all of it and the reasoning was fine and she really liked the maths even though it was hard she liked the problem solving! So now I’m not sure what to think to be honest.

The only problem is she’s now super keen on LEH again and who knows if she’s done enough! Laughing about the snacks! Mine said LEH gave so many snacks and drinks. She is also enjoying the social side of it a lot and because they tend to do the exams in groups by surname she sees a lot of the same girls.

Surbiton tomorrow which she is completely relaxed about. 🤞🤞🤞 Good luck to all with that one too.

Hope everyone who did LEH and anywhere else today found it ok, well to your daughters @Springboard and @PhilippaFawcett

Hi - Any feedback on Latymer Upper? my daughter didn't like the maths and is usually good at it. It seems the exam was harder than the SPGS one.