Camden School for Girls - Information needed

[MissScotland]

Hi mamas,

My daughter is in Y5 and we have kicked off the process of looking into secondary schools. Both our children have attended private schools from day one and so we have been focusing on private secondary education but then came across CSG which looks like it may suit her very well.
We do not live in the catchment and do not intend to move there (we are quite close though).
So we are aiming at entering through the music channel. DD is uber musical, currently working on Grade 6 piano and Grade 5 theory and will most certainly progress to Grade 7/8 before finishing primary school. She's a gifted little composer too. We (and her teachers) believe that she has a strong shot at getting a music scholarship or a place at a school based on her music skills and potential. She's also an excellent student academically and loves school.
I have read the information on the CSG website but would like hear more, ideally 1st hand, about the music application process and the aptitude test. The website is rather vague.
Anything you can tell me about the school would help, tips and insights are welcome :-)

Thanks in advance x

Really sorry for derailing the thread op and thanks for the advice mumrules10

We do everything you’ve said and there’s so much love between us. My dds got a great sense of humour and we laugh every day. She had the terrible twos early and has become a little star. (Also One of her first words, she points out star shapes everywhere we go lol) shes Easy to reason with, she’s a joy to be around.

I’ve read this isn’t a fees school so sorry for missing that.

@Breastfeedingworries Wonderful & such special years to enjoy.

Yes, good point to recap on about it not being a fee paying school and we are lucky to have several great State schools like this in London but sadly all massively oversubscribed or with selective aptitude and scholarship access (and some unfairly or differently) as @SevDem has outlined, so key advice would be to research each individual school’s criteria well in advance and look at historical info available on how places were allocated etc. This can all change year on year. Good luck to all.

I’m late to this was looking for something else and came across this thread - my daughter has a music place at CSG started September 2020. She found the music aptitude test easy, but was not top 3, she auditioned. Her friend was top 3. Both have been doing Suzuki violin since a young age, (6 and 3 respectively), my daughter has not sat exams, her friend has. So I don’t agree that the test doesn’t work for accomplished musicians, both girls are very accomplished players. And both girls practise every day (almost) as per the Suzuki method.
The banding test on the other hand, she found very difficult. Possibly because we took them at their word and didn’t prepare. Possibly because she was Montessori educated through primary school and was not used to taking tests. I wasn’t at all worried as I knew she had no chance of getting in via distance, but she was upset, so in hindsight I would have done some preparation with her.
So she was band D, which I have never told her, I just said they don’t tell us what band you are in.
That seems to make no difference to anything though, as having just had our first parents evening it turns out she is at the top or near the top of her class in almost all subjects, and apparently has a gift for science. 🤷‍♀️

Dame Alice Owen and Latymer have musical entrance routes