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.

@LondonMum20222

just that comprehension had some multiple choice questions and hadn’t seen in either samples. No experiments to write either. I think that’s what she meant by being different to the two that she saw.

not sure I saw feedback to this year’s paper..just that generally nobody finishes the papers. But I will look again. Thanks

@SleepyRooster my son sat the boys exam and said it was REALLY hard. It's a different paper but it's definitely normal to have found it challenging!

Is anyone else on here waiting for Tiffin Boys results on 1st March? Will you take the place over an independent school place?

@BlueTick many thanks for the kind message.
Interesting what you mention about the processes in previous years. It seems that lessons have not been learned.

Jane Lunnon's intake has already done A levels. She'd been there for a while when DD joined and she's doing GCSEs.

@KindergartenKop
Yes, I believe it's different. I just have no idea. DD said the questions she answered were fine (perhaps...), just that there wasn't enough time to complete. I figure that might just be a very brutal way of comparative assessment... fastest fingers first

Thanks- DS just had an interview so interesting to hear what they do tomorrow

I was going to post similarly... Lunnon joined in 2014. Difficult, however, to know as they would have finished during the Covid-years...

@ParentContributor Thanks for that - very helpful, and a good reminder to let DDs know that they won't always get what they're expecting.

If you look at the date of the SPGS exam (last Monday?) I seem to remember a fair amount of chat about it, but it may well have all been of the "It was really hard and they didn't finish" variety!

What I would say to everyone applying to schools this year is try to go to all the offer holder events even if you think you definitely don't want to go somewhere. It is totally different viewing a school with an offer in hand and preferences can change. And gut feel is very important ( and journey is almost the most important thing!)
Good luck all!

Also that the SPGS Maths paper was easier than anticipated; some DDs found NLCS tougher. They must have changed around the format this year I guess to keep DCs on their toes.

It's really hard to say Workhar, because I only knew DD (obviously) and two girls from her school when they sat G&L. They were all offered places, but I don't know how representative that was. Sorry to not be more helpful.

Thank you @woohooho, hopefully we'll be in a position to choose!

Do all schools offer holder's events?

Thanks for new thread @QuiteAJourney

They should do. Ibstock didn't when we applied but maybe they do now?

I would have thought it was best to give up an offer quickly if you didn't think you wanted it to allow it to be passed on to someone else.

@woohooho interesting, I was going to post that they only one that I am not sure about is IPS (at least they do not mention anything about it, differently to others).

@VickiMent - it tends not to work like that as waitlists generally don't move until the state school offers are out, by which time the offer holders events will be done so it's generally ok to wait until you've been to them before you start rejecting offers. Obviously if you're 100% sure you won't accept some of them you might as well reject it but if you're not sure you can hold on.
@QuiteAJourney - Ibstock was all very weird when we applied . Even the offer letter! All the others said well done, pleased to offer etc etc. Ibstock just said - you have an offer and these are the school rules. Absolutely no niceties at all!

@VickiMent , the WL tend to not move until a day or so before the 1st March because the grammar offers on 1st March have such an impact on acceptance rates. If you give up a place early it may not have an impact until much later on. A bigger worry is when a school says they have a right to withdraw an offer once they are full, that's when you have to get a move on but hopefully that won't happen this year at any school. As others say the open day for offers is really helpful and it's good to make the journey on a normal school day. Journey and sports offered are so often the deciding factor when choosing a school in this situation.

@woohooho @sailingsunshine thanks for that info, it's very useful, At this point I can only hope that we will be lucky enough to have a few offers. I would have felt too guilty to go to more than a couple of offer holder days if this hadn't of come up.

We're also waiting for Tiffin Boys. I'm not sure what we'll do if we get an offer. Definitely give us something to seriously think about. It would be incredible. He found the paper the hardest he's done though.

I'm a lurker on this thread. The WHS second round sounds really similar to when my DD sat it for 2019 entry. She had the group tasks plus the short creative writing task and really enjoyed the day. She did something very strange for her creative writing and I remember being really worried that she may not have actually answered the question but she did get in and is in year 10 now. Mrs Lunnon left when she was in year 7. Miss Kennedy has been excellent. She took over during the pandemic (September 2020) and has managed really well. Thread from 2019 here: www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/3347389-As-the-Tiffin-deadline-looms-is-there-a-girls-SW-London-grammars-indies-thread-yet

DS went through the process last year. Emanuel interviewed everyone online. His interview was in November and exam in December (at school). KGS was the only school to do everything online last year which was off-putting for us. Most of the exam was online with two cameras on him and then the creative writing on paper which I had to quickly email in. The interview was also online.

Good luck to all of your children. They all usually end up at the right school for them eventually, try not to overanalyze numbers.

Place marking as impatiently waiting for LEH update

@Gumps any idea when will LEH send the interview invites?

@workhar it just says mid Jan on the paperwork. Must be this week surely?