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

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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]

Has anyone yet managed to get hold of their actual ISEB standardised score and compared it with e.g. Atom mocks? Would be interesting to know....

Thank you! Best of Luck to you and all as well.
I don't be-grudge the State school intake and differences granted in assessment- if it exists at all. The top schools want the high achievers and they have to find their method of finding out who those are. I always saw LU or Alleyns (didnt apply there) as hugely aspirational.
But it's been such a weird and unpredictable year and a lot of work done in year 5 and the summer felt has gone to waste. So I remind my daughter and us parents to be kind to ourselves during this process.
I pretty much found every school impressive, honestly. All will work out.

Morning everyone! We have PHS this morning.. hoping the tech works and they are kindly in their questions!

Thank you to @Bidibidiba and @tiggermummy70 for coming back to tell us about your experiences. It’s really reassuring.

I’m having a bit of a crisis in confidence about choosing the right school... I realise choice is a luxury and don’t mean this to sound complacent but I also don’t want to choose the most academic/aspirational school on our list just because she got offered it if I don’t feel it’s the right fit.. and knowing the right fit is really tricky without her seeing them.. and off course despite interviews we might not get any offers and I might be totally ahead of myself...

Sorry.. wobble over, need more tea! I agree the best thing all of us can do is be kind to ourselves and others. I also think the quicker we can release surplus places be faster someone on waitlist will benefit.. so many unknowns this year..

Wishing everyone’s DD’s with PHS interviews the best of luck today. DD had hers straight after a scholarship interview earlier this month; unfortunately I can’t offer much insight as we kept our distance.

@Stircrazyschoolmum I could have written the exact same post as you! I’m having sleepless nights over which school we’d take if offered and then realising that she may not get any offers so tell myself to take a breath until February!

Sounds so naive but I really hadn’t prepared myself for how emotionally exhausting this whole process would be!

Post edited by MNHQ

Putney’s gone wrong! Girls from the first 3?groups are all logged on together!

They are all chatting and comparing what primary schools they are at.. it’s actually quite sweet!

Good morning, wishing everyone with PHS interviews all the best for today. And same to everyone else who still have the home stretch this week.

Our postie did bring good news for DD from our non-ISEB school. It’s been comforting catching up on the thread.

For us it’s now that wait until 11th of Feb. All the very best wishes as we wait

Stircrazyschoolmum lovely to hear the girls were not too fazed. Presumably the same zoom code was mailed out to 3 girls by accident. I can see how that might happen to be honest.

Good luck to all those with interviews this week. The snow was a welcome treat this weekend.

@dinosaurinmybelly we are in limbo now.. someone from school eventually came on and asked us to all log out whilst they tried to fix it.. nearly 50 girls on the call by then!

I think they are trying to reschedule for later and have asked us to bear with them..

@WarmAndco3y that’s fab news and fits with what others have said that the ISEB didn’t suit all candidates. 11th feels like a way off!

@Tr0ubled I’m glad I’m not the only one.. you are right.. the whole thing is exhausting!

@Stircrazyschoolmum Putney definitely had some technical issues as we received a direct link from the interviewer after the mixup .
They will surely rearrange . We completed ours and have officially ended the 11+ all we can do from our end ! DD was beaming ear to ear while I mull over the results

Afternoon all - we're just bobbing on here to say that we've edited a post which gave information about the exam, to avoid giving anyone a unfair advantage - and will continue to do so if any such posts are flagged up to us.

Best of luck to anyone taking exams today.

Sorry looks like that was me
Didn’t realise what I’d written offered any insight but apologise if it did as certainly wasn’t intended.

I have just returned from a (socially distanced) walk with a friend who commented that the only time that she has ever seen me stressed was when my dd was doing the 11+ and (maybe rather stupidly) my other dc was doing the 7+ in the same year. I spent most of January high on caffeine and lost abt a stone in weight - and that was a normal year so I can imagine that this year must be even more stressful.
My dd went to a completely non-selective prep and the children applied for the whole range of schools across South West and South East London. Some got multiple offers and scholarships, some received one offer from their least favoured school, and every scenario in between. But this is now 9 years ago. But all the children enjoyed the secondary school that they went to. They all made friends and enjoyed not only the academic side of school but also developed their existing co-curricular interests and found new ones. They are now at broadly the same universities/art courses/drama schools despite their different paths to get there and the parents that I am still in contact with all agree that all the schools that you are mentioning on this thread are so good that we would/should have been happy with any of them and each would have nurtured our children and enabled them to thrive.
Also a number of the dc also moved for sixth form. Not because they were unhappy with their current school but to do the IB instead of A levels, to go for the boarding option, to move from all-girls to mixed etc. One dc who was rejected by a couple of schools at 11+ went on to receive academic scholarship offers from the same schools at 16+. The 11+ process can be a bit of a lottery in a few cases.
Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all good luck and assure you that, whilst it might now seem like an extraordinarily difficult choice, your dc will all find their path whichever school they go to.

I hope that Putney High School sorted out the technical difficulties today and that all you DDs went on to have a great interview....what a stressful time it has been!

On a bright note, DD got an offer from Guildford High School at the weekend which was an exam she sat back in November! It’s one of our top choices and she was absolutely thrilled to bits. She thought she had messed up the interview so we had almost written of off. I am so relieved and it will make the wait to hear about LEH and WHS much easier. Guildford used the CEM select test and there were girls in DDs class who didn’t make it through the ISEB first round for WHS but for offers from GHS so it goes to show how different tests can bring about different results. Perhaps another argument for why having ISEB for all schools might not be the beat idea?

Good luck to everyone and may all our DDs journeys end in success!

Congrats @yossahughes to you and your DD .
GHS is a lovely school - academic as well as sporty !

