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

@Autumnnightsaredrawingin I am so so pleased to hear that! I loved PHS when I visited it. Have they finished the new building yet? DD loves drama and debating is right up her street, it’s not an obvious choice from where we live due to journey but we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it!

Bearing in mind that many things will be different this year, did you have to do something called ‘The Putney Challenge?’ Im thinking it’s a team type group assessment but can’t imagine how it will work over zoom or teams.

@PatoPato yes absolutely, there are quieter girls, in fact DD is friends with some of the quieter ones. It does seem to be a real mix. She’s also made friends in the other forms through sport which is great. At Putney, for year 7, they put them in a form with girls who live locally to them which is such a good idea! It’s meant DD can travel to school with a few others on the bus or train. She was the only one from her primary to go, but that hasn’t mattered at all. Putney seems to be really good at bringing out the best in the girls so far, DD has come home talking about lots of things she’s never tried before. Also I like that they trust them to make choices quite early on, for example, they did half a term of lacrosse for one of their sports and were then given the option to carry on if they liked it, but if they didn’t, they could swap to football for the next half term. As DD put it, it meant she enjoyed sport more as she wasn’t being forced to do one she didn’t love!

Also, DD is not naturally inclined to work particularly hard, at primary getting her to do homework was a struggle. At PHS it seems to be ‘cool’ to work hard and do your best and now she goes to her room to do her homework without prompting. They really seem to have brought out the best in her!

@Stircrazyschoolmum the building isn’t finished yet, but I don’t think it will be too long. No, we didn’t have the challenge thing last year! Best of luck to your daughter. X

@Autumnnightsaredrawingin Thank you, this is great feedback on PHS, all the more useful as we did not have a chance to see it. The only negative for DD is that PHS plays lacrosse, not hockey, and DD loves hockey.

@Oceane11Plus funnily enough, my daughter was the same, loved hockey and that was a drawback for us. However, once at Putney, she tried lacrosse and didn’t love it, but it hasn’t mattered as she’s been able to do football instead which she loves, netball, gymnastics and dance, and is looking forward to trying rowing when they are allowed. She’s very, very sporty and we too had slight worries about the no hockey, but honestly it hasn’t been an issue!

@PatoPato Our DD is also on the shy and reserved side. She just started at G&L and loves it. Like every school there are some girls who are the centre of attention but I guess that’s a lesson for life anyway! I’ve popped on occasionally to this thread to see if I can offer any help but it does seem more geared towards the SW London schools that were too far for us to apply to. Good luck everyone - the one bit of general advice I can give is that every single one of my DD friends from her old school seems happy where they have ended up, no matter how difficult the journey might have seemed at the time!

We are now halfway through having done the CEM and also the ISEB (phew!)....DD found the CEM test very quick and time pressured but though she had done ok but who knows? How much can you tell from such a short test - a few errors can wreck your chances. She was happier with the ISEB - she said it was a bit like Atom but not really. She said it got harder a lot quicker and the end of the math was really really hard and she wasn't able to finish it. That's worried me a bit as math is usually her strength.....can't believe we need to wait so long to find out whether or not she has made it to the interview stage!

@millymollymandy988

I know getting details from our girls can be difficult, but just in case...

When she says at the end it was very hard, do you know if it’s a very complicated exercise or something she had never seen before?

@Timequest01 I think there were a number of things - some were tricky in that they were very wordy and it was more difficult to decide what type of math to use to solve the question....and then others had multiple parts - i.e. you had to do more than one piece of math to get to the final answer. But there was nothing in there that she hadn't been taught in school in terms of the actual mechanics of the math....

What was interesting was that some girls in her class finished the math section with 10 minutes to spare ....I am hoping DD did well in the earlier questions and it led her down a more difficult path, as opposed to her just having a bad day and not doing very well.

Ooh, spotted the ‘loom’ threads I started two years ago, I’ve been lurking as it’s not my turn again (next year!).

