London boys independent schools - year 7 in 2023

[crazymama123]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how everyone is getting on with the 11+ exams for London boys independent schools? There's a great thread on girls schools in SW London, so i wondered if anyone was interested in a thread for boys? We're applying to UCS, Highgate, City, Westminster and Forest and are just kicking off the exams.

Is anyone else in the same position? The lack of choice or control in the process, or knowing whether DS has a realistic chance of getting in is so stressful! And the exams being over such a long period (for us the end of November through to early Jan and then hopefully interviews end of Jan), means we've got such a long period to get through.

Anyway, thought I'd reach out in case anyone else is in a similar position and wants support. x

Anyone going for St James boys or Halliford!? Good luck to all the DS’s’ hope you are all ok

Ah - thank you! The 18th feels a looong way away…

I know!!

Does anyone know what the chances are of getting into schools when kids have been given an interview? Is it still super competitive or can we relax a bit now? I know each school will be different, I’m just trying to gauge whether interviews are a tick box exercise to check the child fits with the school, or if it’s another stage of whittling the numbers down dramatically. For reference we have interviews at city, Highgate and Westminster (waiting to hear from UCS), and done the forest one already.

@crazymama123 I think there is still considerable whittling to be done given the numbers they are dealing with. E.g. at an open evening Highgate told us they were expecting 1000 candidates for 80 new-entrant places (split roughly 40:40 boys to girls). They didn’t say how many are interviewed, but it’s a heck of a numbers game.

Having said that, if your DS is consistently getting interviews at these very competitive schools I’d think he has a great chance of getting offers. Do you/he have a favourite?

Goodness, 1000 down to 80 is indeed a heck of a numbers game!! To be honest we don't have a set first choice as we wanted to see where he gets into first before setting our hearts on anywhere. Out of the 5 schools we've applied to though, City, Highgate and UCS would be my top 3. Fingers crossed something comes through!!

Hi @crazymama123 , out of curiosity, is Forest Sch your child's "banker" / should be able to get into, school choice? just asking as it seems the opp end from City/UCS/Highgate and a tier below the other 3. Best of luck, u seem to have a very bright boy :)

Yes that’s the idea. It’s quite far from us but our thinking was that it should be easier to get into than the others. Although at the assessment day last week there were 480 kids in my son’s exam (he counted 20 rows of 24) and there was another sitting too, so an awful lot of applicants!!

We're looking closely at City and/or Westminster, and Dulwich C for our son. Also Forest as our prep seems to send quite a few there but it sort of is the wrong "end" for us and not easy to commute to. Could I PM you? Just want to ask a bit about reliability of CAT scores if that's ok?

Of course!

In fact i've shared below the info on scores that i've obtained from various sources for where children apparently need to be at in order to get into various schools. I’m not sure how they come up with these scores, and it may be completely inaccurate or out of date, and of course other factors will be taken into consideration, but this might be a helpful reference point

CATS

Westminster = 132, St Pauls = 130, City = 127, UCS = 125, Forest =low/mid 120s, Dulwich = 122 (I couldn’t find the scores for Highgate)

Standardised Age Scores (SAS) on Atom (~6 points lower than CATS)
Westminster = 125-130, City = 120-125, Highgate = 117-123, UCS = 118 - 123, Forest = 113-118

If you use Atom then you can message them and they will tell you the scores that they expect each school to need relative to their SAS scores.

ISEB mocks

Apparently it’s 130+ for the most academic schools.

Hi! How’s everything going for your DS’s?

Results have been positive so far, but my DS is completely fed up with the whole process and has lost all motivation to do any work, so we haven’t done anything since Christmas. It’s really tough on kids who are so young. I just want it all to be over! How’s everybody else doing.

@crazymama123 Yes, that is right. I just contacted Atom the other day to find out the SAS scores for target schools for my ds (he is only in year 4, but I was curious as going through 11+ w my dd now) and as I was so late to it for my dd (end of year %), I wanted to get a head start on researching schools for my ds and what target scores we would need when the time comes for him to start doing mocks etc.

I also was given the scores for the girls schools previously by Atom and they seem to be accurate.

Good morning!! DS at last exam today ahhh! Anyone else?

Is that Halliford? My son is there this morning, last exam for him 🎉

Yes!!! My DS too!! Last exam and such a lovely school!!! Good luck to yours!! Thought the email yesterday was so thoughtful wishing them luck!

Would you mind sharing for both?

Boys scores below:
Westminster School - 125-130
City of London School for Boys 120-125
Latymer Upper School 119-124
Emanuel School 115-120
King's College School - Wimbledon 122-127

I could not find the girls ones in my emails, but remember them give or take a point:
SPGS 130
G&L 125-130
Putney 117+
FHSS 117+
Emanuel 116+

Atom stresses these are an estimate and you should try to get the best SAS score you can. I found it very helpful, as with everyone telling me how hard the schools were to get in, my head also not much help on my dd ability, I was able to get an idea of schools to apply for my dd and she made it to interview round for all 4 schools she applied (G&L, Putney, Emanuel and FHSS - they interview all though).

How did your DS exam go? My DS came out really positive! Halliford made the whole experience enjoyable and it seemed to go well!

We heard about UCS on Friday. Glad it was a shorter wait than expected. 😊

Thank you for this! Also, these are the scores your daughter would consistently get on the atom mock exams? My daughter is also doing the 11+ now and her scores were all over the place on atom, but then so has our admissions process. Hopefully my son will be more straightforward.

That is what I think is the tricky part with Atom, as scores can be slightly all over the place. However, the majority of the time she would get for example for math 135-142 range, but English could be the 115-137 range. Verbal and non verbal 115-125 range. So I was not sure how she would do on the actual exams. Though, more often her scores for English would be above 120. I felt that with these scores she would at least pass for Emanuel and FHSS and perhaps Putney....but she also passed the G&L exam. She did say the Emanuel verbal test was really easy and the London consortium exam was easy as well (so perhaps easier then when she was doing atom?). She said Putney was the difficult one. As for my ds, he is in year 4, so we are not really doing much. Just a little learning journey's here and there....for example 15 mins 2-3 times a week. I do not believe in over preparing. But, as they are in state school, I know it is behind by a year. And so when it comes time to apply for my ds, I will see if he is in the target range for the schools. I think it is def helpful to see if your dc has a realistic chance.

I would also like to add, I was really worried, as with adaptive tests I felt they can be all over the place and I was not sure if they would accurately show my dd ability. But that being said, she passed the London Consortium and Putney highs adaptive tests and also the Emanuel exams...so I guess that adaptive tests are able to show their ability? But tbh I much prefer non adaptive!

Same here! DS was pleased to get through for all of about 5 minutes, until he found out that his two best buddies didn’t. It’s our only walkable option, and I think he’d had a vision in his head of them going up there as a happy band of three. Ah well. I hope it was good news for you.

My daughter’s atom scores ranged from 100-128. Her prep school recommended Putney High and NHEHS as stretch schools. She didn’t get the second part of Putney but she has an interview at Emanuel and got the second part of Ibstock. She is very keen on FHSS and not sure if 117 is going to be too high a bar for her. My son is also in year 4 and he started doing some learning journeys and loves it, at the moment.