SPGS actual offers and acceptances

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This has been mentioned a few times. Here's last year's actual results by school. The class was 113. 51 places were achieved by making 53 offers. That's 45% of the class. At that rate, it implies that a total of 4.4 offers were declined. If we think the other 55% is more likely to decline offers, then it's more like 7-12 total offers declined. Enjoy.

Well I clearly remember 2/3 usernames last year or year before said they had a no after interview and were bursary applicants. It depends what entry requirements means...
I am sorry if I sound like I am bad mouthing as it is not my intention but we all know that the reality of those top private schools.. (it is not only SPGS)

I asked at the open day - no in fact my DD asked if you have to come top to get a bursary and the (very nice) woman from bursary department was quite firm that no, indeed the applications are kept completely separate and the team choosing the girls on academic/ selective basis do not even know who has applied for bursary at the time.

i also do believe they are trying to do more with the bursary fund. Of course it’s still going to be unaffordable for the vast vast majority but my personal experience this time round is that they actually are more supportive and pro active of the actual process than the GDST schools are for sure.

also I was a bursary student at SPGS myself but that was a very long time ago so I don’t think that’s much of a reference or helpful ! But I do know that they were reasonable and flexible when circumstances changed.

About 80 girls get a no after interview (they generally interview 200 girls for 115 places) so you would expect a few of those to be bursary applicants. "Passing the exam" means doing well in the exams and the interview, and being in the top 115 who are going to be offered a place. Some bursary will be in that top 115, and some simply won't.

The quote from the website that @HighRopes posted does state very specifically that no girl who has passed the exam / interview (ie in the top 115) has subsequently not been offered a place because of a lack of bursary funds. SPGS are clearly not going to lie about that on their website!

Good luck to those who are waiting to hear the result this Friday.
The school sometimes can find the way to increase the % of bursary if the initial offer does not match your expectation. So please ask. However, this will depend on how much they want to have your DD.
From the school website:
Each bursary is considered on a case-by-case basis and will take into account income, realisable assets and other relevant factors. The level of assistance provided depends on individual circumstances and varies from partial bursaries to full bursaries, where the maximum value awarded is the full published fees.

Forgive me, but my understanding is that this is probably the most prestigious and sought after school for girls in London. A teacher at DD's primary school told me there will probably be around 2000 applications. I know this won't be the exact figure. My point is that the school will have to select between many equally deserving applicants for a limited number of places. And so people shouldn't take rejection to mean that you weren't good enough.

The teacher at your DD's primary is wrong. They might be getting mixed up with the girls' grammar schools - Henrietta Barnett and Tiffins - which both get in excess of 2000 applicants for c.180 places. But that's not true of SPGS. It's more like a third of the figure you've been quoted, by all accounts. (You might want to let that teacher know before they spread more misinformation!)

Yes that's spot on @LondonMum20222

Tiffin (DD's first choice, oh lord so long still to wait..!!) was something like 1,600 girls down to about 450 for the second round, for 180 places. Though usually, due to places being offered to girls who then go private, the top 30 or so on the waiting list will get a place too.

SPGS had something like 500 applicants for the first round, 200 to interview and 110 places.

Exactly. And Henrietta Barnett I think had 2400 applicants either last year or the year before for 180 places.

We were told that applicant numbers vary year on year for SPGS and were usually 600-800. But as has been discussed previously, they're slightly lower generally than some other schools as you only put your child in for SPGS if you genuinely think they stand a chance given stage 2 is such a robust examination day, at an absurdly high level! I believe it's c.80% of candidates through to the second round (written exam) so about 400-500, and then 200 to interview. It is not a process for the faint-hearted!

Henrietta Barnett's PAN for 2023-24 is 104, not 180. And, if the number of applicants has been 2400 recently, that's down a bit from when DD applied (pre-Covid).

@LondonMum20222 Can recommend the "ignorance is bliss" approach to the SPGS exams ;) Honestly did barely any research as a parent, because it was all about Tiffin prep here. I think it worked quite well for DD because the papers when it comes to maths and english aren't that different, and the third paper didn't phase her at all largely because I didn't know it existed 😆I genuinely let her go in thinking it was two exams. I think I thought maybe English was in two parts!?

Apologies - was thinking it was the same as Tiffins. That makes the HB odds even more absurd!

😂😂😂 Sadly I fear I may already know too much. 🙈

I have absolutely no memory of the exams for SPGS when I did them, and my mum always says the only question I was asked at the interview that I talked about afterwards was "what do you have in your sandwiches in your packed lunch?"

(It was peanut butter. My mum maintains that's why I got in. Relatively unusual at the time 😝)

@Pleasegrowmore Hahaha. Quite a random question! I assume it was a warm-up...!

HBS had over 3000 DDs sat first round exam this year, this is stated in the letter from the school to the applicants.

SPGS this year probably have less than 600 applicants (not official figure)

Not a glitch. Mine is rejected

@Ernern Really sorry to hear that. Will your DD be really disappointed?

Thanks @LondonMum20222 She won't be. She did not feel "home" there. Let's see if the others who had seen "declined" receive good or bad news.

Sorry to hear this 😞

Same here (we also had declined on the portal over the weekend) but all good as we have an offer from Putney where her big sister is so that has softened the blow.

Well, I'm glad she won't be too disappointed, and if she didn't feel at home there then it sounds like the right decision. What other schools do you have in the running (and have you had other offers this morning? I'm slightly losing track on the other thread of who's got what!)

Sorry to hear this for you too, but every cloud... fantastic that she already had the offer from PHS, and lovely that she'll be at school with her big sister!

No here too.

I actually got a phone call to tell me from Director of Admissions, I think because I emailed about the “glitch”. Clearly it wasn’t a glitch at all but hey, these things happen, it didn’t affect the outcome, just the way we found out.

@LondonMum20222 She got G&L, LEH and is waiting for Tiffin Girls (she thought she did well)! TBH if we had St Paul's, the parity between us and other families will be too huge and experience won't be the best - we are just ordinary middle class and would need a big bursary.

How about you?

We're 2024 entry! But lots of friends are going through it this year, and I know only too well how I'll feel on this day next year if it's bad news for various schools. Nobody really wants to have to have that conversation with their child. It's hard.

Really sorry to hear that. The glitch is almost worse, because you lost hope, then were given a bit of hope back. Really hard for all of you who had that on the portal.