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!!

There are no allocated places for those prep, it is all based on exam perf / interviews. And I know some girls that were at the top of the cohort at Bute/FH/ken prep that did not get a place probably due to lower perf on exam day compared to others

@Lolakath19 it is a relief knowing places are indeed on merit!

@hello555 my dd is doing Athena assessment in the morning

Can confirm 100% City junior pupils automatically go to CLSG this year , unlike Westminster under. Agree with the trends though

Gosh quite brutal for juniors to sit the exam for senior school. The junior city website says they get automatic entry but maybe they have changed. In any case, it is still nerve wracking whatever the truth. I just hope it is 2023 the expanded places are being offered.

Just seen your post preplex! Good to know.

A thought and open question - We are all somewhat assuming that all schools have received more applications (partly because most parents are applying to more schools per child) but I have a feeling that this might have been mostly the case in co-Ed ones but maybe not necessarily (or even at the expense of) single sex ones. WHS and PHS applications seem to be at normal levels, but KGS, IPS and Claremont Fan seem to be higher than usual. What about the boys ones? Also, I think the increase in applications has been mostly felt beyond the most competitive ones (as people seek more "fall backs").

Mentioning / asking as that would have an impact on rejections that schools might need to factor / number of offers they make.

Heard nothing from G&L. Are rejections being sent on another day?..

Just to echo @Lolakath19 point - there are no allocated places at SPGS for particular preps. I think certain West London preps (Bute, Falkner, Glendower, Ken Prep) have just historically been quite successful there. If you look at 2022 leavers' destinations about 40 places went to girls from those four schools. But the head at the open day made it very clear that it's an open process and that they're actively looking for a wide pool and, specifically, more state school applicants, so I'm pretty confident it's an open playing field.

In 2014, Bute received 26 SPGS offers. More recently during 2019-2021 that was down to 14-15 offers.

@Butey that is interesting. What changed? Bute is still a very competitive school.

When the heads changed from Sally to Helen, Helen took a broader range of academic abilities at the 7+, hence the SPGS and G&L offers declined.

Yes, I knew Bute offers had declined (hence why they stopped posting their annual offers and moved to three year averages!) but there's still about 40 going to SPGS from those four prep schools combined.

But that's interesting re 7+ change in policy at Bute. We've been quite surprised when girls who were quite average in DD's prep got Bute places at 7+, so that makes sense.

The question is what does the new head of Bute do? Does she revert back to more academic kids, go even broader or stay on the same current trend? I have no idea what her strategy is. Bute is no longer the SPGS feeder it was once perceived to be.

I can't tell a 7 old kid average or exceptional.. But I can certainly tell if their parents have high expectations or not..

agreed.

If Bute are still getting c.15 girls a year into SPGS, that's 25% of their cohort. That's still very impressive. I think on those odds, a lot of parents would probably still see it as a feeder for SPGS? 🤷‍♀️

Bute final SPGS numbers for class of 2022 is actually 18 places

yup, up from 2019-2021 I quoted.

Even as @LondonMum20222 noted 15 (25%) is a big number - why won't Bute quote the actual numbers instead of giving average across the years?

Because they don't want parents to send their daughters there just to get into SPGS. They don't want the culture to be focused on that. It's not actually because of "declining offers".

SPGS looking at their intake in a broader way has much more to do with why Bute doesn't get 26 places anymore rather than Bute dropping academically. And frankly isn't that better all around?

Remember Bute really tries to break the mold a bit with the non-competitive ethos. It's part of the culture. How could they espouse that and then continue hyper focusing on how many girls get into SPGS as some ethereal metric of greatness.

@DilettanteMum that does make sense. But on the other hand, does posting results not relate to transparency also. Does it necessarily mean marketing for the school?

Mrs Lowe HATED the SPGS feeder thing. She did everything she could to dismiss it. I think it actually caused her much frustration. Interesting how she open and closed her consulting firm within months, I think the parents wore her out. Bute is a great school and I agree with @DilettanteMum . And Bute and transparency almost made me chuckle. The school is notorious for being a black box. Again, Bradshaw may change it now, who knows.