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.

If it helps....during my ds 11+ year a couple of years ago. 5 maybe 6 applied to Emanuel and all but one got offers.

Dumb...meant to specify this was a state school

I can't speak for all schools but Alleyns explicitly targets a 50/50 split between state and prep schools for external candidates. They also have guaranteed places for their own prep school so the split ends up 33% Alleyns Jr School, 33% state school and 33% external prep school. Schools who do have a target split I find are fairly open about it so it's worth asking the registrar for the schools you've applied to if interested.

Prep school should an easier route to private senior school otherwise, why on earth would anyone pay for it. It's not an insurmountable advantage but like for like would require more effort at a minimum to prepare to the same extent. I say this as someone who has done private school from the start!

I can't really see why discussing this is controversial.

Now I'm worried as we haven't had the kgs webinar invite! What is the webinar?

@secondaryquandries dont worry, it’s not admissions related! It’s part of the KGS Global Goals week and is about Ocean Conservation. So pretty interesting, but I don’t think they will be basing offers on who signs in

Or at least I hope not <worried> 😀

@MomFromSE really welcome your nuancing by referring to "otherwise" and alternative preparation. I personally welcome that type of discussion rather than generalisations.

What do you mean including from the French bilingual state primary schools?

KGS HM said generally 60:40 state:private at an open day.

Does anyone have any insight into how the “scores” for exam and interview contribute to offer decisions?
Having passed the exam does the offer decision rest exclusively on the interview?
Or, are the performances in exam and interview averaged somehow to produce an overall score.

@SamPoodle123 French bilingual state schools eg. Fulham Bilingual, a unique partnership between Holy Cross Catholic Primary, a state English school and L'Ecole Marie D'Orliac, a French private school.
Belleville Wix Academy with Lycée Francais Charles de Gaulle.

It's slightly different for each school how they weight each factor, but I think the exam results remain the main factor for all schools unless the interview brought up something significant in terms of behaviour.

@iRobot2022 , no the interview is part of the process and used in lots of ways including weeding out any dc who look difficult to teach due to behaviour at the i/v, ie aggressive/ arrogant. (Don't worry about quiet/shy).

Ditto PHS. After their junior school schools, the remaining senior school places (c.70) are 50/50 state and private.

@Lurkingbutinterested I understood the KGS HM as saying that was the approximate split that tends to result but it's not a number they target, it just so happens to be around that number. He explicitly said in the talk I attended that they don't factor in state vs private exactly because there were so many factors at play that they didn't have transparency about (tutoring, parental efforts, quality of preparation at a particular prep etc) that they just took the score and whoever scores high enough will be invited for interview. That is KGS. Emanuel seems to be different, they treat state and private as two separate applicant pools so thresholds can be different. So it depends on the school.

Am I right to assume that state school girls compete within their cohort, and prep school ones do the same - if there are certain quotas in secondary schools to take a certain number of girls from each sector (I am looking at all girl ones). Then effectively there is no direct competition between the two cohorts, other than the increase/decrease in quotas.

@swgeek thanks for sharing. That was my understanding too.

@FriendlyMom - generally there is no such thing as 'quotas' for state and private schools. There are lots of state school children aiming for independent secondary schools, particularly in SW London so it tends to just work out with a fairly even split in a lot of schools.
Once they're in a school it really isn't a bit deal.

@swgeek - I'm not sure that's true about Emanuel- did they tell you that explicitly?

@woohooho I was explicitly told by admissions that Emanuel aims (and has done in recent years) for 50/50.

I know that but that's different from having separate pools of applicants.
I would be surprised if they did that.

@woohooho I used the wrong term. Obviously the school process is open to girls from all schools equally. What I meant was, some schools seem to aim to reach a minimum number of girls from particular sectors - such as state schools, as historically there have not been as many applicants (they have not reached the mark, or due to financial reasons, etc). Bursary applications are one way.

@woohooho I do not know how it works in practice but, to aim (and repeatedly achieve!) that split they might have to, at some point, treat state and prep candidates as in separate pools... unless that applications to pass rate and offers to acceptances are spot on for that target (which is even trickier when considering that they also have a 50:50 target for boys and girls)

The way the schools can even up state/ private by using the WL but we are talking WL offers in mid March not offers made in mid or late feb.

We are approaching 1000 posts, which is the cut off point for Mumsnet threads. If fine by others, I will open a continuation thread with same scope and aims, signposted here for ease of reference.