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]

Wow well done to your DDs @Stircrazyschoolmum and @Tr0ubled wishing them both all best at the interviews

@WarmAndco3y thank you. @Stircrazyschoolmum congratulations to your DD.

Thanks @WarmAndco3y (hope you are feeling a bit better and get something nice in the post today)

Well done @Tr0ubled. I think you said it was DD’s first choice so it must be a relief.

@LittleBlackBear I hope your WHS assessment went ok and DD wasn’t too ‘shouty’!!

Hoping to have a ‘school free’ weekend before final bits next week. Feels like the final stretch now..

Anyone know the rough numbers for CLSG? Second assessment was pretty straight forward and interview. Waiting until Feb now.

Has anyone been given the full breakdown of the ISEB scores by the schools? The person I spoke with at one of the schools said if they had been the data owner they would be able to share fully but, as they weren't, they could only provide an overview.

Has that been your experience too? I'd love to know if anyone has obtained the actual scores yet?

@wfhwtf we have managed to get them and they came back all other the places :(
there is no way of reviewing them or discussing them which is frustrating
I have sent you a PM

KGS told us they have interviewed 350 out of 1000 applicants . This just makes me think that they have retained their interview numbers from previous years and so would have the GDST’s probably

Quite a few girls at DDs prep got interviews at KGS but didn’t pass the ISEB for Wimbledon or get through to the second round of LEH which just goes to show that the different testing methods produce different results (KGS was written math and English with no reasoning).....it’s all quite baffling....and supports the case for not switching everything to ISEB in the future.

@Yossahughes thanks so much for sharing. it's always reassuring to know it's not just us. though still sad and frustrating that the current system doesn't do justice ! (all we are asking for!)
best of luck to all DC and families at this point !

@montlieu

I would be interested to know which steps you took to get your child's ISEB results. I suspect my DD is much stronger in NVR/VR than Maths/English and would like to see whether this has been borne out in the ISEB.

Good luck to all in this poorly designed process.

@CanadaUK @WFHWTF Contact the individual school admissions / registrars to ask them for feedback once you know if they have not been invited back for interview or no offer. They are the only ones able to do this either written or verbally. Note, this is dependent on each school’s protocol. Some schools such as G&L specifically said in an earlier email please do not ask for feedback as they would not be able to give this.

Don’t expect schools to give you a breakdown of scores, it may just be your child’s quartile result in the test for each component based on the ISEB national average.

@MumsRule20 Thanks, that's good to know. In principle, though, are we not allowed to access this data under the Data Protection 'Right of Access'. Obviously, wouldn't want to piss of a school during the process, but should we not be able to request this once this madness is all over with?

@WFHWTF from what I understand the process is very different for Independent Schools (ISI) who are not governed by the rules in the same way as say Grammar schools / scoring where anonymised results can be provided under the FOI Act.

Some quotes taken from various bodies outlining this online:

“Independent schools are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 nor to the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005. However, this does not mean that they are exempt from responding to SARs under the DPA. Individuals are entitled to their personal data as explained above.”

“Independent schools, academies and free schools are not obliged to respond to a request for access to a pupil’s education record under this legislation.”

If you do make and SAR, “ Independent schools, academies and free schools are not obliged to respond to a request for access to a pupil’s education record under this legislation.”

This may be useful to read: ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/schools/pupils-info/

If I have got the wrong end of the stick and anyone else can divulge further, please do...

Apologies for a repeated paste of one quote above! Hopefully you get my drift...

That's really interesting @MumsRule20 thanks for sharing.

@Stircrazyschoolmum from what OH could hear he thought WHS group interview was fine. The group seemed relatively balanced with no one person dominating or not able to speak at all. Bu who knows what they were looking for, it is so hard to tell!

Hi everyone, mum of a happy y8 WHS girl here. I was wandering on the forum and I wanted to send you all warm wishes and good luck! It must be difficult in these Covid times..

I also wanted to reassure you : If the 11+ does not turn out has hoped, try not to worry. It did not for us: We had not anticipated the high level of preparation required (coming from the French system). We tried 4 schools and DD ended up only 1 waiting place at Alleyn's which never transformed into an offer. We tried again in y7 for a couple of other schools (PHS & WHS) and she had 2 offers. Actually the "occasional places" assessment felt far less stressful, as there were far fewer kids present and all different ages, so competition felt less intense.
DD is shy, does not shine in interviews, but she's now happily settled, made many friends and had a great 1st report. Teachers at WHS are lovely, encouraging and helpful. We're still relatively new to the school, but happy to try to give you our /my DD's impressions :-)
Good luck again!

