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

Thanks for clarifying! I’m easily confused with all the acronyms 🤪

But while I’m here worth asking, has anyone heard from Sydenham High School? We’ve not heard from them since October...

@Trialsat11 well done to your DD. We got an email today too that DD has passed an eligible to apply.
I don’t know what information is, but on there are usually lots of discussions around this on the elevenplus website

Thanks @Singingrain1223.

Congrats @WarmAndco3y on ur DD’s result . I checked the eleven plus website and seems she will just be in for a place at Nonsuch or Wallington as per the previous years .

Let’s see what the indies come up with but it is such a relief to see a positive result afternoon the pretest woes

Email from Alleyn’s tonight explaining the rest of the process.
Seems there is still an interview stage with creative writing and group activities
For academic scholarships 3 face to face interviews. Seems quite a lot!!

Yes Allen’s have been a bit behind the other schools this year in adapting to the current situation. They were late to provide virtual presentations and I’m not surprised they are announcing these extra assessments at this late stage.

I find that Alleyn’s announcement is coming
in late tbh.
I thought they just had the interview left, not the creative writing and group activities.
Also late in the month, I was hoping it would be done a little earlier than that.
How are they going to run group activities in person in 6 weeks from now ?

I heard back from Surbiton that they will send the missing photos today by email and also put hard copies of them and the instructions in the post.

I also asked them whether we needed to upload the photo of the written work in the exam time or if we would have extra time at the end of the exam to upload it. They confirmed there will be an extra ten minutes at the end of the exam time in which we can upload the photo of the writing.

I wonder if the latest news about secondary schools delaying the physical return to school will impact exams due to take place onsite in early January??? Will be interesting to see how this plays out...

@dazedandconfused11plus Who knows? DD is sitting the ISEB at the start of January at JAGs, it's the week before they start back, so I would hope won't be affected.

@stellagibbons JAGS don’t resume until the 11th of January anyway, so I assume the exam dates were deliberately set for 6th & 7th.

Would really be interesting @dazedandconfused11plus

Late to the thread but glad to have found it. DD also sat a few of the schools mentioned here for the ISEB. Got an email this afternoon from Latymer, interview on the 5th of January. Somewhat relieved (although it's only the interview for now) as she came out of the ISEB feeling very defeated.

@Brot64 welcome to the thread. Well done you your DD. I assume she has done well enough on the ISEB exam to be called back fir an interview. Wishing her all the best with that.
We are just looking to enjoy the next 2 weeks, I haven’t had the heart to tell DD that there is more to come with Alleyn’s. We are just relaxing for now.

Has anyone heard anything about the sports scholarships at Wimbledon high school? Spent ages sorting out the video submissions and I thought they were going to request references shortly after that? All seems to have gone quiet.

Also wondering how the recent announcement is going to impact pretests in January? Some schools are still planning to have DCs on site?

@WarmAndco3y thank you. Yes it appears she did well enough for their expectations. Glad we can have a short break and enjoy the Christmas break.

My DD also has an interview at LU on 5th! Still waiting to hear from City of London girls - they’re really dragging out the process.

Congratulations to @Brot64 and @ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson on your DDs passing to the interview round for LU, that is amazing news!!

@Iateallthesmarties894 sorry can't help you on sports scholarships at Wimbledon.

Does anyone know when we will hear from Putney? I have 25th January for the interviews - but now I can't find that date on this website, so am I imagining this?! The date does seem later than the other schools though...? (obviously that's assuming DD gets that far!)

@dazedandconfused11plus thank you, it's a step forward in what is a stressful process. Cannot wait for all of it to end. We are also awaiting Putney and CL no news from either. Have already scrolled my email in panic but glad to know we didn't miss anything.

@Iateallthesmarties894

Has anyone heard anything about the sports scholarships at Wimbledon high school? Spent ages sorting out the video submissions and I thought they were going to request references shortly after that? All seems to have gone quiet.

Also wondering how the recent announcement is going to impact pretests in January? Some schools are still planning to have DCs on site?

We had a letter from Sydenham HS on Friday with details about their on site assessments for Tuesday 5 January. DD also due to sit ISEB at JAGS later that week.

Obviously all arranged pre tier 4 but I do wonder if/how they can still go ahead..

Do you think Spgs will still have the exam on 4th Jan because of Tier4?

Tier 4, I believe, allows for travel for educational purposes. But don’t know how that will be interpreted for the various schools. The grammars went ahead with their onsite paper exams while we had the ‘mini lockdown’ end of October/November
It’s all an unprecedented conundrum. It will be interesting to see how events unfold.

I think a lot will depend on whether schools are ordered to close throughout January or not

@ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson

My DD also has an interview at LU on 5th! Still waiting to hear from City of London girls - they’re really dragging out the process.

Well done, that is amazing. Sadly mine didn’t get offered interview and a few others I know did not either so that is great news. I had it down that City don’t email results until 8 Jan and interviews are planned for the 15th.

Would be great to know how your DD scores generally - is she in the top bracket. Am wondering more in LU’s stance?

DD does better with online tests than written ones, so LU's switch to ISEB was really in her favour. We did a few Atom mock tests with her during the October half term and she was scoring 125 on English and 129-130 on maths. Not quite so well on the reasoning papers, but still in the 120s.

She's in the top 3 or 4 in her year at school, but I wouldn't have said she was a stellar performer - her handwriting is atrocious.

Oh, and she did the ISEB at LU during the November lockdown, and there was no suggestion that it couldn't go ahead, so I don't think the January exams will be affected.