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]

Hello there, would someone be able to recommend a tutor for my Y5 daughter? We are looking at Sutton grammars and possibly Dulwich school. Sorry Mumsnet if that's not allowed! Best of luck for everyone still doing exams and interviews.

We used Mentor tutors for our DD and she got 5 offers last year and is in Alleyn's. They were brilliant. I have started following them on twitter and they've just posted some of the interview questions.
I'm sure there are other tutors but they are who we used.

Just updating to say that it seems the admissions teams are starting to fray around the edges... today is the second time a "top" West London school has erroneously emailed us about an interview. The first was a school we did not apply to, saying 'thanks so much for getting in touch to reschedule interview and here is your new time'??? And second one, this evening, was an 'apologies for the technical glitches but so lovely to have interviewed your daughter today.' (She was not invited to interview!) Both times we politely clarified our position and both times schools replied to apologise for error.

I completely get administrative mistakes. It's just that it doesn't exactly bolster confidence in the system, to be honest. Seems pretty messy.

Anyway!! Congrats to those who have offers in hand-- and speaking from experience with two other DC, the children do tend to land at schools which suit them! As earlier poster and also a friend of mine with older uni aged DC mentioned recently, they all wind up in very similar universities and courses in general years later. Deep breaths!

[quote Trialsat11]@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 ![/quote]
@Trialsat11, would you mind elaborating on your comment regarding high turnover of teachers at the Sutton grammars? Which ones in particular and where is this information from? Thank you in advance.

@Abetes I was too frazzled to say thank you yesterday for your kind and supportive comments around the 11+ process. I wish I could say I’d lost a stone but unfortunately my waistline has gone in the opposite direction.. this is what biscuits were invented for right?!

@PatoPato and @dazedandconfused11plus I’m glad your daughters had positive experiences, our interviewer was also ‘kind’ which does make an impression. @JavaTeak for you to get mixed up with someone else twice is very disconcerting!

@yellowspanner it sounds like you had a very positive 11 plus experience last year. Was there something particular that drew you to Alleyns? How is your DD finding it and what do you make of Jane Lunnon? She seems a bit nervous in her heads video.. perhaps understandably as she is filling big shoes!!

@GrammarHopeful we are not applying to any grammars due to distance so the only comparison I can offer is Graveney. It’s size and leadership team seem to put some people off and (whilst much better this time) they’ve not been as technically agile swapping to online learning.

Does anyone know when the LEH offer letters go out? GHS want us to get back to them by the 12th February to help them sort out the waitlist although in reality I think they will hold it until 1st March. We want to make a prompt decision but also want to have all the information...the website says mid February?

Stircrazy,
DD was offered places at 5 schools including Jags and Wellington. We all choose Alleyn's for several reasons.
It gave a warm, welcoming and friendly feeling at the open day....which we were able to attend. I feel so sorry for you all, not only can you not visit the schools but the selection process seems chaotic in some cases and just difficult in others.
The co curricular offering is amazing. They have hour and half for lunch and lots of clubs.
DD is sporty and they have an amazing site with lots of pitches.
I asked her yesterday what she liked about Alleyn's and she said that other schools taught you what to think whereas Alleyn's teaches us how to think.
She loves it there.
She was at a non selective prep.
We almost went for WHS because of Jane Lunnon but decided Alleyn's was a better fit only to find she had been appointed as new head. She started in January and introduced herself to parents on line. She sounds great.
During lockdown DD has on line lessons 8.30 til about 3.30. But the teachers seem nice.
My friends DS has applied to Emanuel and they are demented.
If anyone has an Alleyn's interview and wants to PM me I can tell you what she was asked. But of course it may have changed.

@yellowspanner thank you so much. It’s really useful to get firsthand perspectives.

@yellowspanner
Please can I ask what you mean by my friend DS has applied to Emanuel and they are demented ?

@Yossahughes

Does anyone know when the LEH offer letters go out? GHS want us to get back to them by the 12th February to help them sort out the waitlist although in reality I think they will hold it until 1st March. We want to make a prompt decision but also want to have all the information...the website says mid February?

The website says that offers will be posted out on 10th Feb.

@yossahughes LEH post offer letters on 10th February. Although they let the primary schools know by email the same day so you can ask your school if they’ve heard of you don’t want to wait for the postie.

@Yossahughes
Hi my DD1 got in LEH last year and the offer letter was delivered to our home by post on February 13th. It was Thursday just before the half term. Hope you can get result before 12th

Iamsodone,
My friend's son was one of those doing the exam when the IT failed. She said some DCs have done a full exam and some haven't. And she's been told of cheating once the IT went down. The school haven't yet told them how they are going to handle it. She really wants DS to go to Emanuel and is worried that it is not a level playing field.
But I think this year the playing field is all over the place.
Thank goodness we were last year.