Hi Everyone,

Don't know if this will help but we only did actual visits to two schools last year for DD2 Yr 7 application as not really knowledgeable regards the 11+/ indy school route.
It was only because our DD2 was nominated by her Head to do a training program for kids that could do well at 11+ but wouldn't normally consider taking the 11+ etc in Yr 5 that we even considered it.
She spent a year doing one extra half day a month where they threw different subjects at them.

We visited JAGS and FHSS.
DD2 opionion on JAGS (her words not mine!)

• lovely school but your academic ability was definatly the sole focus and she didn't like the idea of that

FHSS - slightly more relaxed and friendly atmosphere - and as parents I appreciated the Heads talk. That piece of paper with your results does not guarentee you a university place or the job you want. You still have to work for it, know how to fill in a mortage application and more so for your generation than others - potenially change careers as you grow. I liked the idea of not giving them false sense of entitlement.

DD2 is not a overly confident girl but she has made a nice group of friends - she is gets a bit intimadated by the "popular" girls sometimes but she still finds it funny they dont seem to like her when they are in a group if one of them is on their own they will happily talk to her!

@peacockfeather11 My DD heard it was about 1000 this year and not sure how many invited for interview (been told in the past it was 350). There are between 75-80 places available depending on how many come up from the Junior School...

@MumsRule20 Thank you. I heard ~1000 too, will see what the school say as I have asked them too.

Hi my daughter didn't make Latymer Upper's interview and she was in the median third quartile of the cohort sitting for that school. Higher in Maths than English. They interview 430 I think for 120 places.

Well done to your DDs @Stircrazyschoolmum and @Tr0ubled on Alleyn's. What wonderful news! Really sorry for your DD @WarmAndco3y Just goes to show how crazily competitive this whole process is, especially the London co-eds. Good luck everyone for Putney tomorrow!

@Stircrazyschoolmum and @Tr0ubled sorry, completely missed your news on Alleyn’s interview. Really pleased for both your DD’s and good luck and to everyone for other final interviews.

@NCWH Hello! Sorry yours didn’t make the LU interview either. Yes and was told by admissions there were 1500 applicants this year, so stakes super high. It really does appear they just look at highest 1st and 2nd quartile scores for Maths / English ISEB to determine interview invite.

I have posted about this to a point earlier in the thread. Obviously, many factors and child’s state of mind will determine their performance on the day (as in my our particular case) so they don’t necessarily get to demonstrate their standard ability / quartile in that day. So if a school doesn’t look beyond this; interview beforehand or take into consideration reports and references to assess the whole child, one could question if that is a fair selection in this current climate.
@dazedandconfused11plus makes a very good point on the co-eds and also mentioned on Alleyn’s how much more competitive they are especially across all of London as the intake for DS or DD chances are proportionally reduced and especially if the school has a Juniors attached where many move up / siblings etc.

As my DD always says, if the school doesn’t want her, it will be their loss not hers 😂🤣

For those feeling wobbly, the right place will be waiting and as @Bidibidiba helpfully contributed from personal experience there is always the chance to try again at another entry point or an occasional place (hopefully). Or else to look at non selective yet driven schools which may be a better fit for DC.

Thank you! I think some children fared better with all the changes and the ISEB. My DD definitely dipped in confidence and motivation which is an absolute shame.
To be clear she was in the quartile below the upper 25% so yes, very very tough! She comes from a prep but was in a state school a year before the pandemic. I do think there must've been 2 pools for state and prep kids but we'll never know for sure.
We wanted a Co-ed mostly but those are harder to get into and we knew love all the girls schools we chose too.
Good luck to all who'd DDs are doing PHS tomorrow. It's the final one for us. Thank Goodness!

@NCWH Alleyns confirm that they go for a nearly even intake of state and prep at 11+ so they do kind of assess them in their own categories (same roughly speaking for boys versus girls).

Across the board though the intake tends to be top quartile though and mostly top 10% so very, very competitive.

@NCWH Wow, sorry misunderstood on the quartile, so if she was in the 2nd...doesn’t bare thinking about. Did they explain why or help to understand the basis? I know several others at our state who tried and also didn’t get interview but not sure if the school did split results into pools. I can’t seem to remember the state kid intake now and not in my notes. Anyway, I guess nothing much can be done now but all useful to know and help try rationalise before we completely shelf it.

Best of luck for PHS tmoro! All fingers crossed.