SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

[Jumpalicious]

Hello, I know there’s an excellent thread for the girls. Not sure if there’s one for the boys? Anyone want to come on board? I know we can’t divulge details of round two grammars since there will be late sitters, but was thinking more of a support thread. Any takers?

DS has just been called for an academic scholarship interview. Very exciting! Can I be reassured that he will probably have a place regardless now? 🙏

Congrats @NoToMisogyny!! Reason for celebratiion tonight... Who is that for KGS?

Does anyone know what independents do in terms of academic scholarships. Do they usually, say, invite the top 20% achievers (on the exam, ISEB etc) for a 'potential academic interview'? Presumably they invite more than they offer so what is the % they offer, is it 5% or 10% or...?

Nope. St George’s. DS is going to be so scared he’ll stuff it up at this stage. He DETESTS interviews!

@1980sMum , it really depends on the school. I've found that dc from the feeder preps (ie Surbiton juniors) get allocated lots of the scholarships at the SHS senior school. Or if there is a really talented dc within amazing musical skills too they will get scholarship offers from lots of schools who are competing for the dc to accept.

Other schools like St John's Leatherhead use to offer loads of scholarships for tiny discounts, (barely covers the school coach cost) to attract dc who had offers from more academic schools.
For anyone who thinks the entrance process is murky then the allocation of scholarships is 1 of the most "grey" areas I have come across!

Singingrain1223 Thank you; it does seem very murky indeed! I've heard some schools say the invite top 20% for 'academic interview', others do the top 15% but I guess they may end up over offering on the academic scholarships as some of the very bright DC would choose to go to superselectives.

Anyone heard anything about Dulwich results 11+ yet?

Hi @1980sMum, our Head has advised early to middle of next week.

Hi @EnolanotAlone do you mean we won’t hear if they have an interview for Dulwich until mid next week?

@GrammarHopeful sounds like we got the same questions at T. How did your DS find them - our DS was ok with the NVR one although he insisted it wasn’t NVR. The maths one he worked out in the end - but needed a hint - he was a bit annoyed about that - think he was being too hard on himself.

Well done to everyone who’s got through to the next round of KGS

Agreed @Magicmum101 our Head us reliable on such matters, long connections with former students who went to DC. Monday is likely to be a target date, most comms have been Fridays or Monday's.

@EnolanotAlone thank you for the info. That aligns with the timetable they previously provided (taking into account the week’s delay because of exam rescheduling).

Thanks for the info. I’ll stop refreshing my email feed constantly now!

Thanks, that's really helpful info re DC.

@1980sMum my son had the Great School interview over a week ago. He is a current student at WUS, applying for 13+. Test next week, same day as your DS, I suppose. Your son will be asked a Q on current pandemic/news; hopefully he can provide his thoughts on it. Interviewer will give him some time to evaluate the Q (while s/he is jotting down notes).
Sorry don’t check here oft & reading through the thread now, but standard interview Qs will be asked (have posted a v detailed list on the previous thread). Good luck to all the boys.

@1980sMum >> not au fait with scholarship allocation, so it is very interesting to read about distributing scholarships like hot buns at St John to attract parent/DS.. surely that defeats the purpose of gaining the prestigious title.. I for one, hoping to get a grammar school to avoid continuing paying school fees, scholarship or not.... I was told by current prep school headmaster that academic scholarship can be quite meaty ( upto 50%) if DS is academically very strong... not convinced that was real ! any views?

@Sterou yes in the past St George's have offered 50%.
I know this is the boys thread but on the girls thread 2 yrs ago a dd got 50% scholarship Guildford High, 50% KGS but went to LU on a 100% free place which is what I mean about the really big offers often go to the same child from several schools. Also all the scholar offer % are confidential esp from KGS and the school will withdraw it if you disclose, the Mumsnetter of the dd had to withdraw her posts when she realised.

@Sterou I have heard max scholarship 50% but have heard of actual cases where it is usually in the 10-25% region (sports, arts) and up to 40% for academic (though range being 20-40%, not personally heard of a 50%). Some less academic schools offer towards the higher end, the really selective lower or none.

Morning everyone.

Interesting discussions on scholarships! Agree that when a dc is highly sought after some fairly large ones can be given. I heard of an 80% scholarship offered by one girls school once (didn’t work, the dd in question went elsewhere, but shows that they were clearly super keen to have her).

Overall though I think “typical” scholarships - and certainly at the two schools we’ve applied to - tend to be more in the region of 5/10% and it’s more about the glory and prestige than the fee discount.

Hypothetical discussion for me as I’m not expecting DS to be in the scholarship pool at all - but interesting nonetheless.

Is it three weeks till results day? Many schools are posting results 11 Feb I believe. It’s going to be a long wait...

@FlyingPandas This wait is excruciating isn’t it! As per the Hampton info posted earlier, that school is presumably still going to call back a certain number of children for its academic scholarship round. So everything is still to play for.

That said, my son has had enough now. He has a friend who has applied to about 10 indie schools this year, and I imagine that friend must be overwhelmed with interviews (or post exam rejections I guess). If anyone reads this in future years, my sincere advice is to not apply to more than four independents. It takes a lot of emotional energy!! Maybe five if discounting grammars. But ideally 3 or max 4.

As to how much schools discount, some are clear that they do (eg Whitgift) but others claim not to, but then you read that they do... and what do people think about bursaries? These are said to be blind, but I assume only the best scoring kids get them?

Highly interesting —distraction— discussion and potential numbers discussed for scholarships. If you received a specific award - 100% fee paid is achievable or up to 50%, however, anticipate 5 - 25% to be in the norm. I had thought there was more bragging rights within an offered scholarship than actual monetary incentive. Would love to be in the privileged position to be proven wrong.

Can anyone elaborate is the offer one of/ annually renewable subject to performance, and if performance based - does the school outline the metrics - or can you simply be bumped off the programme when a new, shinier candidate comes along in subsequent years. Is the extra effort and stress worth 5%?

Interested to hear from recent experiences and those perhaps with DC yrs 9+.

As far as I'm aware bursaries are purely means tested - certainly at the Whitgift schools, otherwise they would be scholarships.

@JustJuice187, it sounds so indeed. On the first one (the NVR-not-NVR one), he actually got the answer wrong at first, but then when asked to explain his reasoning, realised he got it wrong and corrected himself mid-way. The second was right up his street, as I said, as he much prefers geometry to word problems, for example (not doubt ASD makes the latter more difficult due to slower processing), so he had no problem with that one and actually sounded very convincing (even if I say so myself).

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On the scholarships front (although, it doesn't seem DS is considered for any, despite my wishful thinking), my research showed the following (officially):

Hampton: 5-25% (hamptonschool.org.uk/admissions/fee-assistance/)
KCS: £400 pa (issuu.com/kingscollegeschool/docs/11_plus_scholarships_brochure_2020?fr=sMDI2NDE2OTU2Mzc)
Trinity: up to 50% (www.trinity-school.org/admissions/fees-bursaries-and-scholarships/)
Emanue: up to 25% (www.emanuel.org.uk/admissions/fee-assisted-places/)
CFCS: up to £1,000 (www.claremontfancourt.co.uk/31/scholarshipsandbursaries)

My understanding that the charity status of the indepedent schools means that fees remission over 50% is no longer possible (but the same outcome can be achieved in a combination with a means-tested bursary, of course).

Not London but my DC was offered 2 academic scholarships one at 10%, one 15%. We accepted the 15% as it was their favourite school. Only condition was to do their best.

@GrammarHopeful thank you for sharing that most excellent research. The king’s related emoji made me laugh.