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

I agree. I don’t think I would be able to stop my DD from having an almighty breakdown mid way through as being at home sitting any exam just wouldn’t feel like an exam to her. Wishing all of you lovely mums a Happy New Year!. Thanks for all of your kind words and support!. Let’s hope this whole saga will be well and truly over soon.

@PatoPato you have to pick up the papers in a three hour window by surname and return them the same way the day after the exam. Papers must be opened and sealed on zoom call or candidate is out of process. Exam time table will proceed exactly as timetabled but at home.. I.e three exams back to back in home environment. Snack to be provided and permission to be asked to use the toilet. God forbid your wifi goes as exam will need to be repeated.. parent not allowed in room and child may be asked to demonstrate no helpful materials in room.. fml.. I want my registration fee back!!

Similar to Radnor House
I still think these convoluted workarounds are better than scrapping the exam and going on Zoom interview like SPGS & FHSS - you still get the chance to prove yourself on paper

Hopefully this whole circus will be something we can look back on and laugh about. But not for a very long time

@Stircrazyschoolmum I feel quite the same as you on trying to work out whether or not to withdraw from Emanuel now too. I think they are anticipating many will feel this way as far from ideal and hence why they ask mention the withdrawal protocol ask on their letter last night. I don’t envy them or any other school in the slightest either as must be very difficult for them to navigate and changing circumstances on top of running a school. Tough all round. What to do??!! I think my DC had even lost interest and impetus now...

Happy New Year! We're also in the midst of this. What an absolute mess! Trying to think of it as an opportunity to model resilience in the face of unexpected change for children. Not sure it's working 🙄. Good luck to everyone with exams and assessments, on or offline. At least we are now some way through the process!

Can anyone explain the waiting list scenario for independent schools? Is the list ranked in entrance exam results? Do many people gain a place if on a wait list in your experience if they didn’t successfully gain an offer? Thanks wise people

The school should be able to tell you to fly how many offers they have made that came from the waiting lists.

@Losingthewill01 last year WHS went to waiting list for loads of girls at our prep, as did other schools. Our head says if really keen on a school and on waiting list, to let the school know - it can get you metaphorically ‘to the top’ of the waiting list - in preps a head can email the head of the secondary school to plead the case. I know this happened with a friend’s DD last year and she got an offer.

@Losingthewill01 Thanks I was asking for a friend. I’m new to all this it’s a mind field!

@Losingthewill01 would say definitely get them to email the admissions registrar and let them know they would definitely accept if offered, that’s what our friends did and they got an offer a few weeks after the main offers went out.

@ Corblimbea thanks I will let her know! I just realised I tagged myself instead of you above! It’s been a long day!

@Losingthewill01 the trick to getting on waiting list is to get through the first stage filter. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of anyone getting an offer if they didn’t get past this stage as they let a substantial number through.

This year some schools have combined their first and second stages and interviewed everyone, or have used ISEB as their baseline. For each school your friend has applied to they will be able to look at the stages and provided they reach ‘final stage’ will be on the WL if not offered a place. I believe once this happens admissions will give a steer on their position and the likelihood of a place coming available.

In some cases you have to have nerves of steel, be prepared to pay 2 deposits or make a strong case for why a school is your favourite. There tends to be movement once the grammar places are announced and parents weigh up the cost/benefit. This year, it might be considerable depending on the financial state of society!

@PatoPato - I really feel for you and your dd, fingers crossed she gets the offers you want. Does she at least have a reference and / or CAT scores? I think the worst position is DC from state primaries that have neither as it really puts it all on the exam / pre-test.

@Losingthewill01In terms of the WHS waitlist, when dd was on it I was told it was in order of the stage 1 test results with girls bumped up or down a little depending on stage 2. I don’t know how that translates to this year. But it is true that there is a lot of movement, from memory (and I could be wrong) the people on that year’s thread who had been told they were in the top third of the waiting list all got offers.

Happy new year to all! Just to echo what pp have said, this thread has been invaluable in what has been an incredible stressful and unpredictable year. Congratulations to all those who've received offers (and invites to interviews) - that must be such a relief! Also sorely tempted to pull one of the exams coming up, but several of DD's eggs are in the ISEB basket, which is again is so unpredictable... Very much looking forward to this sorry saga coming to an end...!

