SW London Private & Grammar: applying for year 7 in 2023

[QuiteAJourney]

Following up from
www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4716365-sw-london-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023-part-iii?page=40

Sharing the journey

I completely agree @woohooho (and have said on here before that it's important to counteract the narrative that "everyone" is working their child this hard). The parents I know sitting this year did 1-2 hours per day for most of the summer hols, but not ever in term time. Claims that "everyone" is doing this level of work is what creates the hysterical arms race to tutor and work kids too hard.

Did anyone's child do the second round at Radnor today? DS said the snacks were excellent again.

Three mini doughnuts apparently! Jealous. Seemed a lovely process I have to say (Floor is lava and other games)

@1forward2back thanks so much for the feedback. I can make it on my own to the offer holder’s day so may just do that. My DD has a tournament which she never usually get selected for and is desperate not to miss it!

@LondonMum20222 I completely disagree, a few other parents already share their time spend on 11plus prep on this thread. In bullpark is inline to what I described they are first hand information.

But if you say some children needs hours a day to get to the right standard it is totally ridiculous making them work that hard to pass one exam. What happens when they pass that exam and are in the school- do you just carry on and on and on?
It seems to happen most when families ( parents...) are utterly fixated on SPGS, St P boys, Westmjnster etc and nothing else will do.
I genuinely can't remember how much work we did. They had an hours tutoring a week from y5 and probably an hours homework from the tutor ( state school). Then maybe a couple of half hearted VR/ NVR papers at the towards the end of Y5 and a past paper at the weekend in Y6. In the summer holidays at the end of Y5 we maybe did a couple of papers a week and absolutely zero for at least 3 weeks when we were away. All the exams were after Christmas so did a bit then but genuinely not very much.

@BlueTick for top selective grammar or private, students will stand no chance if they don't spend sufficient time to practice no matter how bright they are. The bar is high and I don't like the process either but I can't change it.

@woohooho I totally agree. It's clear some may have risked overworking and burning their DD out. Unfortunate.

I don't disagree they need to practice but they shouldn't need to practice for 2 hours a day every day for months before. If they do, they shouldn't be going to that school.

Yes… and yes for the snacks!

both DS and me love that school!

It is 1-2 hours total study time daily , well if you have to quote that at face value...

Sorry- the thread has got slightly derailed by talk of 11plus prep! All somewhat irrelevant given the exams have been and gone!
Good luck to all for offers day!

@woohooho all I hear from your example is a couple of paper here and there... Each paper takes 20 mins minmum per subject....

I think @woohooho makes a good point. @PreplexJ it's alright

Just to weigh in...I don't know anyone from my 11+ cohort who studied 2 hrs a day. It was 2 hrs a week max and a couple of mocks in summer hols. Everyone got a place somewhere, many with multiple offers at all of the top schools.

exactly! we need to stop overworking these poor DC's.

@LoveMyADHD it's a nice school but it's really a bit far from us to be practical. Are you worried about them getting everything sorted for the new site? 😬

It is hard for me to understand. Perhaps a lot of prospetive 11+ parents want to understated that for some other purpose. And yes you can do 20 mins per day Prep right before the exam and good luck with that - You don't even havd time finish one atom learning practice session

It's okay, we understand

@PreplexJ - if your child was happy to do all that it's fine and good luck to you both.

Mine wouldn't have been and they didn't at that point do any music or much sport at that time either. We had so many tears over English comprehension papers that we did about 3 in total...

Neither did their friends and they all got into a wide variety of academic schools.

I believe the truth is in the middle. If the school already does the bulk of the work, it seems like overkill to do too much additional work - there are diminishing returns. At state schools, however, there isn't much (if any) exam prep in class, so it makes sense to do more at home.
As with adults, there are good and bad days, but it is difficult to fathom how can consistent results be achieved with such long hours of work daily - if it is about clocking the time - it is possible to "do" two hours a day, but are the results consistently high, or is the practice productive? I am not arguing, just genuinely asking.

Where abouts are you?

not everything will be ready for sure , but enough will I think, so they kick off the year …. I drove by last week and place is huge!

Ds2 is at Hampton prep and really thinking about moving him to Radnor prep next next year , really really love it !

do you know roughly how many kids they had over in the weekend? X

@felinestreet define overworking, perhaps you can share your experience and help me understand?

@LoveMyADHD we're near Tolworth, so the other side of the river. We'd be relying on the 281 bus.

I don't know how many sessions they had today, at least three. They probably had the same yesterday. DS said there were 40 there with him today.

Do you think they're looking for sporty kids?

Thanks for your honesty! My dd started in the spring of year 5 - tutoring 2x per week and probably an hour extra per week with the work assigned. She is at a private prep so she did about an hour of homework 5x a week. She did sport for 4 hours per week, which was less than she would like. Now that exams are over she is doing 8 hours of sport/activities per week. During the summer we aimed for an hour 5x a week, with a couple weeks off for family holiday. It sounds extreme, but it didn’t seem like anymore than anybody else was doing at the time.