SW London Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023 (Part II)

[QuiteAJourney]

Continuation of the thread
SW London Girls' Private & Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4643252-sw-london-girls-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023?page=40

Looking forward to continuing the journey with all of you!!

It happened to Alleyns not too long ago as well. They over offered and had to create a bulge class and got rid of the 13+ as well at the same time. Every year the reported number of the applicants is going up so I still think schools are struggling to adjust / estimate.

Mostly a lurker here but does anyone have experience applying from abroad? We are planning to come back to SW this summer so are applying from abroad and therefore children are sitting exams (including interviews if we are lucky enough to proceed to the next stage) remotely. I imagine during lockdowns interviews were conducted remotely anyway?

Thanks @sailingsunshine and others, that’s interesting about last year’s bulge year. It’s just so hard to know how many will be offered, particularly when they have children coming from their own prep. We haven’t heard back from Putney (stretch), Claremont and then also Ewell Castle (which was a last minute panic application as her school is a bit of a feeder for it but not totally convenient for us) both of which are our back ups. We also have 1 state school we are really keen on too. SHS is definitely our 1st choice preference though. I wish they were more transparent about numbers though!

As DD is our only and I didn’t go to school in the UK the whole process is a minefield and I wish I knew at the beginning what I know now as we may have made different choices. That being said, I am very proud of my DD for how hard she has worked and the focus during the past few months of exams, no matter the outcome.

@KindergartenKop I am in the same exact boat as you w my dd. Great because she feels absolutely no pressure at all. No one talks about it at school because no one else is doing it. However, I am the one feeling the stress and pressure because I am worried it is too competitive and I have no idea how she compares to the dc applying.

@SamPoodle123 I also think the other parents think I'm a dickhead/snob for applying to these schools. Only about 3 out of 30 applied to the very local grammar school which surprised me. Most kids at their school go to two different state schools and DS has expressed sadness that he probably won't be going with them. That's tricky 😐

@KindergartenKop all the kids are going to one school (at least my dd friends!) and no one had interest to do the 11+. There is one dc who is doing the 11+, but he did not apply to any of the schools my dd applied to. Did your school give you any guidance? Mine was not helpful at all. They just gave such a huge range of schools so basically no help. We will find out this week for one of the schools, but my dd said she bombed that test. I kind of wish we applied to more schools, as she only had to sit 3 tests and the first test she think she did not do well.

@SamPoodle123 no, no advice was given. Not even a recommendation to try for the grammar. But then actually there's not been anything about the comprehensives either. They just expect the parents to get on with it I suppose. Also, the focus is on SATs for them.

Don't worry about your DD saying she did badly. They don't know how it's marked or how the other kids have done on the same paper. Children are so unreliable! Who do you hear from this week?

@KindergartenKop They should just prep the kids for 11+ if they want good SATs scores 😂My dd got all correct on the last SAT mock (everyone else had several wrong). It is no doubt bc she has been prepping for 11+.

The one we are supposed to hear back by or on the 6th of Jan is Putney. They do their own bespoke adaptive test and my dd said it was similar to Atom. She first told me she thinks she did okay, but ran out of time for math. Then later said she bombed it. She said for the math she kept getting these really long word problems that took a while to solve so she ran out of time and for English she said it got super hard fast....with adaptive it is so hard to know how they did. I am not a fan of them at all, esp since the questions are changing as they go for each child, so if they make a mistake early on it can mess them up later. Ah well.

And then we are waiting for Emanuel and G&L (those we find out the week of the 9th).

@SamPoodle123
Good luck with those, fingers crossed. Computer tests are so unpredictable 😑

@KindergartenKop thanks. Good luck to you as well!

@SamPoodle123 Most consortium schools like G&L interviews are on 13th. Shouldn’t they declare the 1st stage results ASAP? Did they tell you that the results will be out around 9th?

@Workhar the email they sent said on Jan 9th or by. So I will know by Jan 9th for Godolphin. I am not sure why they wait until the very last minute. So far no one has written anything about Godolphin emails going out.....has anyone heard anything? I am not really expecting for dd to go to the next stage, as I felt she needed more time to prepare (we did not realise we would do 11+ until end of year 5).

@SamPoodle123 no, i don’t think G&L have released the results yet. And my logic says they can’t wait till 9th as a lot of consortium schools have interviews on the 13th. They have to give the parents a chance to sort out the logistics as most parents have applied to multiple consortium schools. So I guess they will release the results any moment now.

@Workhar you would think they would give a little more notice! Perhaps the emails will come out tomorrow for G&L!?!? I had in my mind the 9th bc they wrote they date the 9th in the email. But come to think of it, if you made it to the next stage, surely they would let you know before the 9th as that would be such short notice for the interview on the 13th.

This is an interesting figure.
Have you details on how many actual places there might be for outside entrant pupils into Year 7 independents in London? And also how many students are applying from Year 6?

Did anyone’s DD who sat the stage 2 Tiffin Girls exam get any feedback from their daughters on how it went? My DD said the English was very difficult and she missed the last question plus skipped 6 odd questions from the maths paper. Just wondering if everyone found it hard? Or perhaps it was beyond our league as tbf we were surprised to be called back for the second round in the first place.

Maybe some of the mums, whose DDs sat for G&L last year, can share how soon after the emails came out the girls had their interviews?

@Taurus23 my DS sat Tiffin round 2 and he said it was all very hard especially the English. He also didn't have time to complete the maths. Not sure if the girls and boys sit the same exam though?

For GL, last year the invite to interview emails arrived on the Friday before so 7 days notice.

G&L email from before Christmas said notifications of interview/no interview would be sent on 9 January, so not tomorrow. I guess if dd already has an interview on 13 January might be wise to email Registrar in advance to avoid a potential clash

@Powderherface I have no idea. There are lots of through schools though with junior departments in London and the intake is typically in my experience 1/3 to 1/2 of year 7.

The numbers are crazy but in reality I think the approach parents are taking means that pretty much every school (even the most popular) have to over offer quite substantially. For example, irrespective of where people live, Kings, SPJ and Westminster seem to have the same parents applying to them and the same strong candidates will get offers from all 3. All of them, probably need to offer at least double the places they have knowing that they'll probably be turned down by large numbers of kids who chose one of the other 2 schools ultimately for the commute.

Same for the likes of Putney, Wimbledon High etc. Everyone now always applies to both and again the same girls are likely to be offered a place. So even though the numbers are now huge I think (just my gut feel) is that the offers being made are also really high to compensate.

If it is any consolation, at our indie and many friends at other west London prep schools there isn’t a lot of guidance. They mostly asked us for our opinion on schools and told us even the brightest kids have a small chance at the ‘top’ schools.

Thank you @blissfullyunaware!
It is quite possible therefore that G&L emails can start coming in as soon as end of this week.