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

@secondaryquandries It's a totally valid concern, particularly with VATs on fees coming as well as generally inflation and the pending recession.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer as it will depend on your child and what your alternatives are, including working less to be available to support the kids more with activities and schooling.

For us, our girls are academically high ability and so we think benefit from and enjoy the pace and depth of an academically selective school offers and we aren't near any grammar schools. One of my daughters is also very musical (perfect pitch, can play music by ear since very little) and sporty and really gets the most out of private school's richer co-curricular offering.

With that said, though, if we couldn't afford it, it would be the first thing I'd give-up. We live near outstanding state schools and so it's very much a luxury rather than a necessity in my mind.

@Lolakath19 1-2 hours daily from May, all at home mainly practice papers which is key for grammar schools - time pressure exercises. (that includes atom learning time if any), not nessaey everyday if you have after school music lesson for example.

We did not go to any external tutoring centre.
If people want to quote our time for face value, they need to add up all the tutoring time (class or private or parent) + practice time + atom learning + any 11+ focus fun reading /vocab as comparison.

If you think the email from LU is irritating enough, you haven't seen the one from Hampton. It is the only school I ever heard of that issued emails to tell the parents (after they have done the interview) that their children are not selected for academic scholarship assessment. It is as if to say your child is not good enough but nonetheless, is still in the running. Can't understand why they issued this email to 90% of those that already got through to the interview stage! How irritating!

Great post @BlueTick - completely agree.

@Justarrivedlondon

Did your child apply for an academic scholarship at Hampton or was that email sent to everyone through to interview stage? If sent to everyone, what on earth possessed them to do that??? Why not just send the email to those whom they ARE considering for academic scholarship? Totally unnecessary and thoughtless.

Every school is different but I’d take it as a good sign. We got newsletters from SHHS and City before Christmas. Then just City after Christmas. Overthinking it all, of course, I checked the SHHS website and saw they also have a welcome to the new year newsletter but we weren’t sent it. Shortly after that we got the news that it was a no from SHHS. So I was very happy to get the LU newsletter and an keeping my eye out for CLSG newsletters to keep coming in!
Will be interesting for future year groups to know if the schools really are this blatant about sideways letting us know what’s happening.
(I haven’t checked the LU letter but CLSG has a link at bottom that says why am I getting this? I clicked and it’s something like ‘11 plus successful applicant list’ but more abbreviated. Will now see if LU has same but had promised myself to stop overthinking 🤷🏼‍♀️)

There is no need to apply as this is an academic scholarship, like all other schools. They even sent an email in that morning to say they will email you in the afternoon about whether your son will be invited! It was sent to everyone who had done the interview. I don't know what on earth they are thinking, that they need to tell 90% of those boys that they are good enough. Anyway, I didn't tell my boy about his email, as we are not expecting he would be invited.

We also received this email from LU. It is not a newsletter, it is specifically addressed to everyone (that had done the interview I suppose). Don't overthink.

Anyway, regarding Hampton or LU or any other schools, I just hope that they stop sending any more emails which are not admission related because every time I received an email from these schools, it got me so tense. If every step had been done, done send any further emails until 10th Feb

@UKUSMum when did you received the CLSG newsletter? Now i am starting to think we are out. We received one invitation for Drama production in November then invit for 2nd state on 14dec, then interview arrangement on 06/01. No newsletter...

@Justarrivedlondon

I agree it doesn’t mean anything, but the LU email was addressed to me and my DH and it’s purpose was unclear to me at least :-)

Agree with much of this @BlueTick. I've even read blog posts by HMs who bemoan the terrible 11+ system and it's effects on students - but no schools seem to want to effect any change. For children sitting both grammar and private, the process can run from early Sept to end of Jan. That's a crazy amount of time for a 10/11 year old to be under pressure - longer then anything they'll ever do again (longer than both GCSE and A Level exam periods, or uni finals). Even private schools alone are Oct - end of Jan. It's an unnecessarily brutal system and it's shocking that secondary schools haven't chosen to address it.

@Justarrivedlondon @Running247 Agreed on the Hampton emails, was very poor messaging, we didn't need the morning email and certainly didn't need the afternoon one! I do intend to feedback but thought I should wait till after the 10th!

@Wimbymum

"The grammars in particular were extremely time pressured. I don't know how anyone unless (given a score before allocation day) would be certain they had secured a grammar place."

Which area of london grammar your DC did? In North London if the exam score (already out) is higher than historical cutoff by a margin or for some school PAN is prioritised for catchment after a first round pass score so some parents can almost certain that they can secure a place by now.

I think the process for state schools is different in some cases, if you are SEN for example. I know that one in my DS' class has already been offered grammar places.

@BlueTick I so agree with your suggestions.
I know that at least some preps are sending similar messages too and I think that as, as parents, should do too. As you say, tricky before knowing the outcome of the process but I think that it is important that we do.

We got no news letters from SHHS or CLSG but we did get interviews. I’m really worried now.

@Lolakath19 I also didn’t receive any newsletter from CLSG. Not even the ones before Christmas. Just exam invites and drama production invites. But if they have already selected the candidates, why would they waste their and our time by calling us for an interview as late as 18th Jan?

@UKUSMum can you please confirm the date of your latest newsletter? Thanks

@UKUSMum where on shhs website did you see the newsletter ?

We are in SW London and applied for Tiffin Girls. There are two stages and once the 2nd stage is completed you’re totally in the dark until offer day. So no idea if getting through to stage 2 was a fluke or not!

Sounds helpful that in N.London you have an idea at least where you stand.

it is terrible that these communications / newsletters are messing with people’s minds! Getting people worried about whether they received a newsletter or not and if they did / didn’t, and whether that means anything. As if it’s not stressful enough!

Couldn’t agree more. I’m now panicking

Hmmm that’s really odd and really haphazard of the schools. SHHS was End of Term message in December which was a ‘look how great we are’ and we didn’t get an invite to interview.

CLSG was the drama production invite (which was weird to me!), 1st stage outcome, end of term newsletter in Dec, info about 2nd stage and assessments, then the fortnightly newsletter again.

Given that a poster above said they didn’t get the SHHS newsletter but did get an interview (opposite to us), I assume there is nothing at all to read into any of this.

Just more evidence that mental well being is not a priority in this process! I’ve said it so many times already, as have other people, but it is all so appalling. Do admissions teams have trainings and conferences where they actually think about the impact of all this on the kids and families?

@Justarrivedlondon that's absolutely awful and would really put me off a school!

How many academic scholarships to schools give out you think? And what is the range off? For example is it 5-10%? Do some give 20%? or more?

It really depends on the school - some of them have a fixed number (again different depending on the school) others are more flexible (but have an upper limit). Also, the amounts range from quite significant (we know people on 20 pc and I understand that there are higher ones) and those that are lower (eg 5 pc) but have a special scholar programme linked to them.
To a very large extent scholarships are there to attract kids away from other, competitor, schools. And they are a factor (but mot the only ones) why even some of the most desirable schools get turned down and have to over-offer.