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.

It really depends on the school. For example, Dulwich have 70 places and their email says that they interview 160. KGS said that they don't like to over interview and so try not to interview many more than there are places. In the past, Emanuel have always interviewed everyone so I think 2/3 is a happy medium for them.

@Daydreamscometrue - I have heard the same about KGS - do you know the source (e.g. whether that was something mentioned by the Headmaster / staff) and whether it applies to this year? Or numbers? Sorry for asking.. DD has a general interview and we really like the school...

Does anyone know how many they interview at Surbiton compared to Offers? DD has an interview early Jan for SHS.

@QuiteAJourney it was mentioned by the Head at the 11 plus evening for parents. He didn't mention numbers.

@Daydreamscometrue Many thanks - really appreciated

Anyone waiting for spgs 1st round outcome today?

I had a chat with the head of admissions at KGS. She said they interview 300 and offer to 250 with 50 on the waiting list. They double offer so 2 offers to 1 space as they know a lot of children will have offers elsewhere.

sometimes they go deep into their waiting list, sometimes not. She said it was very variable if they went to waiting list ir not.
Her overall message was that if you were invited to interview “you’ve made it” and it was very likely you’d be offered a place.

So those with KGS interviews know they will get a place or a waiting list place.

Of course things may change so I guess things could suddenly be different in some way. But that was from a few weeks ago.

Thanks so much @BlueTick , that's reassuring. We have a general interview at KGS and it is by far and away our favourite school!

You’re welcome and congratulations!

@BlueTick yes thank you. That is very reassuring. My son loves KGS.

At the open evening they said that they either offer or wait list everyone who gets an interview as you said. The head joked that they do this as they're not keen with the 'you did amazingly at the interview but then we met you' approach!

When DD had her general interview at KGS last year, they already talked to her as if she had an offer. They would say "you'll be in a form of 20" "if you want you can join the orchestra when you are here" and so forth. That was in the part where she could ask questions at the end of the interview. The Head said they very much base the decision on the entrance test and the interview is for those children they would be happy to have, hence only about a quarter to a third are interviewed. I found their process very nice and transparent.

Thanks @BlueTick @swgeek @secondaryquandries @Daydreamscometrue for the information - really appreciated.
DD has a general interview and we really like the school. Like @swgeek , we have found their down-to-earth and transparent approach to admissions so refreshing!

Thanks @BlueTick and @swgeek . We really liked the Head and found the 11 plus evening very informative and honest.

Also liked the brochure of past papers and exam tips that they provided.

SPGS email is out

@Lolakath19 how did your dd do? We did not apply, but now I wish we did! It feels like ages until we find out anything....we do not find out until early Jan for our schools.

@Lolakath19 It's weird - we're not even sitting 11+ until next year and yet I feel nervous on everyone else's behalf on days like this! I hope you got good news.

SPGS is a very long process with 3 stages. Today was only the result for the pretest and they say they expect most girls to sit the paper in January.
I am finding the process very draining as a parent..

@Lolakath19 I don't know any parent who has been through it / is going through it now who hasn't found it draining. However zen you try to be - "they'll all find the right school in the end" - of course it's going to be stressful and emotionally draining.

Yes, our head told us that about 80% of girls get through SPGS first stage - but it's still nice not to be booted out at that stage! What prep are you doing for the written paper (esp Paper C)?

@LondonMum20222 I am going to sound very strange but we are not doing anything special, just doing homework from school :S
and trying to keep everything as normal, going to activities, playdate, cinema, shopping and lots of sleep. They only have one childhood.
I am against tutoring (we are not English and according to me tutoring is something that should take place when a child is struggling). I strongly think that if she cannot get in with school prep and homework (given from school) it is not the right school for her. I do make sure she does her homework properly though and I would explain to her if she did not understand something.

Similar to what was said earlier in the group, I would prefer her going to a less academic school and thriving there rather than be at the bottom of the class at a very academic school with no self esteem. I believe teenage years are very important and key to building self confidence.

@Lolakath19 All very wise, and a parent very much after my own heart! We are also not tutoring (and have no intention of doing so) and it genuinely alarms me when DD tells me how much some of her friends are doing on top of prep school and a significant amount of homework in Y5 already. But there is always that fear that you're the only one not tutoring, and if the vast majority are being tutored in order to get in, then your child may be equally bright but may not get a place somewhere just they haven't been flogged to exhaustion for over a year.
I hear parents talking about still doing VR / NVR / Atom practice the weekend before a week of exams and I think those kids must be utterly drained. But I do understand why people feel the need to do it. It's a brutal process all round.
I also strongly agree that it's much better for a child to be at the top of the cohort of a "lower tiered" school (and, as I've said here before, all the schools we're discussing are national Top 50!) than struggling near the bottom of a top tier school. And there's plenty of research to back that up - that children are happier (and, ironically, more successful later in life) if they're thriving at secondary school (whatever the school is) rather than in the bottom quartile of a "top" school.

@LondonMum2022 80% seems to be a lot, think about 500+ applicants this year how can they sits all DDs (400+) on a single day in January

The next round is literally an all-day event. There will be several hundred DDs there. When I picked up my DD, I didn't count them, but there were definitely hundreds and hundreds of kids there.

Not only is it a full day (3 exams in one day) as @bjmin says, it's also before term starts, I believe, so they have capacity for large numbers attending.

How many are expected to go to interview stage?