SW London Girls' Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023

[EmotiveBubblez]

i myself have been looking for this thread and have been unsuccessful. Saw a couple people mention it over the past day or so on the 2022 one.

so here we go, albeit a bit late.

has everyone visited all the schools on their lists?

how many schools are everyone applying to?

what schools are you applying to?

how is the preparation going?

i know some exams have taken place, how did they go?

wishing all the whirls good luck with preparation and exams, hope we all find the right schools for our daughters.

Girls*

Yes to visiting all the schools plus state ones we‘re unlikely to get into. Somewhat addled plus all the school application admin seems to be now hitting. Applying to 4 indies plus 3 or so non-selective state schools as back-up

the admin is a lot, we are applying to 5 consortium schools and then 3 state schools. Need to sort the Catholic practice certificate out.

didn't realise the state schools do handing tests and so having to factor these in too which has meant making some tough choices because of the dates plus we are considering scholarship apps too.

only school left to visit is G&L, we are going next month.

Banding**

@EmotiveBubblez Thanks for starting the link
Still a couple of to visit (WHS and KGS)
Will probably do 5 private exams and have 1/2 state backups but still tbc depending on last visits and most recent advice from my DD's school (with no tests involved).
Prep is progressing not without challenges - DD is quite smart and academic (CATs above 130 across the board) but also very anxious and tends to underperform under pressure. But trying to keep a cool head.

• no tests involved referring to the state ones (sorry for lack of clarity).

would love to share this messy journey with others.. first time going through the process and trying to keep calm and collected.

I did this last year with dd2 - happy to answer any questions but I think I’ve forgotten most of the details!

First for me too.

@HighRopes how many did you apply to?

were there any scheduling conflicts? How did you handle the run up to it.

trying to keep a calm atmosphere as much as possible.

in the run we’re doing lots of mocks?

Thanks for setting this up @EmotiveBubblez. We're not until next year, but it's so helpful reading these threads to try to get a handle on the process ahead of time.

Quick question for this year's applicants. Have you done formal mocks (the ones where you pay for your DD to go and sit in a big hall with kids they've never met before and do mock exams?) We've been advised to do those from the summer term onwards but I'm slightly worried it'll just freak my DD out even more than the real thing! Advice gratefully received. (And I'll be following all your journeys with fingers firmly crossed for a smooth process and happy outcomes!)

Applied to WHS, PHS, SPGS, Surbiton High and Sutton High, plus Tiffin. No scheduling conflicts though I did have to take quite a bit of time off work to take her to various things and then sit in coffee shops and wait for her. We did a couple of mocks over the summer - mostly because she’d missed so much school because of lockdowns, and we wanted to give her the experience of being in a big crowd, queueing etc than for the academic side, though it was useful coming from a state primary to get a vague sense of where she was in the cohort. But Atom was better for that, I think.

In terms of handling the run up - we emphasised that this was all about having options, that we would have a her favourite takeaway when it was all done (before results, to reward effort rather than achievement) and that we were sure she would end up in the right school for her. And we didn’t stop any activities or do lots of prep - around an hour or so a week, maybe a bit more in the run up to the exams.

@QuiteAJourney If you're doing the KGS visit this Saturday, look out for my daughter who'll be doing Chemistry experiments. She started this September and is very excited to be doing the experiments!

@SpringCalling , I am indeed doing KGS and will look out for her! We have yet to see the school but have heard many good things so looking forward to it!

@LondonMum20222 No mocks for us or tutoring. She is at an indie prep and we are trusting what they provide and doing a bit of extra (mostly some Bond and CLG books by way of time assessments) but not overloading. And she is continuing with her normal activities (music, art and sport).
Key message to her is that what we value is her spirit and commitment/effort and that the result would be what would be...but she is quite self-critical and anxious so hence decisions against mocks or tutoring.

@QuiteAJourney Thanks so much for that. Sorry to hear your DD is a bit anxious. It's really quite an awful process to put 10 and 11 year through and yet here we all are... But you're giving all the right messages. We just keep pointing out to our DD that everyone at her school (also an indie prep) ends up at a nice secondary and all she can do is her best - so much else is down to luck. And that she and all her friends will be happy wherever they go.

@LondonMum20222 Thanks for the kind message. Like you, I believe that most people end up in the right school for them... and that is one of things that we have discussed with DD at length.
One of the challenges for us has been how to narrow down the ones to go for - DD is keen to do lots of exams but we have set 5/6 as absolute limit. As we are visiting last ones this weekend, we will probably narrow down next week to ensure we manage to get all applications in on time.

@QuiteAJourney I think 5/6 max is completely right - that's what we'll do next year. Maybe your DD wants to apply to more because she's feeling anxious about how she'll do (ie wanting to spread her chances)? But maybe tell her she'll do better if she's less overloaded and to give herself a really good shot at fewer schools. I think it's worth reminding them that we've all done exams (we know how they feel!) and exams can be really tiring, and we just want to make sure they've got enough energy / stamina for the schools they're most keen on.

@HighRopes Your spread of schools sounds very classic / typical for all of us in SW London! Can I ask why you didn't go for Godolphin? It always seems to be an obvious school in that mix, but given you're not allowed to visit it until Year 6, it's hard to know whether it'll be in the mix for us.

@LondonMum20222 Geography. We’re south of the river, and we couldn’t see enough difference between G&L and (say) PHS or WHS to make the extra journey worth it. In retrospect, we probably didn’t need to do both PHS and WHS, and definitely didn’t need to do both Surbiton and Sutton. But between covid and being at a primary school, it was very hard to know what level she was at.

@HighRopes Thanks for that. I expect we'll all end up putting in more applications than strictly necessary, but the fear of ending up without any offers at all is pretty potent when we all know that there's such a big element of luck / performance on the day involved as well as raw ability!

Thanks so much for setting this up!

We went through this a couple of years ago with DD1 but it was all a bit different as it was lockdown so almost everything was online and nicely spread out. This feels more daunting.

Still haven't decided on our final list for applications but most likely KGS, PHS, Surbiton, Radnor (or Kneller Hall), Harrodian and a few others. Going for quite a range as DD2 is a bit hit and miss with exams. DD1 at LEH but not sure DD2 will sit that one.

DD2 has sat a mock and we might do one more next week, just so she's used to the process.

Good luck all!

Just back from WHS and KGS. WHS tour was very rushed and did not give us much sense of the school. KGS has gone up our list on account of a tour that allowed us to get a sense of these school ad speak with lots of the current pupils (@SpringCalling, I think that we interacted with your daughter - there were some lovely Y7 girls doing experiments - I assume your daughter was one of them...)

@QuiteAJourney If it was this morning you may have done! She was doing the splints with chemicals on that changed colour. If you have any questions about KGS, feel free to message me.

@SpringCalling Definitely her then. My daughter really enjoyed the experiment. Thanks for your kind offer - I think that after this morning, it is quite firmly in our list.

Been through all this twice! I have DCs at WHS and LU- happy to help with any questions etc. Good luck!

Thanks so much for setting up this thread. How you mentally prepare DD? Do you think working on Atom would be good enough?