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

[QuiteAJourney]

Continuation from

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4697901-sw-london-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023-part-ii?page=40&reply=122947087

An opportunity for parents of DC applying to private and grammar schools in SW London for entry in year 7 in 2023 to share their journeys.

Good luck for Ibstock. It isn't one we looked at, but it sounds like a lovely school.

This waiting game is hard!

In the email from Hampton, 800+ applied for 11+ and 35% were invited for an interview.

DS was interviewed by 2 teachers, 15 minutes each, for math and English. A few math questions are given. Read a paragraph and be asked a few questions. Plus some general questions: which schools did you apply to, which is your favorite (Hampton for sure), how did you prepare for the exam, what are your favorite sports (and what team did you play), what did you do in the Christmas term break etc.

About 20 boys in each batch and when they went to interview, parents are brought to a lecture theatre and the HM and admission director gave the briefing. He specifically mentioned that, unlike some other schools, they won't ask the boys about current affairs. That means for some other schools, suppose you need to prepare.

They didn't interview parents but when the boys were brought back to the lecture theatre after the interview and reunited with the parents, they did seem to be scanning and looking for something and resting their eyes for more than a few seconds on each family. But then maybe I am thinking too much.

Hope the above help 11+ preparation next year.

@AC7001 there's no way that the way you greet your kids after an interview or what mum and dad look like have anything to do with whether you get an offer. How are they going to see or remember the names of all those kids? The only effect the parents might have on an offer is if they ring up and are rude/demanding down the phone or via email.

Of course I know. I was just joking the way their eyes were sweeping through the room. If you were there, you would know it looked so odd. Perhaps they had nowhere else to look at. Of course, they were not interviewing parents.

Yes, we've just got an interview at Dulwich! Still nothing from Whitgift :(

@AC7001 sorry. I thought you were really over thinking it! This process induces a lot of crazy in people 😂

Just curious, if schools are looking at your dc for academic scholarship, do they tell you before the interview, or do they just tell you when they make an offer? As some schools say they consider everyone for the academic scholarship.

I am curious if your dd also had a music lesson or if it was something else in her group? My dd was also really happy. We really like the school. It was her first interview, so I am glad a positive experience....next up 15 mins at G&L!

Interesting! Did you ever find out what the score was for the 11+ test? I would love to know the scores my dd got on all her exams....but I know they probably would not tell.

@HeavensToBetsy1 Have you heard from Whitgift yet? DS was group J

Hi @Daydreamscometrue, no word yet and also Group J. I found the post from @JustTryingouthere on the whitgift thread reassuring though. (Thank you). Fingers crossed for tomorrow for us both.

@Daydreamscometrue congrats! Well done to your DS!

@QuiteAJourney Thank you very much! Wasn't expecting to hear from them today so a lovely surprise.

@HeavensToBetsy1 Yes me too! Ah, so we're in the same group! Fingers crossed for both of us tomorrow.

Hi - we were lucky that DD got an invite back for SPGS. Do any of the parents whose kids have gone through SPGS interview have any tips on types of questions etc. Its 20 min apparently and no clue if they ask Maths, English, general questions, current affairs or all of this.
Any help will be great, just so we can set DDs expectations.

Hello all, I’m curious to know how many schools everyone applied to. I’m worried we haven’t applied to enough!!
I think it is this stage in the process where deep maternal doubt starts to set in. Well it does for me anyway!

We applied to 3 schools. So far no offers (and no rejections either).

@Redapples81 we applied for 6 plus grammars. More than we wanted to really but we had very little clue of where he would rank academically against other applicants and unsure if he would be consistent in performance. We were lucky that all exams were before Christmas.

Schools broke down as 1 extremely selective, 3 very selective and 2 selective but we think with lower threshold to pass. We have one firm no, expect one more and then just waiting for results in Feb!

With my next child, if ability was the same, I would be tempted to drop the most and least selective but that may be from the benefit of hindsight, being now half way through the process.

@Redapples81 There was quite a lot of chat about that earlier in the threads (back in September/October). I would say that most people have applied to 4-6, I seem to recall people applying to only 2, and also people applying to more than 6 (though some might be thorough ISEB or Consortium, so the number of exams is lower than the number of schools you you apply to.
As important as the number is the range of schools - most people have 1-2 "less ambitious" applications (though one of the challenges is to guess how "desirable" schools become over time).

thanks everyone for your replies. Good to know what everyone has applied for. We applied to 5 for similar reasons to @secondaryquandries . I’ve got the fear that probably most parents get, that she will end up with nothing.

@Redapples81 have you got any calls for stage 2, etc?

I mean... grab the positives (any positive feedback, calls for second stage, etc) and do not take silence as a negative ... the waiting is the worse part of the process ... and we need to hold there and hope!

@QuiteAJourney you are so right that the waiting is the worst! Also, you just feel so powerless. Nothing we can do or say can change things!! She’s got 2 interviews at places that interview all and 2 where she got through to the second stage. So we are not without hope but then I get worried and tell myself off for daring to hope!! Utter madness.

You still have 4 options running and the fact you got to second stage in 2 is promising. Hopefully the interviews have gone / will go well.