Upcoming girls’ independent SW London schools 11+ exams

[Oceane11plus]

Are there any parents on this board with DDs due to sit independent school exams in January? If so where do you stand in terms of shortlisting schools, revisions etc Are you planning to do any work over the summer?

We are still in the process of fine tuning the list of schools... We will probably end up applying to about 4/5 schools, of which 2 are in the same consortium which means 3/4 exams max.
As far as I am aware, our prep has not recommended any specific revisions for the summer, but I was still planning to make her write some maths, English and VR/NVR past papers, as 2 months without doing anything seems too much so close to the exams. I was thinking of making her do one paper a week in each subject, on top of reading and boosting her vocabulary, with two weeks in August without any paper/formal work.

Any tips on what we should be doing at this stage and over summer holidays, notably from parents with past experience, would be super useful!

Thank you

Waves - we are. We looked at the main schools we were interested in last year thank goodness and took DD as well, which as I can't see open days happening in the same way this autumn is a bit of a relief. We're slightly more SW/ SE London but I'm going to tag onto this thread as a few of the schools do overlap. We're looking at JAGs, Streatham & Clapham and possibly Alleyns.

DD is currently at a state school and has basically been teaching herself with little/ no active teaching from her school so we're all a bit stressed by the whole experience to be honest and I need to contact the admissions departments of the schools to find out if the massive disparity in teaching is going to be taken into account for the exams or not. Plans for the summer are to have a week off, then look through past papers/ exam requirements and target any gaps, especially in maths. Bond 10 min practice for VR/ NVR (although I don't think these are major parts for any of the schools we're going for). And reading of course.

Thank you for your response! Sounds like we have similar plans for the summer.

We will also be applying to Jags. We ruled out Alleyns as we prefer single sex at this stage (it might change for 6th form though).

We also visited all the schools (except one) when we applied for our older DD but that was a few years ago and I believe some heads have changed so it would have been nice to go and see again.

As for the gap between state and prep school that’s a fair question, worth asking. Our prep has been pretty diligent but it’s hard for me to tell how it compares to what it should have been (my older DD was at a state school when she sat 11+ exams so I have no point of reference).

Last summer our london prep gave a rather large folder of work for the summer hols.State schools won't understandably....but I'm very surprised a prep school hasn't.
We had something every day ,each week apart from a couple of weeks off. It seemed alot, but it worked ;-)
Good luck!

The most full on schools (think Kew College in west London for example) will make you apply to six schools and expect full on work through the summer. They get good results though. Average number of offer varies between 3 and 4 depending on the year. But just you know what you are up against. In the long term, I am convinced it is not the best for the child, but cramming through the summer does help you with results at this particular point in time.

@ripple11 thank you for flagging, that’s good to know, I will ask tomorrow if they are planning to give any homework for the summer (school has not broken up yet so it might still be coming)

Wow that seems quite full on indeed! With my elder DD I don’t think we did that much work over the summer (but we worked very hard between September-December), it all worked out very well in the end but that was a few years ago and she was not at a prep so the process might have been less competitive and as a state school applicant marking might have been more complacent?
In any case from all the posts it sounds like we have to carry on with the regular practice... She’s not as self motivated as her older sister so it might be a struggle at times but hey ho, I’ll have to do my best to motivate her.

I spoke too quickly, our prep has finally given us a pack of papers to complete over the holidays.
I am thinking of making her do one paper of each subject (maths, English, VR, NVR) every week, with a one-week break in August. Does it sound reasonable?

Whilst I'm here... I am looking for up to date views on Putney High. We didn't apply for my older DD so never got to see it, and I'm not sure we will be able to see it because of Covid. I have read quite a lot of old posts but views are quite polarised and I can't make up my mind whether we should put it down on our list or not

Last year there was a very useful SW girls indies thread that I lurked on.. there’ll be a lot of useful Current info around the schools you mention there. (Pre-Covid and head changes)

If you guys want to start a support thread for this years process then I’d love to join you as I’m in a similar situation - DD headed into y6 of state.

I know WHS has combined its pre-test with its main exam in Jan, I’m wondering if Jags will also. S&C and Emmanuel have historically interviewed in the fall.. these may also get pushed back.. therefore I’m probably going to let DD have a more restful summer than initially anticipated as it’s going to be a hard slog till Jan.

I don’t live in your area but have been through this with our children and grandchildren. If your child is at a prep that specifically prepares them for 11+ you are lucky. Otherwise, your child needs a tutor and the sooner, the better. They won’t be used to sitting exams and probably won’t have even seen some of the Maths questions. They probably won’t have been taught to time their work. To give them a fair chance , you need to employ a tutor

I think this can probably become the support thread!

Has anyone's DD been back at school at all? DD was fine with the home learning initially, but just sitting at home working on her own with little to no academic interaction has really taken it's toll and I'm loathe to push her too much over the summer as I don't think it'll be that beneficial. As I said above, I think we'll keep it pretty low-key over the summer and then start really focusing in September.