I thought today Putney was one of the tougher interviews compared to the previous ones and quite unlike the informal I thought it to b :-)

Hopefully Feb will bring in some good news !

@Trialsat11

Couldn’t agree more. Tough!

Congratulations @WarmAndco3y and @Yossahughes on the offers - that is good news!

@Stircrazyschoolmum - hopefully your DD has sat PHS by now, or you have an alternative date!

DH and I are currently not in agreement as to our preferred school.

Yes - congrats to @warmandco3y too!

@stellagibbons - if we get one of our other top choices DH and I will also be in disagreement...this is when having a chance to look round again would have helped....

@Tr0ubled you are on the naughty step!
@Yossahughes that’s fab news.. I’ve heard only good things.. interesting to hear we are not the only household where ‘discussions’ might take place. (Let’s face it, there’s not much else to talk about!)

Our PHS experience was a bit ragged.. we heard nothing until 11.30 then were told we would have an interview in the afternoon and would be sent a new link. I spent the next few hours hovering by the phone refreshing every 3 mins waiting for the link. Link finally arrived at 3.25 for interview at 3.40! DD promptly burst into tears as she’d spent all day overthinking what questions she might have and was pretty tired and stressed by the whole thing.

As a result I’m not sure she showed the best version of herself which is a shame as she’s decided it’s her favourite but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.. @Trialsat11 I agree the questions were on the tougher side and felt as if they ‘counted’.. argh!!

@Stircrazyschoolmum sorry about your experience but I'm sure they would take into account that your DD's interview was moved because of technical glitches .
Ur right about the 'counted' though ... It seemed there was a list and everyone was asked the same questions as DD's friend had pretty much the same queries . Felt very much like testing the resilience and I wouldn't worry about the perfect answers!
We have a clear favourite but waiting for the offers to come through (if they do ).
The conflict in our house might be only with Tiffin as it is a big decision to give up a non fee paying exceptional school .

@Trialsat11 (hopping over from the boys' thread) It would be interesting / helpful to hear your (and others!) current thoughts on that old chestnut of super selective grammar vs. selective independent (without a bursary). Thinking that's a choice we'd be needing to make soon. Thanks :)

@Tr0ubled you are in good company as @Stircrazyschoolmum, @WarmAndco3y and I were put on that naughty step on the last thread. For what it's worth there was NOTHING that gave anyone interviewing at PHS today an unfair advantage. I think MNHQ needs to understand that we are not stupid & are not going to put our own DC at a disadvantage! We are just being supportive (big eye roll emoji)

I'm struggling to keep up with everyone's news now (need a cheat sheet!) but congrats on all the good news. One more interview for us on Wednesday then in for the long wait

DD interviewed at PHS this morning. She was so nervous & started crying 30 seconds before I was due to click join meeting! It was awful - I couldn't comfort her or she'd have lost it in a puddle of tears so I had to be tough & told her very firmly to just stop then felt like a bitch for the next 15 minutes. Did the trick though - she had a super gentle interview which was 15 minutes of conversation and chatting. I wouldn't say she got anything in that showcased her particular interests or passions which was a shame and the teacher must have thought her current reading books had been chosen for discussion at interview (they hadn't) because she asked if DD read anything a little 'lighter'!
She had one topical discussion where she was asked her opinion on whether something specific (not wishing to get my post deleted ) was an effective policy for change - all said in language a 10 year old would understand. She wasn't very familiar with that policy being pretty unworldly whereas I expect many would be, certainly if they were tutored or prepped, but she did a pretty good counter argument as to why she didn't think it was that effective or fair (actually it is effective!) Did that discussion topic match anyone else's?

We don't do a lot of around the dinner table discussion in the Pato household but I can see why this is invaluable. My DC would be far more informed if we'd done more chat over the years. Regretful sigh

We do loads of dinner table chat (in November DD talked the ear off anyone willing to listen about the US election), but DD’s interview at Latymer Upper was pure academic stuff, so it didn’t make any difference! Maybe I should have put her in for PHS, but it’s a difficult journey from us.

Congratulations everyone who did Putney today. Funny as DD liked the Putney interview the most as said the teacher was the most "kind" Who knows though what they're all looking for though...

But not going to rehash it any more as we're done here, woohoo!!!

Well done to your DD @Yossahughes on the GHS offer - what wonderful news! You can really relax now, and maybe the other offer will roll in and you're have the luxury of a 'choice'!

Does anyone have interviews left to go? I believe it's Alleyn's, SPGS, KGS still?

@Abetes Thank you for your words of wisdom, especially as like you say they will all end up where they should be in the long haul. Sometimes it's hard to keep perspective but I'm sure one day DD and I will look back and laugh at the crazy journey with all its unexpected road bumps - nets, the back button, marshmallows, deciles, cabbage, Zoom invigilation, thick and thin envelopes...!

Also wanted to say hear hear @Stircrazyschoolmum to your earlier post about not sitting on waiting lists unnecessarily! It's possible that waiting lists may be longer than usual this year so freeing them up will cascade movement down for everyone - creating some much needed certainty for our DDs and also limiting the wasted deposits (especially when it's a whole term's school fees that's on the line by April!)

Another thing I think is overlooked is how offers in the state and private sectors are interlinked, as releasing offers and wait list places doesn't just free up other independent school offers but also those for state schools, especially grammars which in turn impact offers for comprehensives. So yes we should be kind on ourselves and all the DCs, this year of all years!

@grammarhopeful we haven't yet started looking into the mechanics of a superselective state v/s selective independent but some points to consider would be lockdown provision , turnover of teachers (have heard it being high in the Sutton grammar schools) , funding available to grammar schools with the government spending this year and for us the opportunity or the time available for co-curricular activity is also important !