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.

LU e- mails were sent last night- check your spam folder :).

Thanks Paribus, nothing in spam either!

Does anyone know when we should hear from Surbiton HS?

@anappleadaykeeps - I think end January for SHS, I'm not sure they were any more specific than that unfortunately.

@ColaPip and @autumnnightsaredrawingin hope today went well for your DDs.

This is our second weekend with no revision needed. Feels almost like DD doesn't know what to do with all the free time, but it's really lovely to be able to say to her "just go and play"!

I think we're all now just waiting for responses from schools? Hope the wait goes by quickly, it feels like YEARS until end of Feb when we'll know all the results.

@ColaPip yes my DD had the same thing at Emanuel. Really not very impressed but am still buzzing with the LEH interview letter so not giving it much headspace now. Hope today goes well for your DD.

@Springboard yes all done now! DD didn’t have an exam today- she finished with Emanuel yesterday. So yes, now just interview at LEH, waiting for interview or not email from Putney on Tuesday and then the wait....

Re Surbiton they said ‘by the first week of February’ so I’m thinking possibly end of next week beginning of week after?!

Has North London Collegiate been sent already? (A friend of my daughter says she got invited for the interview...)

LU emails were just resent for those that didn’t receive on Friday. I had a small (major!) panic as I thought it was the PHS email!

Does anyone know which days are the SPGS interviews? Is it just today?
Also I heard that all interviews are done by the headmistress - it does not sound possible/right. Any idea?
Thanks

No idea who is doing the Spgs interviews but my dd's one is on Thurs. I imagine they spread them over a few days. Good luck to your dd @11PC.

I have no idea how the interview process at SPGS works. The only thing I know for certain is my DD was interviewed by the Head of Lower School rather than the High Mistress. Good luck to everyone’s DD!

No the SPGS interviews are done by a range of teachers. DD had a man who she didn’t like at all. She said he had “poor social skills for a teacher of young people”. It was the only interview she didn’t enjoy, but friends of hers had other teachers who put them much more at ease. They don’t ask any maths or English questions. He did ask her something like. “What gives money its value?” Then he just stared at her, while other girls said the teachers gave them some prompts and encouragement. She was offered a place, but the experience of that interview (plus another debacle in the waiting area which was a whole other story), put her off the school.

@Frostyskies1223 - Yes yes, I need to ring the various registrars as well as explore placing DD1 at a boarding school if space is not available.

@glittercats - DD2 sat for the 11+ exams and had 2 interviews at the only two schools we’ve managed to apply to. We didn’t plan on moving to SW London until Nov 2019. With hardly any time to prep for 11+, we are praying tor a miracle!

If I am not able to place my dd2 into a day school, I may try for a prep school and focus on 13+. At 10yo, DD2 is much too young to board.

Thank you so much for your advice!

@dsdddhdcat, my DD’s account of her interview was very similar to your DD’s experience. She found the interviewer cold, and it put her off SPGS altogether.

On a separate topic, does anyone know if the Wimbledon Creative assessment day was also attended by their own current year 6 pupils? DD went to WHS before we moved abroad, and when I collected DD I saw quite a few of her former classmates, as well as mums of (other) classmates in the queue to collect their DDs at lunchtime. I didn’t have time to stop for a chat so I didn’t manage to find out why they were doing the assessment if they are already at the school.

It is of course possible that they all left the junior school, and are now trying to get back in, but I would think this would be unlikely except in very rare cases.

I’m a bit puzzled!

On SPGS interviews, it’s various teachers. My dd was interviewed by a women she described as slightly scary but nice (not sure who, she would know but she’s at school), but there was a man also clearly interviewing as he was in and out of the waiting room collecting girls to interview. Dd enjoyed it and came out still talking - I can’t remember what she was asked, but it was a somewhat philosophical general chat, rather than Maths or English questions.

dsd what was your waiting area debacle?!? I just sat there very boringly reading and listening to the slightly nervous chatter of other candidates and their mums (it was all mums, interestingly).

Flume - the waiting room debacle was that there was what can only be described as an absolute loon of a mother who was doing the most ridiculous level of “performance parenting” I’ve ever seen. She had a younger child with her and had brought various puzzles, eg the Rubiks snake and the Rubik’s cube and basically she was making a show of timing the child doing these puzzles -“Nooo you’ve got to beat your record! Again!” Interspersed with this was her reading (loudly) a story in French to the child (they were possibly Chinese), despite the child looking as if she couldn’t care less.

Then, there was another mother who seemed to know this puzzle mother, but this one seemed to have brought not only her husband, but what looked like grandparents and various other children etc as well - as if it was a family day out. All they kept telling the puzzle mother was that their daughter had been “disappeared for hours! Where could she be?!” The implication was that she had been gone so long because she was so amazing (she was doing a music scholarship). These two women were winding each other up about their respective DDs’ musical genius while everyone else sat there losing the will to live.

Then one unrelated girl came back from her interview quite quickly (most were about 15 mins). Her mother said, “Was that it?” and they left. The loud puzzle mother said something smug about a brief interview not being a good sign, at which point another patent asked her to kindly keep her thoughts to herself because there were children in the room and this kind of speculation wasn’t helpful.

Then DD had an interview that made her feel quite anxious. She’s normally very happy go lucky but it’s the only bad experience she had in the 11 plus circuit.

dsd That sounds awful! I’m very glad that we didn’t encounter Rubik’s Cube lady, we clearly got lucky on the timing of our slot. And my dd had about 10-15 mins interview and got a place, so that was clearly wrong!

dsd good grief!
I often wonder if they should do an episode of Motherland where they deal with 11+ . You've just described the perfect scene!

The whole thing does seem quite funny now, looking back.

Having said all this, we do know other girls who had much better interview experiences.

DD enjoyed the exam day, but described the man who interviewed her as worse than Claude from “the Apprentice.”

It’s hard to know how much emphasis schools put on the interviews though, to be honest.

I brought my daughter to 3 interviews last year(either because they were our top choice or my daughter didnt want to do go for it) and SPGS was one and I didnt notice any thing unexpected( every parent was nervous, pretending to read something and avoided chatting). Each interview was 10-15 mins. We were very lucky last year at this stage that we already had couple of offers, one was from GHS with academic scholarship. Good luck everyone!

colapip a motherland episode is a fantastic idea.. the Halloween one was very close to home for our area.. an 11+.. the mind boggles!

Well done to everyone getting interviews. PHS emails tomorrow is that right? I will be following with interest as one of our fave schools for next year.

I don’t suppose anyone has an idea of which schools get most applications? ( I.e ratio of applications to places?) Still a bit unsure if any ‘banker’ schools exist in our little bubble!

PHS email just landed and dd has been invited for an interview! So happy for her, especially after the LU no last week...i hope you all get good news! do we know how many they are inviting back for interviews?

@abc79 congratulations to your DD!

Also just got the email and it’s a YES for an interview for my DD too!!!! Slightly shocked but so, so happy!

Good luck to everyone else.

congratulations to your dd @Autumnnightsaredrawingin!!

Anyone knows when South Hampstead High School is going to send the invitation email?