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

It is really interesting so see some mums suddenly popup, saying poor childrens only need to prep for 1 hours a week before the 11plus exam.

I would say if anyone see big discrepancy of info in MN, definitely worth doing some own research... 😝

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

Can I ask which year you did the 11+ prep? How did your DC spend the rest of the time if not doing music and school or other activities, and just do a couple of papers all year?

We know plenty people in our school and elsewhere who did more than two hours a day. This was necessary as the work at school was very basic/didn’t do VR/didn’t do NVR. To stand half a chance, this is what they had to do.

320? so many? 😕

love the HM (talked to him twice), love the gentle, empowering ethos, love the new site, love how the kids came across at open day …. Would love not to love it as with 320, odds not looking great 😑

I was reading Harry’s book Spare in which he talks about his experience at Eton. He says that while getting admission was easy for him, his first French lesson was shocking. The teacher spoke fluently in French and expected the students to be brilliant enough to cope up & understand. He further says that he blames his poor academic performance on being placed in a school that was a misfit for him because Eton is meant for academically brilliant boys.

Oh that’s far…. You kid has interviewed for KGS, do i remember correctly? That seems so much closer !!! x

@LoveMyADHD If that is your favourite I would not lose hope.
320 for 70 places are not bad numbers for Radnor ... worth having a look at local preps acceptance rate to offers, but I would be surprised if it is not lower than 1/3.
We are in Putney and although a lovely school (our HM speaks really highly of its pastoral dimension) quite a few of the DC from my DD's prep that have applied (and got to the final stage) do not have it as first option because of the logistics.

Thank you lovely!

yes we were on 2pm and I think I counted around 50 kids?

fingers crossed for all of us!

Wow, I'm sure your sporty DD will be thrilled for the coming secondary years!

"about an hour of homework 5x a week."
My DD's state school have homework maybe 1hr a week (too easy for 11 plus anyway)

@Workhar if Harry is a normal kid in West London, practice hard (maybe slightly more than 1 hour a week), somehow get into Eton via 13+ route, what do you think he would say?

Totally agree. Zero chance with the VR and NVR without some graft. Also pulling up a basic level of comprehension and maths was vital!

But if you need to work that hard to get in then surely it’s not the right school for the child. If you don’t learn quickly and retain information easily then a super selective school would surely be a misery once in.

@MomFromSE "learn quickly and retain information easily"

This is also a skill required practice to acquire..

Not all kids need to do 1-2 hours a day. My dd def did not do this, not even in the summer! She started preparing end of May in year 5. 2 hour tutoring session a week plus atom learning 45 minutes to 1 hour a week max. So that is usually 3 hours a week total. During the summer she had a 3 week break and then continued her 2 hour tutor session and atom learning increased to 1-1.5 hours a week. She kept it the same for the start of year 6 and got interviews w all the schools she applied to. That being said, we do not know if she will be successful all the way through!

@LoveMyADHD yeah we really liked KGS but also we're waiting on Tiffin. So it's not going to be sorted until 1st March. Sigh

@SamPoodle123 i think if prepare for private mainly (no grammar) yes the time can be slightly less, like what your DD did is a reasonable number to me.

@SamPoodle123 - that sounds a similar level to what we did.

@PreplexJ - there's no reason for parents on here to lie about the amount of prep they did, it's an anonymous forum. I think it's not helpful to insist that no child will get in to these schools if they don't do as much prep as your child because it's simply not true.

"there's no reason for parents on here to lie about the amount of prep they did"

I disagree, I think there are more reason to understate than telling the true.

This is not just in MN, I knew some parents who have their kids to top schools and downplay the efforts and time they took to get in... (never see one exaggerate though)

Not necessarily. My dd learns quickly and retains information easily. She comes from a state school, never has much homework and she just naturally absorbs the information. Even as a 3 year old at nursery she learned all her phonics at school (we never practiced at home) and the teacher said she was amazing at phonics. Some kids just need to pay attention once and that is it. They know it. Some dc need to be shown a few times, study etc. It just depends on the dc. Each parent will know their dc and get an idea of how much they should study.

Yes, a lot of school homework, but it wasn’t very challenging for 11+ schools we were targeting, so it often felt like busy work that needed supplementing.

Yes, I totally get this. Some people lie and say they did not study, but secretly study to get ahead. However, I think the amount we said our dc studied is a good amount for some. I have heard of many who studied 1-2 hours a day. Yes, of course that is true. It is also true dc can study 3 hours a week and do well (not all, but some). It depends on the dc. If someone says they are not studying at all...the no of course not, I would not believe it.

And yes, our dd homework is a joke, way too easy for her...basically just busy work.