@millymollymandy988 Of all four topics DD was most happy about the maths but told me the last questions were quite hard and she was glad she had some spare time to do proper workings. She did not give me as much details as yours but she mentioned the last questions involved more lateral thinking (maybe that’s what your DD meant by being difficult to decide what type of maths to use?). She also mentioned there were some tricky diagrams She couldn’t help glancing at others’ screens and said some girls rushed through the questions and finished early but these are not the strong mathematicians in the class... I hope it does reassure you.

My daughter did ISEB this week. She seemed reasonably cheerful but I have no idea whether that's a good or bad thing... Also 3 interviews this week, what a process! St Cats Twickenham exam on Saturday, then a pause till January. Thank goodness. Good luck to your daughters!

@oceane11plus that’s reassuring to hear as math (and NVR) are her strengths and she can’t afford not to do well in those sections....

I saw this asked in pp and missed answer, but does anyone know if the ISEB test has a timer on screen and questions answered bar at bottom like Atom does?

@Gladtidings1 I would take it as a positive sign that she’s probably done well enough! Mine was also reasonably happy. I’m trying not to over analyse her feedback but some days I am hopeful, others less so when I imagine the worst case scenario... I feel we have put all our eggs in the same basket with all schools she is applying to except one using ISEB.

@oceane11plus - who knows really? I think the comfort to draw from this weird year is that we're all more resilient than you might think in worst case scenarios. Also, it's actually impossible to feel well prepped this year because so much has kept changing in ways that you might not anticipate. On the plus side wfh and zoom interviews has probably made it all much more straightforward to schedule than it would have been otherwise...

@millymollymandy988 yes, that could be a good sign that she did well, fingers crossed for you!

@MarshaBradyo Yes DD said she was able to see how much time she had left and how many questions had yet to be completed. She found this feature of the test very helpful.

Oceane thanks so much it really helps Ds when he knows the small stuff like that, ie what to expect.

@LondonJJ thank you for that insight. It's weird applying to a school I've not been able to visit & get a feel for. I get the impression from others that G&L is a very sporty school but is there room for the less sporty types?

@FlumePlume - lovely to see you here in preparation for next year! I followed your 2019 intake thread avidly. I had a DS that year and was jealous there wasn't a similar thread for SW London boys. It will be interesting to see how this year's experience affects next year's approach and whether the likes of PHS and WHS will stick with the ISEB.

@PatoPato, G&L is one of the few schools that does not awards sports scholarships!
They certainly have successful sports teams, but the girls pursue the whole gamut of activities available.
As at all the schools mentioned on this thread, the girls at G&L encompass all personalities and interests.

As @Utility says, there’s a wide range of sporting abilities at G&L and everyone seems to be encouraged and made to feel included (not like when I was at school for sure!)

Hi everyone - v late to this thread! I’ve mainly been over on the ISEB thread but great to see many familiar names here and so much support.
My DD has applied for a number of indies, more SE than SW, but lots of crossover with others on here. We’re at a state primary who can’t host the ISEB so we’re doing it at JAGS in early Jan.
Finding the whole process like a second, (even more stressful!) job but glad to have found this thread!

Thanks all for the links xxx

Hi @LittleBlackBear welcome to the thread. It looks like quite a few on here doing schools more to the SE.

Thanks for posting the threads of the previous years. Totally fascinating reading, and riveting as the offers, or not, started rolling in! What surprised me was how varied it was with supposedly less selective schools rejecting candidates who had offers from more selective schools. Also the way schools differed so much in terms of the WL (some not moving much at all, maybe PHS? - and others more so, maybe WHS?).

DD now done most exams/taster sessions for this term, just LEH left to go. Hard to motivate DD as thinks that now she's done a couple of exams that's it for her effort quota for year 6!

I wonder how much emphasis schools SHS place on the online taster days? Can't see how much they can tell with dozens of girls logging in for the same sessions - or is it more of a marketing exercise?