Has anyone heard anything else about the usual arrangements being changed?

@Stircrazyschoolmum This is very interesting, I hasn’t realised some schools had already decided to shift the exam sequence due to Covid. Worth keeping an eye on it as it does somewhat relieve the pressure short term.

@stellagibbons My DD went back to school for the last 3 weeks of the term and has now broken up. They didn’t do much in terms of formal academic learning but it was good for her to get back to some form of normality and detach herself from the computer screen. She’s spent 3 months with her eyes glued to a screen, she had to have a PC in her room during this period and I suspect she’s been spending some of her free time during breaks between lessons playing and watching silly videos on YouTube... DH and I have been working from home but let her and her siblings work on their own without much oversight as we have been very busy. I therefore also feel we will have to ramp up the preparation rather slowly.

We have been given a huge folder to work through over the summer holidays. Lots of maths papers and English comprehensive and VR/NVR. From September when we go back they only do homework in the core subjects and it’s really all about exam prep. The school were very good over lockdown and managed to get all year 5 back on half days for 4 weeks

mdh2020 you are right that a tutor is very valuable in teaching exam technique. My DD’s primary is very relaxed and she’s not sat an assessment since Christmas. Some of the schools - Putney for example - state they won’t go above the y6 curriculum but I think others might and a tutors knowledge here is very useful.

I can’t think of any girls schools I’ve looked at that do NVR.. Alleyn’s do spacial reasoning which we’ve not looked at yet!

stella DD went back for 2 weeks but the focus was very much on social/pastoral things. The only other change I’m aware of is the Wandsworth test has moved from Sept to early Dec which is a bit frustrating as it would’ve given a sense of how DD responded to timed/exam conditions and where her VR is at!

oceane I’ve visited PHS several times as my friend’s daughter went there and loved it. I really like the head and found it busy and buzzy. The site is quite crammed (like WHS) and I’m not sure if their building work has been delayed by Co-vid.

PHS and WHS would be train rides for us so I’m still dithering on whether we’d apply!

@Oceane11plus watching this post with interest as we live in SW London and are applying to state and indie schools. I started a thread a few months back but appreciate with summer approaching , prepping and shortlisting the shortlist is becoming an actual thing.

We looked at JAGS and SCHS last year. Over the last few weeks/months, of GDST schools, we've seen Wimbledon and Sydenham. As others have said, Wimbledon have taken into account the impact of Covid and have given more time by moving the assessment date. Others haven't followed suit yet but I'm keeping my ear to the ground.

I'm torn with summer prep - the last four months have been trying. Good days and not so good days in terms of my DD's motivation. She is at a state school with limited resources so I'm conscious the once a day Twitter activity posts coupled with my (I assume) jarring attempts to step in as teacher whilst working from home hasn't been the best.

With her tutor's support, I plan to identify the gaps we need to plug and will see how she goes with 10 mins of some general practice and a test paper once a week. we do however plan to have a proper staycation during the hols - we need it!

Hi, if I can be if any help here, I’ll try my best! I don’t have one going through 11 plus this year, but have had 4 go through the process in SW London. Recent experience of applications to SPGS, LU, G&L, PHS, FHSS. No experience of WHS or any of the SE London schools, I’m afraid. Less recent experience of applications to KGS and Ibstock.

All I would say, at this stage, is there’s not much you can do for the new Consortium exam as it’s multi-choice yes, but nothing like the VR papers in the Bond books, etc. By all means, do a few of those, but no need to be going crazy. The Consortium test is more like the CAT tests they did in school which assess “underlying ability,” not “learned ability,” so more like an IQ style test than anything you can improve on, as such.

The initial tests for SPGS is very similar, but it’s in a computer and I think it’s an adaptive test.

Lots of schools don’t do NVR / VR anymore, so do check the formats of the particular schools your DCs are going for!

Just to add an update, but we are looking at KGS and they have announced that they are dropping the VR/NVR for this year and going with an English and maths paper only

Hello - I also have a Year 5 DD in state school and will be looking at WHS, SPGS, G&L, PHS so appreciate the support thread and any guidance to get us through to the other side without too much stress.

We don't have a tutor, but have been working through bond books and DD is pretty good at getting stuck into the reasoning and the English. I'm hoping to identify the gaps in Maths and work on them myself.

I've only been through this process with a DS so far and he was difficult to motivate, but really needed 30 mins each day of the summer to get things cranked up. The Wandsworth Test was a really useful way of gauging where they were at and giving them some experience of exam conditions, so I too am disappointed that has been postponed.

I thought the virtual open days for PHS and WHS last week were really good. We're booked in for an open day at G&L in September which might also be virtual. Given the current situation, we are all a bit tired here so I don't think we'll be starting on any proper prep until mid-August at the earliest.

