Page 5 | 2: SW London Girls' Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2022

Cinnybuns · 08/03/2022 18:58

Interesting… maybe it’s still shaking out. (Though we’re pretty close to giving up at this point!)

Nomad916 · 08/03/2022 21:49

Any idea when when schools send out more info to children/parents after acceptance of deposit letter? Getting excited!

1forward2back · 09/03/2022 07:04

We’ve had a letter acknowledging acceptance and saying there will be more in May/June! We accepted Sutton High and DD’s friend was on the waiting list but they’ve now been told it is full and so they won’t be going to the waiting list. So I think maybe the whole process has been a bit different this year. It’s all a mystery! I heard from our prep head that WHS also not going to the waiting list. Not sure who else but seems most aren’t this year. Don’t know about Surbiton, as nobody was on the waiting list there from our school - All seemed to get in. One girl is waiting for JAGs and hasn’t heard yet.

Parkerspiece · 09/03/2022 11:04

The waiting list situation was a bit unusual last year. For example, LEH started offering places to WL as soon as the state school allocation was announced, even though they had over offered in the first place. WHS even went to the bottom third of their waiting list in May/June. For SPGS, there were a couple of new students joining in October.
So things are definitely different this year if you are comparing them to last year. I am wondering how much this is down to the school choices by the parents, or the calculation/estimation by the schools when they made the offer.

SkaterGrrrrl · 13/03/2022 12:28

Hi ladies, anyone know if Tiffin's waiting list has closed? I am, quite literally, asking for a friend.

ChildOfFriday · 13/03/2022 12:37

@SkaterGrrrrl

Hi ladies, anyone know if Tiffin's waiting list has closed? I am, quite literally, asking for a friend.

Tiffins is a state school. The waiting list will not 'close'- they will continue to offer places to the next person on the waiting list if places become available until September and beyond. The admissions document on the website says that the waiting list will remain until the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

hockeygrass · 13/03/2022 13:02

@SkaterGrrrrl , if your friend is waiting to see if movement of the Tiffins girls WL leads to a private school WL moving (ie securing a private WL place due to a withdrawal by someone else who has gained a Tiffin place) then she needs to follow the Tiffin Girls thread in the Surrey section of elevenplusexams.co.uk
As of Friday no one had been given a WL place which means movement is still to come.

travelturtle · 13/03/2022 13:32

@SkaterGrrrrl I am sure there is still more movement to come. I know 3 people who had a Tiffin girls offer who have decided to go elsewhere and sure there will be others.

LondonMum20222 · 13/03/2022 13:32

@SkaterGrrrrl Anyone waiting on Tiffins, should take a look, as @hockeygrass says, at the elevenplus forums.

On the 2021 thread, WL places started getting offered in earnest over the Easter hols. And then well into May (and that's just the posters on there) www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=61808

And 2022 hasn't moved at all yet.
www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=61808

HighRopes · 13/03/2022 14:27

My understanding is that Tiffin doesn’t over offer, so it’s waiting list moves faster and more consistently than the private schools. In the email I got about accepting or decking a place, the deadline was 14 March, so hopefully all the places freed up will start filtering through to the waiting list next week.

SkaterGrrrrl · 13/03/2022 14:55

Thanks everyone, sounds stressful, I'm glad DDs choice is settled. Will pass on your wisdom!

Sweetnhappy1 · 13/03/2022 18:08

State school deadline to accept or decline is 15th March so I wouldn't expect the lists to move until after that date

Cinnybuns · 15/03/2022 12:57

Has anyone heard more about movement on the SW London independents wait lists? I don’t know anyone who has received a WL place since last week. (Was 7th March only a week ago?!) Could there be people still holding multiple offers at this point…?

fatarse · 15/03/2022 13:17

@Cinnybuns

Has anyone heard more about movement on the SW London independents wait lists? I don’t know anyone who has received a WL place since last week. (Was 7th March only a week ago?!) Could there be people still holding multiple offers at this point…?

There will be some (not many) who are yet to decide between state and independent. So people who have both accepted state place and independent and will be still making their mind up.

Likelihood is that they reject the state place eventually but not always.

This process is so awful, if you are still waiting, wishing you and your DC luck.

Cinnybuns · 15/03/2022 13:40

Makes sense on the state option. I do know a handful of people who paid two deposits but have since decided.

We are doing ok, DD was coming home from school every day asking whether there was any school news (which was pretty horrible) but she’s stopped that now. We have embraced the offer she has and grateful for it. We know quite a lot of people who are still waiting, one without any firm offers at all. The whole process sucks and hindsight truly is an amazing thing!

fatarse · 15/03/2022 15:25

@Cinnybuns

Makes sense on the state option. I do know a handful of people who paid two deposits but have since decided.

We are doing ok, DD was coming home from school every day asking whether there was any school news (which was pretty horrible) but she’s stopped that now. We have embraced the offer she has and grateful for it. We know quite a lot of people who are still waiting, one without any firm offers at all. The whole process sucks and hindsight truly is an amazing thing!

