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

@PatoPato That is a bit of good news.

DD sat the JAGS CAT4 today which didn't go especially well for her - they were only supposed to do the first two sections then the invigilator I think should have jumped in to finish it. However, due to DD not listening properly at the start to the (verbal) instructions, and a miscommunication between her and the invigilator as to how much time she had left - she carried on doing the third section and then ended the whole thing in floods of tears and confusion.

I think she did ok on the sections she did do, but it was all quite stressful and she was pretty upset afterwards.

@stellagibbons Bless her, so much to take in. I hope she is ok now and a big well done to her for completing it. The additional section surely won’t go against her, but that feeling of having done what one isn’t meant to is understandably not nice and especially in such unprepared circumstances. Hope you / she can have a relaxing and fun evening now.

There is no way that schools will be seeing the best of our DCs with the constant changes, unsettling glitches etc. It is obviously not their fault that things keep having to change, but I really hope that there is leeway for when things go wrong on the technical side.

@Normalisboring All the correspondence we have had on interviews / exams online are very clear in reassuring parents and children not to worry at all about glitches and that none of it penalises or goes against a child. There are protocols around it when it happens and even if one cannot get back on or something happens to call the office and they will reschedule etc. They know that this is all par for course.

Emanuel even flagged up in their FAQ to make sure no one else is using the WIFI at the same time as this can cause connection to be unstable on other devices. We often have this happen, so I have already instructed husband to make sure he is not home and takes the dog out for a long walk and I will use the time to do some very long overdue chores and put all the Christmas decs away

I’m sure that you are right. It is just so stressful. 😭

@MumsRule20 & @Trialsat11 - thank you very much for detailing Emanuel & Surbiton's processes. Sounds like SP are taking a similar approach to Emanuel.
I've also become Guardian of the Wifi for any exam dates. I highly recommend cabling up to your router/booster with ethernet if you can. You can buy a 10m cable from Amazon for a fiver and it does stabilise things a lot.

@MumsRule20. I agree Emanuel have communicated clearly but unfortunately not all can be in the luxurious position of not using the wifi for 2.5 hour on Friday. DH is leading a workshop and DS has an online English lesson.. neither an issue when we thought the exam was paper based. Furthermore, the concept of a back button that deletes all your work so far has me breaking out in hives!! DD is no typist so her English paper is likely to be very short!

I guess if it goes completely wrong she can restart with a later group but I hate the upset it’s causing.

@stellagibbons your DD should get bonus points for completing an extra section! At least that’s one bit done now. x

@Stircrazyschoolmum yes, absolutely not an easy ask for anyone in a big household locked down working and in need of devices for work and schooling. It is a long exam.

I know, my DC balked at the back button deleting all. Imagine. Really are so many things to take in and consider. Hopefully their invigilators will put them well at ease.

Going through few messages here.
Here is a list of Qs initially provided to parents when preparing their child for an interview. It is a good idea for your child to think about these for a start.
An answer should ideally not exceed 20-60 sec time limit (w exceptions: providing thoughts/opinion, etc) . Obviously, there will be more Qs than these on the day.

*Tell me about school? What do you like about it?
*Tell me about your family.
What's your favourite book? Which book are you currently reading?

• Hobbies *Favourite subject; least favourite *Which sports do you play? *Instruments you play *If your friends can describe you in 3 words, what would they say? *If you can travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? *Which schools are you applying to? Which one do you prefer? *What are your reflections on the current pandemic and its impacts? *If you can have a superpower, what would it be and why? *Always ask the interviewer a Q about the school- show you are interested and keen. They are looking for bright children, who have a spark in their eyes, have something special to offer, someone who can carry a conversation with an adult. Someone who has a viewpoint: usually comes from having family discussions at dinner time, keeping up to date w the world around them, chatting about what was learnt at school. Looking for the child that will thrive at the school. Body language, listening, respecting others is v important. Candidate should look enthusiastic (avoid monotone answers). Hope this helps.

I prepare for the independent schools' interviews & entrance exams, having helped many succeed at the most sought after ones in London: Westminster, SPS, KCS, Latymer, Sutton Grammars, etc. Feel free to get in touch if needed. Good luck to the children!

Hmmm, not sure how I feel about being marketed at during a time when my nerves are in tatters...!

Anyway, TODAY! Email from G&L if interviews to be or not to be...(and effectively first feedback about ISEB). I have a vague recollection that G&L plans to interview half their candidates - is this true or am I imagining it?!

Many thanks!

Can I just say that (apart from an initial ice-breaking question about what DD did at the weekends), the questions in RYFZ’s post don’t bear any resemblance to DD’s interview for LU; it was an academic interview with a short written passage to discuss, some questions about natural selection based on some pictures of animals in different habitats, and a discussion of the role of AI in teaching (obviously aimed at testing ability to analyse and debate). I couldn’t see the screen (I wasn’t in the room) and resisted the temptation to grill DD afterwards, so I don’t know more than that.

I hope I’m wrong about the ratio of state school kids, but both @SouthLondonMommy and @iwanttobeonabeach have focused on very bright children. I’m sure the top sets in the selective schools will still include state school children, because unusually clever kids are easy to spot. It’s the state school kids who’d be trundling along in the third quartile who I think are going to miss out because this year has been, on average , so much more disrupted for them than for prep school kids, and they’re not so bright that they’ll intuitively get a concept that they haven’t been taught.

