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

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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.

I can’t figure dd out, I think she is capable on some level and I think she will do fine over time but to be honest I am not convinced she has the necessary level of polish and preparedness to be successful in the more competitive exams. I think putting those schools in the mix may have derailed dd slightly. I will definitely have a word with the school to see what they think.

@Justonecat if doing Consortium, have you considered St Augustine Priory, SJSS and/or FHSS? Sorry if they are already in your list (I could only see a reference to the Hammersmith schools).

@Justonecat Not sure where you're based by NHEHS would also be a good Consortium school to add - not least because they interview everyone, and it's less competitive to get into (fewer applicants) but had great results this year. I went on an open day and thought the girls seemed really nice!

We have a range of schools but if dd is having a really off day nine of it is going to work. We will focus on supporting her as best we can in the remaining weeks, and will keep our fingers crossed

None not nine, sorry!

Which school is that, I can’t figure out the acronym 😊

@Justonecat Notting Hill and Ealing High School. Obviously all consortium schools will look for different results on the exam, and NHEHS won't be - I suspect - as hard as G&L.

Agree but if the day is not fully off, a range might help. Also, different schools give different weight to exam vs interview / other assessments vs school report. We are following that approach with the ISEB.

@Justonecat Also, if you have a range of schools /exams remember that not EVERY day will be an off day...

I think you have had excellent advice here. I would add, do not panic! You said your daughter had good CAT scores and that your school suggested Hammersmith schools. They would not have done this, if they did not think she had a good chance. Schools looks at tests scores, school reports and interview. It is a bigger picture.
As long as you have a range of schools on your list, she will get a place. Work with her, keep her calm and encourage her (I'm sure you are already doing this!).
Wishing you daughter lots of luck. X

Thank you!

@Justonecat stay strong.
We have also found useful to do less formal learning and variety of things which might be 'learning in disguise' (e.g. brain puzzles, which my DD really likes, or reading The Week Junior together). We have kept some activities going but not too much as this whole period is quite tiring.
Rooting for you and your DD and already looking forward to a message from you some months down the line telling us about the offers.

Thanks, that sounds like a really sensible plan. We’ve also decided to add more consortium options and will scrap at least two of the Hammersmith schools, there is no point pursuing them at this point.

@Justonecat I definitely wouldn't be junking any schools at this point. And definitely not without liaising with the school first. I totally understand if you're panicking a bit, and do understand how you feel, but if your DD ends up sailing through the exams she sits, you'll forever regret pulling her out of the Hammersmith schools exams.

@Justonecat Definitely worth liaising with the school before pulling out of any schools, especially if the exams are coming with others. Sorry if that is not the case, but quite tricky to comment without specifics on your list / what you are considering adding.

I believe these exams measure the level of preparedness above all and dd simply isn’t there yet regardless of whatever potential she may have. I don’t want to set dd up for disappointment. We will probably keep one of the Hammersmith schools just so dd feels we still believe in her, which we do - it’s not her fault that we haven’t been able to provide her with the level
of support required. We were naive in thinking her cat scores and some encouragement from the school was a reliable indicator of success in the more challenging 11+ exams. We have friends who are similar to
dd AND who have several different specialist tutors who are guiding them through this process - we can’t possibly match that.

I am not suggesting this level of preparation is necessary, you can probably do it yourself if you know what you are doing and have the time do devote to it, but we didn’t start in time

We are speaking with the school this afternoon but it is a family decision above all, we have to do what we think is right for dd

@Justonecat Can I just ask, is DD at prep school or state primary?

I think we all agree that it is a family decision - school can provide (just) guidance, both in terms of ambition of different options but also what you might be able to mitigate risks (e.g. expanding list) and also addressing concerns.
Hopefully you get support from the school.

You really don't need 'several specialist tutors' - that's madness!
I would echo other posters saying it's sometimes worth a go. Schools are looking for different things and can sometimes throw up strange results!

Yes, I agree re tutoring. Plenty of people get into SPGS and G&L (and others) without any tutoring. Those who do tutor like crazy are not doing their DDs any favours long-term (and are probably burning them out in the process). It's so easy to feel the 11+ is a tutoring arms race, but it's just unnecessary, esp if they're already at a prep school.

DD was at a state primary and did have a very general 11plus tutor for a while. I found some panicky emails between us the other day where we'd had an awful weekend about this time of year and I was trying to find other schools we might apply to as was convinced she wouldn't get in anywhere. She was fine in the end and I'm not entirely convinced if the tutor helped or rather upped all the pressure as we knew she was tutoring half the kids in the area..

@Justonecat please be gentle on yourself and dont think you have let your DD down. As our headmistress say, whether she is going to hammersmith school or not is not going to impact her GCSE or a level..
As you say setting her for failure / disappointment is not right and Hammersmith school is not a proof of cleverness or else.
At the end of the day, the important thing is for your DD to feel confident in herself and when she goes to secondary school. As I tell mine I prefer you to go to what people call back up/ less academic school and thrive there and be happy rather than be miserable at an Hammersmith school.
11+ for girls (I have no experience of boys) are just getting crazier and crazier with so much pressure from parents/ school where they already have to go through normal life/ friendship / puberty etc.
I wish your DD all the best and make sure she knows you are there behind her whatever happens. You're a super mum thinking about her wellbeing above all which is admirable.

Totally agree @Lolakath19. All this talk (in every prep school in west London) about the Hammersmith schools vs "back-up schools" has completely lost touch with reality. Pretty much every private secondary school in west London is in the Top 100 nationally. The obsession with whether your child gets into the no.1 school in the country or the no.20 or 30 or 50 is, by any objective measure, crazy. So much academic research shows that a child who is top of their cohort in a "less academic" school (and we're talking small margins in the league tables here, for the most part) turns out happier, more confident and MORE SUCCESSFUL than kids who were shoehorned (often with tons of tutoring) into a school where they'll be in the bottom 25% and spend 7 years feeling like a failure, and get 2 A-stars and an A rather than 3 A-stars at A Level. I have so many super smart friends who went to SPGS and Wycombe who genuinely thought they weren't clever because they weren't "as clever" as the other girls in their highly selective, high-achieving school. Who'd want to put their 11 year old in that position? Well-being and overall happiness first, every single time.

@LondonMum20222 - you speak a lot of sense- there is so much hysteria over the 'Hammersmith' schools!