Crikey - so we are going to have to make a decision about LEH versus GHS before we know if we have a place. The Guildford letter says they will hold the place until 1st March to allow for people waiting for state school applications so we have a little bit of leeway I guess but wouldn’t want to stretch it out too much....DH thinks it’s a no brainier and we should choose Guildford as they have also offered her an academic scholarship but I can’t stop thinking about the lovely airy classrooms at LEH....how are any of us going to choose this year without an offer holders day 😱😱😱

@Yossahughes that’s a tough one! How comparable are the commutes?

@Yossahughes , well done to your dd. In the 2019 girls thread there was a poster called Greenleave and her dd got GH scholarship early and then went on to get KGS and LU scholarships (she went to LU) although not LEH scholarship. GH play the early game to get in their first esp via LEH when competing with the Esher/Claygate catchment girls, I hope you can see all the offers before making a decision as GH scholarship is a great indicator of offers to come.

@Yossahughes my DD has gone a lot of times to GHS for sporting events .
Some of the upfront advantages v/s LEH are located in the city centre which means the DC can commute back home independently incase of sports fixtures or late clubs which is not the case with LEH as it in the middle of nowhere.
GHS uses Stoke Park and Guildford Spectrum for a lot of the sports activities and they are just next door .
We would have loved to apply had they got a bus or were not a train ride away !

@singingrain1223 and @stircrazyschoolmum we are based in esher so for GHS it’s a 2 minute drive to the train station (where I drop DS anyway to take the train to Wimbledon) or for LEH she could walk to the coach pick up point....so pretty comparable for GHS, LEH and WHS in terms of the journey. I would like her to have local friends though so I was always favouring LEH and Guildford over WHS as I felt that there were perhaps more girls from the Esher area going to those schools. WHS always struck me as being quite a local school but I might be wrong. Anecdotally I have heard that LEH is best for drama and GHS is best for sport. I think the academics are pretty similar and she would achieve the same at any of these schools.

@yellowspanner I got you now and in the same place as your friend. Also heard of parents bragging about helping their kids at the first session.
The second session was better organised and ‘time stamped’ which leaves less room for parents tampering (I believe).

@Iamsodone @yellowspanner several of us discussed this on the part 1 thread at the time, but I am questioning further in response to your comments - So how do you think the second group of which we ourselves were stand a fair chance even if all is being treated as work done from home? How will they have fairly assessed? These are still the unanswered questions. I sort of took it that everything was made a bit fairer when they changed it to work considered done at home. The time constraints we had meant all work was carried out under time pressures and so may be incomplete or chance of errors so a whole diff kettle of fish then first group :(( Or will it be that they identify those and spot the difference?

It's not my DS it's a friend's so I only know that she is concerned. I don't know any of the details because I don't like to keep asking especially as my DS is not involved.

@MumsRule20 I don’t have much wisdom to offer.
My DD locked herself in the room and got on with it ! She wasn’t going to let us interfere.
I just hope the schools who have their own primary/year 6 will have had their own cohort sitting the exams which then does provide some useful data/pattern. I can’t think that the exams from the first session will be carrying as much weight as the second session but I really don’t know.
Had they had to show their workings, it would have provided some clues, but that is not even the case.
Admissions will be picking up the phone to speak to schools if they have any doubt. But a few improvements here or there aren’t likely to be noticeable. Interview plus school reports are likely to carry more weight than usual, but again how much tangible information is in the school references when the kids have missed so much school and they were all written after a few weeks of the kids being back in school.

DD is in year 7 at LEH. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about the school (to the best of my abilities). Pease PM me if needed.

In a nutshell: it is definitely not a hothouse, both the school and most parents are pretty chilled (some parents are the exception). Learning is good but not intensive. Very little homework. DD did not get an academic scholarship but is certainly not lagging behind and got an excellent report card. Most extracurricular activities are not taking place because of the pandemic, which is a bummer. The school is doing very well during lockdown, excellent online programme with a mix of live lessons and independent work. Be mindful of the requirement to attend Saturday sports - I thought it was optional, but there’s a lot of pressure to attend, which is tough if you have other commitments/DCs or are single parenting. Overall I’m quite happy and so is DD. I’m a big fan of the head; she’s done a great job in the pandemic and always comes across as level headed. I would recommend the school to a friend 🙂.

@Stircrazyschoolmum Wandsworth Test results out! DD did well, but borderline whether she gets into Graveney on first round this year or not (she would for half of the years in the last 4, but not the others).

Which hasn’t helped our decision making much!

@stellagibbons fairly similar here. DD would get Graveney very late in the process this year I think.. too late given the uncertainty. This isn’t a big deal for us as she has a guaranteed sibling place at a state we are very happy with.. makes me wonder if she would’ve made first filter at WHS and JAGS if it had been a non ISEB year though...