Good luck to everyone with exams and interviews still to come!

I read the same re G&L planning to interview roughly half of the candidates. The challenge for me today is to resist the temptation to refresh my mailbox every 5 minutes For us 3 schools out of 4 DD is applying to rely on ISEB so today is an important step.

Thanks @Oceane11Plus yep, refreshing manically already! Good luck to everyone

Good luck anyone waiting to hear back re. interviews!

So - DD is now sitting the ISEB this afternoon at SCHS who confirmed yesterday that they are able to host for the handful of girls who still need to sit it.

I need to let JAGs know, but they can do whatever they like with the information and use either ISEB or CAT4 - I'd obviously like them to use the one she does best in .

Honestly, this week has been ridiculously stressful with being back homeschooling and all this as well.

@stellagibbons best of luck for ISEB, I think you said DD is strong in maths and English so this could be really good for her?

Handhold to all those refreshing their emails.. it would be great to get some good news on this thread! Does Latimer already have a date pencilled?

@stellagibbons - great news about ISEB this afternoon! You'll feel lighter once it's done.
Also waiting on Godolphin today and even typing that makes my stomach lurch as the ISEB covers us for 3 we are keen on. Yet I feel so detached from these 3 schools as there's been no communication from them for so long, although I admit I did not remember to open the PHS advent calendar past day 2. Good luck everyone

@ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson

Can I just say that (apart from an initial ice-breaking question about what DD did at the weekends), the questions in RYFZ’s post don’t bear any resemblance to DD’s interview for LU; it was an academic interview with a short written passage to discuss, some questions about natural selection based on some pictures of animals in different habitats, and a discussion of the role of AI in teaching (obviously aimed at testing ability to analyse and debate). I couldn’t see the screen (I wasn’t in the room) and resisted the temptation to grill DD afterwards, so I don’t know more than that.

I hope I’m wrong about the ratio of state school kids, but both @SouthLondonMommy and @iwanttobeonabeach have focused on very bright children. I’m sure the top sets in the selective schools will still include state school children, because unusually clever kids are easy to spot. It’s the state school kids who’d be trundling along in the third quartile who I think are going to miss out because this year has been, on average , so much more disrupted for them than for prep school kids, and they’re not so bright that they’ll intuitively get a concept that they haven’t been taught.

Good luck to everyone with exams and interviews still to come!

Prep schools have plenty of kids trundling along (from an intellectual perspective) as well. The process won't favour them over state school kids of similar intellectual ability necessarily.

At my previous firm we always had a slight adjustment made against privately educated new graduates when discussing them. They tend to interview better than other candidates (more confidence and poise) but then underdeliver relatively to how well they come across- still good, but not as good as you might have assumed based on the interview.

Trust me, when you are actually looking for real talent, you are more than aware through experience what's real and what's not and those managing these processes for the schools will be experts given their years of experience assessing how children from different settings perform relative to one another once in the school.

The schools want capable pupils for the long haul. I'm really convinced they'll be doing their best not to penalise any group.

My DD got a G&L interview! I’m SO relieved! That means she didn’t bomb the ISEB. Good luck to everyone else.

We've also had positive G&L news and like you @Flossietea it's confirmation for me that DD did well in the ISEB which is a massive relief.
We've not done an interview before and DD is way stronger on paper than in person. She's just not at all eloquent compared to even the most inarticulate of her peers. I'm very worried about it.

Congrats to you and your DD @PatoPato! Yes the interview is a worry - and ten minutes shared between two teachers is not long to make an impression!

A friend of mine used to teach at G&L and do the interviews and she said they were split into one very friendly non-challenging chat about what you like at school and so on, and then one interview where they could ask you anything and they want to see how you think. It might be a question with no right answer you just have to be able to back up what you say with reasoning.
She left five years ago so they could’ve changed the process entirely since then so take this with a pinch of salt.

Neither of my children were ever really asked any of the 'standard' questions that were trotted out by their tutor!
DS's LU interview was very much like your DD's and he definitely did not give the 'right' answers. It seemed to be more about personality and general fit.
I haven't just focussed on very bright state school children- mine certainly aren't that. But there is also the whole range of academic ability at many preps. I have many friends who left state primaries for preps expecting their children to suddenly becoming academic geniuses and it just doesn't work like that.

Phewww! Same here, after the initial relief I am now concerned about the interview as DD is also much less eloquent than most of her peers.

Congratulations to those who received invitations to interview at Godolphin! Alas our DD did not make the cut. Very much hoping this does not mean that she "bombed" the ISEB but I guess only time can tell!

@Flossietea I have an older DD who had an interview at G&L a few years ago and she also had two interviews, one was a general chat about herself, and in the other one she was shown some pictures and had to organise or rank them and explain why. I'm sure there were other questions but that's all I can remember.
@wagonwheelcoffeetable sorry to read that - what other schools did your DD apply to? I'm convinced schools would have used many other criteria than just ISEB results this year and placed different emphasis on different parts of the exam so whilst having an interview is a relief, the opposite doesn't necessarily mean it's all lost for other schools. Good luck!

So sorry to hear that @wagonwheelcoffeetable - there is no way I see not receiving an invitation as bombing the ISEB. Your DD might have been the next one on the list after the cut off point. That's what's so maddening about this process - the lack of transparency (probably for good reason as we'd all be up in arms if we could pull back the curtain I'm sure)