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 think that SHS (I assume you mean Surbiton High Street) will eventually over-offer at around 3:1 or more (going by past acceptance rates) but, given their miscalculation last year and the problems it creates, they will probably be quite cautious initially and put people on waiting list assuming that they will have to dip into it.

We also have an offer for Sutton High and it strikes me as a very nice school that tends to be overlooked because of the big names in the proximity, with a strong pastoral element and on the up.

Not sure if on this thread, but I seem to recall that @1forward2back has spoken previously about Sutton High.

Obviously not Surbiton High Street but Surbiton High School... oh, how I hate the "autocorrect"!

@Link2022 thank you. That is helpful to know and understand how this all works. We have TGS, LEH and WHS at the top of our list, followed by Surbiton and PH.

I suppose everyone will have a particular preference depending on their location. The Hammersmith schools, PHS, WHS are probably overlapped by being included by those further out in Surrey/Wimbledon and those closer into Central/West London.

I work in education and it's worth remembering that as well as the distant threat of vat on fees, the birth rate falling / the current abundance of spaces in reception/ KS1 across all state / private preps in Greater London, the teaching unions have not settled on a teacher's pay rise. If the private school budgets are having to find more cash to meet recruitment / staff retention priorities and easiest way to do this is to take another 25 pupils into year 7.

@QuiteAJourney Thank you. Sutton High seemed lovely just not ideal location for us. Although there is a bus.

A putney teacher said it’s about a 50% chance if you made it to interview. Well a parent asked that and the response the Putney teacher gave more or less agreed.

How many boys and girls are there for your day? We went on Tuesday and during the school tour there didn't seem many but then my son said in the Mill Centre there should be about 60 (based on number of group and teams then times 4 for each team), but that seems quite a lot if they interviewed 300 (60 for each day) for 80 places.

@Justarrivedlondon 1000+ applicants, 300+ interview for 80 places sound about right.

It is Coed so you probably should think sth like 500+ applicant for 40 places for boys and 400+ applicant for 50 places for girls.

I think Tiffin Boys did give a lot of historical allocation data. Off my head, I think their initial cut off is about 103 marks and the final cut off about 100 marks, and so they said if you are within 3 points from initial cut off, the chance is very good.

How many offers do you think they will make?

@Justarrivedlondon this is a interesting one, the school is super populate with local boys.

But on the other hand a lot of parents (esp Asians) with DD's that applied NLCS / Habs actually didn't apply for Highgate as it is Coed.

My guess (no proof) in general they will over offer at least 2x but the odds will be very different on boys vs girls.

Ours is a boy, such a tough game for boys.

My son said there were more girls than boys on that day, some groups had all 4 being girls and some 3 girls one boy. Did you observe the same? If so, that would balance a bit the odd, as I think the acceptance ratio for boys would be higher.

@Justarrivedlondon my DD said one more girls in her groups but I didn't notice the much difference in girls vs boys during the tour session.

If that is the case (they bring more girls for interview) then probably the odds will balanced. And agree boys will be more likely to accept.

Regarding the importance given to interviews, I think the HM at Hampton sums it up (when giving briefings in the interview sessions) quite closely as to what many senior schools are doing. He said they take a holistic approach (meaning they are not giving marks and/or not adding the marks from exam, school report, and interview together, Rather the admission committee will sit together and go through the list (those short listed for interview I suppose) together. They will also have a rank order based on entrance exam scores. They will weed out those considered not suitable. He said he meant those not in line with the school's ethos, for example, those without dedicated non-academic interests/hobbies, etc, as the school wanted the boys to have something to fall back on when experiencing exam pressures later on in life etc...

Of course, I doubt if they could identify it in interviews as I am sure no one will say I studied everyday and have no hobbies. Sure he will also look for other hints or look for something else that he didn't want to say in public.

But what I got is that likely they will go down the list (exam scores) from the highest to the lowest, and if no alarm bell was raised, that boy will get a yes.

That's why I concur with some comments above that the school shouldn't interview too many. Hampton interviewed about 280 for 100 spaces. if it offered 1.5-2 times the spaces, then the offer-to-space ratio will be 1.5x or slightly more which I think is suitable and indeed responsible.

“school's ethos, for example, those without dedicated non-academic interests/hobbies, etc”

I wonder how many kids will say they only have academic interest during the interview 😂

And I also wonder if the admission committee know (or have a strong view on) what their school etho is.

Thanks for this - really useful. But the Hampton head seems to be saying two contradictory things: on the one hand, they take a "holistic" approach, suggesting they look at everything - exams, interviews, references - in the round. And yet simultaneously acknowledging that they essentially go on rank order of exam results, and purely weed out those who "aren't suitable" for whatever reason. I think we probably all suspect that the latter is the case, but it absolutely begs the question why some schools interview 4 or 5 times (or more) candidates than they have spaces for (not least because it's an awful lot of work for schools - it seems very counterintuitive to bother going to all that effort if they know it's essentially an empty exercise).

@Taurus23 if you want feedback on Sutton, happy for you to message me questions. DD is incredibly happy - we ended up choosing it over Surbiton and KGS in the end, mainly due to a friendly feel at the offer holders day, so it’s a shame you can’t go. Our daughter gets the school bus from Wimbledon, and most of her friends are on a school bus - they have a lot of routes I think.

@PreplexJ your DD did 1-2 hours daily, plus her music, her sports, and her school work? Really? How many hours per week are her extracurriculars?

@11prep per week 90 mins dancing, 3 hours music and 2+ hour sports, 1 hour for foreign language lessons. There are 8 hours available every day if you exclude school/sleeping time. I struggle to understand why other parents say this is too much a stretch.

Let me restate: 1-2 hours is from May only. It is total study time (including practice papers and atom learning mocks), if you took 11+ exam you know each paper required at least 20 mins per subject and you need to practice a lot to stand a chance no matter how bright the kids are...

And this is the average level of intensity or even lower end compared to other families I know of.

Wow, good for you. That sounds like a very heavy burden for such young children. Well done you.

To be honest this sounds totally bonkers and completely unlike any other families I know!

"That sounds like a very heavy burden for such young children. "

You can nearly say that to every children's parent sits at the 11+ exam with my DD. I agree this is my limit already.. Welcome to London 11+ club ( if you are).

"To be honest this sounds totally bonkers and completely unlike any other families I know!"

Maybe you can share yours in the thread..