Part 2: SW London Girl's Indies 11+ Pandemic Panic!

[MumsRule20]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3962084-Upcoming-girls-independent-SW-London-schools-11-exams?pg=40

Hello all, this thread continues from the previous "Upcoming Girl's Independent SW London Schools 11+ Exams" thread set up by @Oceane11Plus.

@PatoPato cleverly noticed, message slots were running low for the epic long thread as above, so all chat now continues here...

[Post edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

Thanks very much, @MumsRule20! Lurking in what I hope is a supportive fashion - congratulations to everyone who got interviews at LEH! Hope they go well.

Thanks @MumsRule20 love the fact we've reached 1,000 messages and only the first half of January!

Clearly the pandemic and being stuck at home is freeing up more brain space to be angsty about all of this! Nicer to be angsty together though!

Thanks for setting this up. Glad I found you all

Just did a test on the Google Meet - super easy BUT.....DD looked really fuzzy & unclear on her old laptop which has come as a bit of a shock to me, I had no idea, so I'm now trying to reconfigure the limited tech options in our house to get her a bit clearer.
Hating all this remote stuff - we are at the mercy of hardware, software, wifi & broadband.

To those worrying about Google meets, if you have a Gmail account you can set up a practice one from there - just go to Gmail on a desktop site, and there should be a meet option down the left-hand side.

It is really easy, but we've found it's still better to have a practice run - calling each other from different floors of the house has been a popular activity recently! So many different platforms and they all use a different one...

Hello! I’m here.. offering whatever support I can!

@PatoPato I recall that the WHS wait list moves quite a bit; PHS not so much. And I guess some of the super-selectives will have very short wait lists in general (as well as their offer to places ratio being small).

But who knows this year!

I hear from someone who teaches at WHS there were 1000 applications for 60 places this year!

@NoToMisogyny the ISEB effect would’ve played a large part in this.

This is why the admissions teams will have their work caught out for them. Every child can only go to one school, so they need to somehow decipher who is really going to accept offers made.

Yes you’re right re the ISEB. My friend said as much. I definitely don’t envy the emissions teams!!

Does anyone know the ratio of applications to LEH v actual places available?

I used to (friend used to teach there) but my information's really out of date. They have a junior department so there aren't as many places as you might think for the size of the school.

Ty Dr

Been meaning to ask for a while, did many of you here whose DC's sat the ISEB Pre-Test at their Prep sit the components staggered over a few days as allowed by the ISEB?

Our DD's state school immediately said no to facilitating the exam there, due to lack of staff, invested interest / very few children applying for private secondary.

So, our only option was to sit it at one of the schools we were applying for and running the test. It was sat in a stretch with a short break in-between.

Does anyone else find this somewhat unfair? @Stircrazyschoolmum @DrRamsesEmerson or anyone else with DD at state? Surely sitting each component a day in familiar surroundings would have meant performance would likely be much better than in a warm stuffy room with strangers for 2.5hrs?

@MumsRule20 my DD (at prep) sat it over two days with a day off in between. Maths and non-verbal one day and English and verbal the second day. I was surprised when they told us that they were allowed to spread it out over multiple days and agree it’s not fair to those kids who had to do it all in one. DD also got to do it in a room with her friends, with familiar teachers invigilating, which I’m sure made it more pleasant. They made a big fuss of them at school too and gave them arts and crafts activities to do in between the tests to calm their nerves.

It’s definitely an advantage and I agree with you it’s not a level playing field at all. If secondary schools decide to use ISEB every year (who knows if they’ve found it beneficial or if they can’t wait to go back to the old way) they will have to address this.

Sorry to interject but my DS did it all in one go and found it much easier being ‘in the zone’ and ploughing through it rather than he would have done doing it in sections on different days. So depends on the child I guess

Mine sat hers at LU all in one go, with short breaks between papers. I think it was probably easier for her personality to get it all done in one go and out of the way, but for some kids I'm sure that wouldn't be true. In any case, whatever they go for, they ought to be confident that all the candidates have had the same experience.

(Our state school might have facilitated in non-Covid times, but weren't willing to in present circumstances because it would have involved mixing bubbles.)

Yes, I can see how it might suit some to do it all in one sitting in an unfamiliar environment as any exam, but not all and totally would depend on the child.

Yet, whichever way one looks at it; surely still an option which leaves open to a level of disparity?

I am not sure if this has always been their way for the ISEB Pre-Test or if this year’s cohort were guinea pigs in that particular respect.

I agree with you @Flossietea on the advantage of the comfortable convenience, needing redress for overall consistency and ‘level playing field’ as you mention.

My DD did it at school all in one go which like @NoToMisogyny said suited her as she was in the zone. However, she did it very early (mid Nov) compared to those who sat in the last week or so which given we had never heard of ISEB before late Sept /early Oct gave us very little time to prepare.

Just wanted to wish you all still going through this all the luck in the world!
It’s so incredibly stressful! The support on this thread is amazing! God luck for those still waiting xx

I agree, @EITEL, it’s such cobblers. DD pulled her Atom scores up by about 50 points over a month of practice.

My DD is at state school and she also wrote ISEB in one go at one of the target schools last week of November. It looks like she did well but I initially thought that it was a disadvantage as at home she usually performed worse towards the 4th subject and could do better, if sat in two parts like in prep schools. We practiced ISEB test on Atom from October for about a month.
And yes, after schools moved to ISEB, we applied to two more schools than initially planned. I think this year would be a lottery with a lot of unexpected offers. Strong DCs would be choosing first and then a lot of movement on waiting lists, so waiting list places would be offered generously, too.