It did occur to me that there will be some surprises thrown up in the school offers this year, with many DC receiving offers from their 'aspirational' choices while others not even offered their 'realistic' choices. Obviously this happens every year for a number of DC, but I imagine there will be more randomness in the school offers for this cohort.

From the point of view of the schools (especially the super-selective, which live by their grades in external exams), perhaps this 'covid cohort' will be on their radar even more than normal, which could translate into earlier intervention at the first hint of students struggling as they go up through the year groups - so possibly our DC could benefit from this extra focus and intervention.

I read somewhere - unfortunately can't remember the source any more! - that the optimal selection is based on two (equally weighted) components: exam + interview/reference. This year schools are either confronting an absence of exams (e.g. FHSS, SPGS), challenges in administering exams at home (e.g. Radnor, Emmanuel), or unequal environments in which ISEB has been administered. As such, I would imagine SAT and CAT scores will play an even greater role than normal in the selection process - as that's the closest data to an exam. But likewise, the interview and reference will also be significant. Definitely a challenge for the admissions teams this year, and no doubt they will be working around the clock right now...

Best of luck to all the DC with exams still to go. At least the most grueling part is nearly over!

Happy Monday!

Best of luck to anyone doing exams today!

If you know a school with 45 min (as opposed to 1 hour) specimen papers would you mind listing it? We’ve pretty much exhausted our supply and most of those were an hour.. I’m concerned DD adjust her speed to having less time.. the trickier maths questions and the essay risk not getting completed!

Morning @Stircrazyschoolmum you could try St George's Weybridge for maths, and Latymer Upper for English. Also Manchester Grammar generally useful as contain answers. Good luck, hope the exams go well!

@dazedandconfused11plus thank you! Ones with answers are always a bonus!!

@Stircrazyschoolmum - the Dulwich maths papers are great because there are 6 of them with full marking schemes in the form of a hand annotated question paper which is invaluable as it shows how many marks are for the correct answer and how many are for workings (which DD refuses to show)
You could skip the first 5 easy questions to cut down on time. The last 2 are always the scholarship type questions and are quite tricky.

DD sat Ibstock at home today which was slightly nightmarish. The instructions were that no other tabs should be open but the test launches from a link the school sent in an email so we had to have that open, then an extension add-ons was required to allow the invigilation software which popped up in a new tab, and there were pop-up tick boxes flying around everywhere so in my haste to shut down all other tabs I inadvertently shut the test down - twice.
Then having launched it for the third time there was then a requirement to scan in proof of id for DD which we'd not known about, cue huge panic trying to find something suitable as DH keeps passports at the office (weird I know).

It was a massively stressful & flappy start to the exam for both of us - I left her to it and went and had a lie down in a cool room upstairs for the duration.

Let this be over!

@PatoPato that sounds stressful.. but at least it’s done I guess?

Do you have KGS this week too?

Thanks for the heads up on Dulwich papers.. having struggled (with calculator!) to mark some maths today I think full annotated ones sound amazing!

@stellagibbons do you have ISEB this week? I’m really hoping buffoon Boris doesn’t announce any more surprises tonight!

@Stircrazyschoolmum - just Radnor left go, no KGS which we loved but too far for us on public transport. You can probably tell I've applied for a complete range of schools - I lost my nerve quite badly in October & made extra sure we were covered
Our primary was going to be running a sitting of the ISEB at the end of this week to scoop up the likes of WHS. I'm pretty certain the country will go into full lockdown tonigh but as the school is still open for key worker children I guess they'll still run the ISEB for the final handful who were all in a year 6 bubble pre Christmas. I wonder if WHS will still host on the 11th though. Which other schools had a late ISEB deadline - JAGS?

@Stircrazyschoolmum Yes, we have ISEB at JAGs on Wednesday - just praying that tonight's announcement doesn't scotch it as DD is ready (and over it all). I also think that if we go back to homeschooling for any length of time she'll lose all motivation again, so it feels a bit now or never for us.

Anybody doing Surbiton tomorrow? I have the exam link but not the Teams link. Have emailed them but no reply so far. Does anybody else have the Teams link or is everyone still waiting? They are leaving it very late!

Hi @Flossietea,

We got the link 20 min back . I’m sure they are in the process of sending it out and it should soon be with you

Thanks @ Trialsat11 just got it!