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.

Oh, cross post - well done @chevronrosie DD!

Hi.
We’ve just got our letter with an interview invite from LEH ( after getting a no from
KGS) on Wednesday . I hadn’t expected this interview invite really and am now wondering if the commute to LEH is doable from Wimbledon and so would be grateful to know what others think with experience of this ( or know anyone else that does it). I know there is a LEH school bus that leaves Wimbledon 7 am or 7.10 or something but it just feels too early. I have a son who started Whitgift this year that is just about managing his 50minute commute but he is a bit more physically resilient than her. She will want to do every after school club under the son at whichever school she goes to as well, but I know will not like getting home late. We have a place at Sutton High which we both do love the sound of too and it’s much quicker to get to from Wimbledon . I know still long shot to get a place at LEH but I thought I probably should now properly consider if it’s feasible or not.
Best of luck to you all and congrats to those with offers already

Congrats @chevronrosie, @PhilippaFawcett and @almost. Well done to your dds. Good luck to everyone else waiting to hear.

Hi everyone, we received an interview and music scholarship audition letter at LEH. Very glad for DD but started being worrying about the interview

Congratulations to all who have received interview for LEH! And so sorry to hear that @Contessa28. It’s so hard to hear and I felt exactly the same as you when mine received her rejection letter from WHS after first stage.

I have just checked my post in my lunch break (!) and.... it’s a YES for an interview for my DD at LEH!!!!! I am so, so happy for her and I had hardly dared hope for anything after WHS. Obviously now it’s still a huge competition as the interview stage will have many more girls than places, BUT to reach this stage is amazing.

Also just to echo what someone else said, it is one exam on one day, @Contessa28 everything crossed for your other choices, your DD is amazing and it’s a tough, harsh process.

Does anyone know what the format of the LEH interview is from past years? And how many they interview vs offers / waitlist? I'm trying to keep my hopes in check as it is our first choice / DS at Hampton etc etc . This whole process is such an emotional roller coaster ...

Here I go with my very first post!

Being new to Mumsnet as well as educated in North America, I am at a loss with 11+ for my DD2. We intend to move to SW London. Based on what I have read to date, the 11+ process is not for the faint hearted!

Once DD2 has sat for the various 11+ exams, will SPGS (2nd stage)/G&L/LEH give any indications of her performance if she receives an interview invite? I would love to know if DD2 falls short of the required and I intend to use this info to help her through the difficult transition to the UK system.

Sorry for being off topic, DD1 will be Y10 when we reach London, is it impossible to find a Y10 spot at selective SW independent schools? From what I heard, Y10 is the start of GCSE prep for many UK schools.

Any help/info/advice is much appreciated!

@almost231, I know plenty of ds at Hampton who use the Wimbledon shared bus, the journey is doable & they use the travel time to do homework but Hampton has few after school clubs whilst LEH has many more & an after school bus option that is an extra cost.
Also the Hampton/LEH shared boat house for rowing is in Sunbury with no public transport links.

Best of luck with the interview, I would worry about options once you have the offer letters in hand.

@LoveFaithHope , I would start a new thread for your dd going into Year 10, it's a completely different set of circumstance to this thread & involves ringing Registrars directly and having your current school's involvement in current level of working etc.

LU email just arrived unexpectedly and dd has been invited to interview. Wasn't expecting to hear until end of next week so that took me by surprise!

LoveFaith - did you mean that your DD has just sat the 11 plus for those schools over here and now you’re wondering if you can request feedback before interviews?

The short answer, I’m afraid, is no - they won’t give you any feedback between stages. It wouldn’t make any difference anyway because ultimately, they’re either going to offer a place or they’re not. It’s not all about exam performance either because if you think about it, apart from a few “outliers”, there will be a whole section of girls getting very comparable marks who are showing up to the interviews. It’s much of a muchness in many cases. So this is when they take into account extra curricular stuff and references, Along with interviews themselves, of course.

Congrats on the interviews today btw!!

Congrats @givemesomewineplease, fab news for your dd. Sadly it’s a no for us from LU...not totally unexpected as she did say she found the math impossible but sad nonetheless...gosh, this process is not for the faint hearted...

@Springboard any news?

Who else is waiting? Everything crossed for you all.

Well done @givemesomewineplease on the LU interview!

Thanks everyone, but so sorry to hear about your dd @abc79, it was a seriously hard maths paper. This is a brutal process and the numbers applying to LU are insane. I really hope your dd isn't too disappointed. You're waiting to hear about PHS next week aren't you? Hopefully that will be much better news. Latymer interviews are apparently v hard so not especially looking forward to that!

Sorry to vanish, I had to actually do some work rather than wait for the postman 🙄 But our letter has come and DD has got an interview!! So happy for her 🙂.

Well done to everyone else with good news, for LEH and LU.
And I hope those with bad news today have better news soon. xx

Hopefully we can all enjoy a weekend with no revising 🙂🙂

thank you for your kind words @givemesomewineplease. she is fine which makes me admire her even more. what amazing girls to learn so many life lessons at this young age. so onwards and upwards and yes, all fingers crossed for PHS and consortium schools! thank you though and congrats again to you and all others with interviews!

Sorry, I seem to be emoji happy tonight. Must be too much time spent near teenagers recently!

Yay well done @Springboard great news!

Does anyone have any info on number of LEH interviews vs places allocated?

@ColaPip and anyone else who did Emanuel today hope it went well- all I got out of mine was it was fine.

Does anyone know how many are called for the LU interview? Also what is the interview like? Thanks

The original letter said 1330 were sitting the LU exam and that 330 would be invited back to interview. I think the interview can be literally anything and is known to be challenging. Some friends of dd who are v strong candidates haven't been asked back to interview so I'm nervous about how fierce the competition is! But they've done brilliantly to get this far whatever happens.

Well done to those who sat Emanuel yesterday, that's a long old haul. And Ibstock is today so good luck to those sitting that one. It must then be over for most if not all.

Has anyone not got an email or letter from LU? Not heard anything yet. Not sure if that’s a good or bad sign.

Yep Emanuel done - you must be finished with exams now autumn?! Very well done to your DD!

Did anyone else's DC get caught up in maths paper screw up at Emanuel yesterday? Not very impressive.

Apparently the maths paper wasn't copied correctly so they had to stop the maths exam after Section A and then move on to the English paper while they frantically photocopied more papers. Then had to carry on with Section B of maths later - DD said they still didn't have enough papers at this point. Bit of a drama and rough on these young kids.

Anyway, DD is sitting her last exam (Ibstock) right now - hurray!