I agree we will have to keep ourselves updated on any changes to the process this year so as not to be caught unawares. Good to be with others in the same boat...

We're having next week off (although, to be honest, enthusiasm for home schooling has dropped off a cliff here this last week as well).

I'm going to spend the week getting my ducks in a row with the schools' requirements and deadlines, plus the same for the state schools we're interested in. I also need to make a decision whether we're going to do the Wandsworth Test (we're out of borough) and have a punt at Graveney or not. The fact that it's later than normal is actually putting me off as it complicates things more I feel.

I think Bond is too easy, particularly for schools like St Paul's. CEM and GL papers are useful papers generally for first stage preparation. Work carefully on timing. Manchester Grammar School has good past papers at a higher level. A tutor is useful and will be able to give you an idea of where your child sits in the cohort particularly now the general mock tests aren't running.

Just coming in as we were in exactly the same position last year, and my daughter sat many of the schools mentioned here. She ended up getting 5 offers and 1 no offer. She is going to Putney High, and we have been hugely impressed to date with all their communications through the Covid situation.

Happy to answer any questions! My daughter sat: Surbiton high, Putney High, Wimbledon high, LEH, Emanuel and Woldingham. Wimbledon was the no offer.

Good luck to all your girls!

I love seeing those who went through this last year dropping in. I have so many questions as we're going through it the first time.

Autumnnightsaredrawingin (if you don't mind answering): your daughter did so well. Can you offer how she prepared for the exams? I don't think I have a firm understanding of what level schools to aim for. For all schools like LEH, PHS and NHEHS do you need to ace exam, have high CAT scores and be top performing in current year?

We've decided not to tutor as we're in a prep school hopefully covering what we need there and targeting specific gaps at home with extra work and past papers.

@siz99 if you are in a prep then you should have someone within the school who advises you on school places that would suit your child. Ours all happen from September - October in year 6 to give us all chance to apply. We started looking at the schools in year 5 to rule out the ones we didn’t like so that when we have our chat at school, we can take their advice and narrow down our own thoughts . At our school we are given a ‘back pocket’ ie one that they should get an offer from, a middle one (one that should be attainable but will be more difficult) and an aspirational one i.e on a food day, if they performed well then they have a chance.
Re cat scores for SHS think 125+ and more
For PHS and LEH . They really are the cream of the crop academically

Thanks to all your contributions, it’s great to compare notes with those at the same stage and get some advice from those who have been through before.
Even if we went through it with DD1 3 years ago and all worked out well in the end (too well in a sense that deciding which offer to accept was an excruciating choice), I feel I am back to stage 1 now, being as stressed as I was for the first one. To be fair even if they are of a similar academic ability, they are very different DDs with different characters and approach to work. Whilst my eldest has always been very hard working and self motivated, doing a tonne of extra curricular activities on top (up to scholarship level), her sister is much more relaxed and sensitive, to the point that she can end up in tears for having to do a maths paper when she’s decided it’s not the time I never experienced this before so this is all new to me and I am having to adjust my revision approach...
Some will tell me to outsource this stress to a tutor but from my experience, I felt that I was better able to identify the gaps and fill in these specific gaps at the pace that suited the best for us. I focused on the maths but used a tutor in the last 4 months preceding the exams in English as English is not our first language.

As for which schools to apply to, thanks @Stircrazyschoolmum for your input on PHS. I have been some research and spoke to the headmaster who also suggested we should add it to the mix. In addition it’s a short bus ride from home so sounds like we are going to apply.

Now I am just hoping the exams take place as scheduled in January...

In a typical, non-selective prep in SW London, it would be like this (based on having seen it three times) -

SPGS - top of the top set for maths and English to even have a go.

G&L, LU - top few from the top sets to have a go.

LU put a lot of emphasis on the interview and take the more “confident,” articulate types. Maths exam very extended for that school. English comprehension is multi-choice but tricky. Very liberal, fast-paced, “buzzy” kind of school.

G&L exam is an unknown quantity really, but school is fantastic for a more “quietly confident,” academic and focused girl. Very kind supportive atmosphere in the school.

PHS - anyone in the top set for Msths and English should have a go and usually quite a few get in from the middle set too. I’ve known girls to get scholarships there from the middle maths and English sets.

WHS - again girls from the middle sets get in for sure, but the process seems more random here.

FHSS - suddenly much more selective in recent years and no longer a “back up” to PHS etc (as last year’s GCSE results considerably higher). But definitely worth a go if your DD is sitting the consortium exam for G&L anyway.

LEH - quite far our for some, but similar acceptance rates to PHS or FHSS in terms of the girls who are offered places.

What you find is PHS, LEH and FHSS offer a lot of scholarships - sports, music, academic or combos of these - to tempt people away from SPGS and G&L. G&L do not offer scholarships (apart from one only in music).