Happy to hear you have a place and keeping a positive outlook.

Yes this process sucks. I have learnt that doesn't matter what your plan is, even with hindsight, ultimately the school chooses (and it's totally and utterly random, and that is the harsh revolting reality. I have also learnt that they are all great schools so I choose based convenience

Every year it seems to get worse and drives neurotic parents to over tutor.

Cinnybuns · 15/03/2022 20:07

Exactly. We didn’t get a tutor and I have mixed feelings as to whether that was the right thing, though we agreed we didn’t want to push the DC too hard given they were already in a prep school. They’ll probably all get to similar destinations in the end

Original poster

Emo76 · 16/03/2022 20:29

We foolishly trusted our prep school who said tutoring wasn’t a good thing to do and to trust them to prepare the children. In our daughters case that just wasn’t enough. Perhaps I wasn’t on top of it enough in fairness, and underestimated the demand for places. There were no “bankers” for us, we got a spot by the skin of our teeth from a waiting list, which we are incredibly grateful for. I am still scratching my head a bit regarding what actually happened and how DD fared so badly (we believe, and know from the Alleyns feedback) in the ISEB/exams. I underestimated the whole process and warn others if they are reading this next year, to take it more seriously!

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Original poster

Emo76 · 16/03/2022 20:30

To be clear a big thing for me was not to put DD under any more pressure than she felt herself. And she has a huge dislike of English comprehension! So do I now, actually. It was genuinely painful trying to get her to practice

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fatarse · 16/03/2022 21:00

@Emo76

We foolishly trusted our prep school who said tutoring wasn’t a good thing to do and to trust them to prepare the children. In our daughters case that just wasn’t enough. Perhaps I wasn’t on top of it enough in fairness, and underestimated the demand for places. There were no “bankers” for us, we got a spot by the skin of our teeth from a waiting list, which we are incredibly grateful for. I am still scratching my head a bit regarding what actually happened and how DD fared so badly (we believe, and know from the Alleyns feedback) in the ISEB/exams. I underestimated the whole process and warn others if they are reading this next year, to take it more seriously!

I had a similar thing with my first then found out from various DD's friends who let slip that they had "tutor" homework on play dates that rapidly dwindled in number after Autumn term. So we ended up sorting something out pretty late. Luckily DD1 was fairly solid at core subjects and a fantastic reader.

Never believe anyone who says they aren't tutoring.

And prepare for it at secondary school too. I know some pupils already being tutored Y7 onwards, parents drive it, terrified that their children won't be in top set otherwise.

Mystery2345 · 17/03/2022 12:09

oh wow that seems crazy - tutoring children in to senior school then continuing it. where would it stop? sounds pretty miserable for the kids.

LondonMum20222 · 17/03/2022 12:31

@Mystery2345 I totally agree! I read the posts by @Emo76 and @fatarse and thought exactly the same - it's awful! We'll be doing the 11+ in two years, and DH & I already decided that there will be no tutoring. Are those parents who are tutoring for 11+ going to do it throughout GCSEs? A Levels? University? I totally understand tutoring if you're at a state primary and need to get your child au fait with 11+ materials. But in a prep school it's actual madness.

Our DD's prep school is really clear that they don't approve of tutoring (loads of parents still do it, obv) but from what I've seen, it starts with over-ambitious parents and leads to stressed girls.

@emo76 - I'm really happy your DD got a place, and think you should should still hold on to the fact that you didn't put your DD through two years of crazy additional schooling.

HighRopes · 17/03/2022 12:43

I haven’t heard of anyone continuing to tutor at dd1’s school, though she does know of a couple of girls who have to report every test result to their parents and who therefore get very stressed about tests and how their marks compare with the rest of the class. The school deliberately doesn’t do comparisons or say who gets the top marks, but some girls are determined to collect all the information and work out where they ranked in class.

This is one thing that I think is within parental control, to a great extent. But it seems like some parents don’t trust their dd and the school to work things out, and feel the need to stay very closely involved, and sometimes that’s done through tutoring.

LondonMum20222 · 17/03/2022 12:57

That's reassuring to hear @HighRopes. Your DD1 is at SPGS, isn't she? I'd have imagined that might be one of the worst offenders for secondary school tutoring, so it's good to hear that it's not. (And with those fees, it really would be crazy to spend yet more on private tutoring!)

I would really like to get DD into a secondary school where parents just leave great teachers to get on with their job, and trust that they'll do it well...

Original poster

Emo76 · 17/03/2022 13:04

@LondonMum20222 that's a very good point - she didn't have to go through it and we are delighted with the eventual result - great way of framing it and reminding me, thanks.

I am not opposed to tutoring for a specific thing, something a child is really struggling with. But I am mighty glad the 11+ machine is over for us and wish those still waiting for a place or doing it in the future all the very best.

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