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

Good luck to all those sitting exams tomorrow!! And hoping the others later this week work out one way or another.

We just have Emanuel left next Saturday. So expect if there is a lockdown again, they will have to resort to PLAN C and mail the papers out or else have an online system in place. Hmm...gets riveting by the day!!

So will exams still take place in person tomorrow?

Were schools closed with immediate effect?

@divebomber I can't see how they can?

This constant rollercoaster is just hideous. Our poor children.

They can't can they?

We are in National lockdown from midnight so seems all change and expect schools will email out shortly or first thing to cancel any on-site exams...

Just reading the new lockdown guidelines:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/949536/NationalLockdownGuidance.pdf

It does say:

“Travel
You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes).”

It also mentions you can leave home if you have a reasonable excuse such as education or childcare.

So maybe Emanuel will still ask for parents to collect and return the exam papers on the allocated days and the new rules don’t impact? All this second guessing...I suppose just need to wait and see again.

As for the exams expected to take place on site, I hope everyone finds out soon.

Most offer acceptance dates will be the first week in March - I think that rules out any offer holder taster days as promised.
How does everyone feel about potentially sending their child to a school they've never seen in person.
I am so out of my comfort zone I can't believe I'm not hyperventilating!

@PatoPato Fortunately, we saw all our schools in 2019 or in small tours arranged a couple of months ago, except for CLSG and so personally I would feel very unsettled and hesitant accepting anywhere we had not physically been to or seen in action. Maybe they will extend offer dates for all? Is that a possibility under the circumstances as am sure many will feel same as you. If offers come in if not before, it would definitely be worth emailing schools direct early on to query and for some reassurance.

Clever you @MumsRule20 - very savvy. I had 6 visits booked for the summer term and emailed them all to ask about the chance of a tour and it was a firm no but with the promise of offer holder days. Luckily I'd seen a couple (our favourites) in a flurry of enthusiasm 2 years ago when DS was going through it and I still had some leftover momentum but DD has not seen a single one & did not buy into the virtual open days which were a total yawnfest from her point of view.

I was thinking about the possibility of the schools delaying the acceptance dates but I think the wait lists are going to come into play very heavily this year as people applied to more schools than usual because of the ISEB etc. So the brightest children will be sitting on their 6 offers from top schools waiting for the chance to see them in person, thereby keeping 5 other children hanging around waiting for the waitlists to all start shuffling into motion.

@PatoPato

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 well done for managing what looks like a stressful process. did your daughter manage to finish it ? I heard it was very long.

St Olaves has postponed their second stage 11 plus. It was meant to be tomorrow morning!

JAGs ISEB for the remaining girls (presumably the majority of these will be state applicants) cancelled. They will be in contact with revised assessment process and assure us it will be completed in good time.

This also has the knock on affect for our SCHS application as well.

@stellagibbons I’m so frustrated for you. Sending a virtual hug and hand hold. Weirdly, of all the schools I trust those two more than others to come up with a good answer!

@divebomber your stress levels must be through the roof.. we all build ourselves up to these dates and then they shift and we are left with a bunch of adrenaline.

I’m getting to the point where I’m scared to check my email!

@ stellagibbons so sorry for your DD . I know they all want to just get done with the exams at this stage .
WHS has cancelled the onsite IsEB’s as well . I’m sure these schools will come up with an alternate date as more than half of the applicants have given the ISEB. Mayb offer dates will get moved !

@stellagibbons So sorry for your DD and those who have worked so hard during Christmas. I trust the school (JAGS at least!) will come up with something clever. Given other schools' deadlines before Christmas I'm sure these girls are a minority which makes it easier for the school to organise a comprehensive assessment (maybe online remotely?) as close as possible in content and format to the ISEB.

As far as we are concerned we don't have much coming up near term except finding out (this Thursday) if DD has made the cut for the G&L interview taking place at the end of next week.

@Oceane11Plus is G&L letting shortlisted candidates know on Thursday? I was wondering when we would hear! Currently having a minor freak out every time an email pings on my phone as we’re waiting to hear from PHS, G&L and LEH about interviews!

I agree that it’s going to be so hard to make decisions (assuming we get more than one offer caveat caveat) without offer holders days! DD has only seen two of the schools she’s applied to and she didn’t like one of them. I wonder how the schools will get around this.

@Flossietea yes that’s right re G&L. On Dec 7th they wrote “ We will be contacting you about the interviews after the Christmas holiday, on Thursday 7 January 2021.”
We are also waiting on PHS but no idea when they will send out the email!
I am pretty anxious about G&L as if she does not get an interview it won’t bode well for PHS and JAGS... My stress level is likely to spike on Thursday morning 😨

@stellagibbons

JAGs ISEB for the remaining girls (presumably the majority of these will be state applicants) cancelled. They will be in contact with revised assessment process and assure us it will be completed in good time.

This also has the knock on affect for our SCHS application as well.

Sending a virtual hug. We are in exactly the same position with the on site ISEB at JAGS.

Although far from ideal I think I can handle due it at home in some way, just couldn’t deal with any change in content at this stage or a huge delay time wise.

@stellagibbons have you been in touch with SCHS?

Lots of solidarity and support to everyone in this upside down world! X

@LittleBlackBear sending a virtual hug back. I’m hoping they can retain the format as well. DD is really disappointed, she just really wanted it all to be over and she’s worked so hard!

We had the pre-test for St Cats Bramley cancelled late last night (was supposed to take place on site today)....they haven’t cancelled, just postponed so I am not sure what the solution will be. It’s so frustrating as DD was ready and I had hoped to get this out of the way so she could then focus on another pretest in a couple of weeks time which is a completely different format. DD is fed up and I feel she has lost all motivation...I can’t help but feel that the schools should have ALL acted pre Christmas - it was so obvious that this was going to happen in January and the fact that some schools don’t even seem to have a back up plan is not a good advertisement for them!

I totally agree. Kudos to the schools that got this all safely out of the way while they could! DS doing his KGS online exam - not even sure it’s the right one as they sent out new links this am which didn’t work. Argh! Really changes your view of a school!

I thought KGS was tomorrow? We haven't been sent any links as we were meant to be sitting it at school. No answer from the admissions department as yet, but I'm guessing they're gradually working through it all. Fingers crossed we get the information in time to sit it at home tomorrow!

KGS was over three consecutive days, starting today. Everyone was meant to be sitting it at school? I hope they are more on the ball for tomorrow’s exams! I’m still livid about how they messed things up this morning. So so unfair on the kids

I’m just thinking aloud, but given WHS, JAGS and CSHS all have prep schools (that are currently closed) and JAGS had allocated 6 girls to a computer suite, if they spread the exam out over a few days and used their prep facilities as well as their own, they could have 1 or 2 girls in a classroom and get it done pretty quickly?

I think the gov would allow this under essential travel for education and there’s no risk to returning pupils if they are not back until after half term!

Also waiting on PHS and Alleyns who had deadlines at the beginning of Dec..

@Iateallthesmarties894, snap! Tbh, i'm a bit annoyed about the situation, it's not just St.Cats, but another school DS has been studying for have now also 'postponed'...

Let us not kid ourselves, "postponed" really translates directly into "panicking to come now up with some half baked alternative".

No matter how clever schools might be, such as the powerhouses of JAGS etc. is frankly poor that they, with whatever deluded or arrogant thought process, believed this wouldn't happen after the xmas holidays.

We actually did the remote interviews yesterday for another Guildford Girls School, having done their ISEB test back before Christmas... Thank the lord they saw the writing on the wall, otherwise we'd be in a right pickle with no other (certain) options!