SW London Private and Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023 (part V)

[QuiteAJourney]

Following from our previous threads, including the latest (link below) www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4723610-sw-london-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023?page=40

Looking forward to continuing the journey together

Gosh so much news - big congrats to everyone for offers, hope there are some smiling kids out there tonight. And thoughts with everyone riding the WL train!

@QuiteAJourney - possibly they will move earlier but don't want to give people false hope. Been through it twice and most DCs were applying to 5-6 schools and I don't know a single person that got offered a WL place before state offer day.

@invigilator I am definitely one for managing expectations (hence my question on people's experiences) but also hoping that people's behaviours help and that they don't think that giving up offers before the deadline is necessarily useless.

Last year Emanuel went to WL very quickly, certainly before state offer day, as they had been too conservative with their offers. Might mean this time they will offer more generously and hence go to WL later. SPGS was mostly close to acceptance deadline and a bit after if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the intel - really appreciated. So it seems that there is variation and indeed potential hope for early movement in some cases.

Also wondering if Epsom will send offer letters.

The school has had to deal with so much that it’s impossible to say. They are prioritising the students and staff. They are closing the school for pupils from this evening until the end of half term to allow the children and staff the time they need to process what’s happened.

x

I think they will communicate tomorrow but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a comment to bear with them while the get things in order and the offers come later.

Yes, it will def move, as dc applying there might also apply to G&L and SPGS. My dd saw a bunch of Bute girls at the interview and they mostly go to the 3 hammersmith school with only a few going to Putney.

Well I know a bite girl who has a waitlist offer at phs whilst being at the last round of spgs.. which truly reflect the absurdity of the 11+ process and how it does probably not reflect downtime on true capacity of someone.

That's not that surprising to be honest. Schools look for different things. Plenty of cases of DCs getting into 'more academic' schools and not 'less' academic ones.

Congrats on the PHS offers.
For those in waitlist, keep the faith. It will move. @SamPoodle123@SamPoodle123@SamPoodle123love that the portal changed in front of your eyes!!

Sorry don't know why it did multiple quotes!

I think the 11+ process is brutal and might not reflect true ability. A child that stress for exam might underperform or the other way around. I am not sure if any other country have something similar. From where I am from there is a selection to go to the top secondary school based on the school report and grade over the past 2/3 years. They know that if you come from this primary or that one the teacher might marked more severely etc. I find it less stressful and do not encourage heavy tutoring and pressure on children. There are been so much cases of girls that were average in their cohort until year 4 /5 , suddenly being tutored to death and ending to top school where they would probably thrive better in a slightly less academic environment. At my sons school, teacher complains that some boys are still heavily tutored after entering at 7+ (y3). given the level dc now reach at 7/8/11 and 13 you could think that UK will end up with best candidates worldwide .. but then they don’t do anything for the next 2/3 years at their secondary.. until it is time to tutor again for gcse? Sorry for my moaning lool

I think it very much depends on the day and exam. Some dc do better in written exams over adaptive. Or sometimes it is just an off day. We truly thought Putney was out after the exam. My dd literally said she bombed it, she failed it. She was not sad about it, just matter of fact. She was confident she did well for the London Consortium though. Even now, I ask her after she got the offer about the Putney exam and she still says, she was having a very off day and she just did not do her best. But she got lucky in the end.

@Lolakath19 could not agree more. It is utterly brutal and actually isn’t a holistic or realistic assessment of a child’s potential. Definitely think that the assessment should be based on how a child performs over a year or longer.

Thansk :) It was pretty cool to see it happen.

I think that adaptive tests are particularly difficult to predict and can give DC the impression that they have bombed when in fact they have done rather well - as the test get trickier (because they have done very well in the initial section) the DC might get the impression that they are 'bombing' it when it is only normal that they take more time or become more tentative in later questions. (From the conversation at the time, that may well have been the case for your DD - the 'bombing' was actually a good day where she was reaching higher levels of difficulty that, in turn, give more points).
All in all, as you say, very difficult to predict and depending on the type of exam. And, of course, the day... for instance, both KGS and LU have rather similar exams, we know of kids getting offers for LU and not from KGS (and even more the other way round)

@VickiMent i totally agree. I just want them to do what ever they need. A week ago news of a deferral would send me into a spin. With everything happening at epsom, turkey…it’s really put things into perspective x

Don't forget that some kids have it so drummed into them, or have their own ideas, about what school is the favourite, that they can easily slip up on the basic "why do you want to come here?" question. I knew a girl who answered this at G&L with "I don't, I want to go to PHS!" Unsurprisingly, she didn't get G&L.

Also her poor mother wanted G&L and was just 😱

@alltheleaves (although I am sure it did not seem like that to the DD's mum) that is actually quite funny!

IMHO this question is non sense and a child in a non 11+ context will just respond I want the same school as my friend..

Yes, or some kids might just respond to each school they interview at that they are they first choice. Pointless questions. A better question would be to ask "what do you like about our school? or what interests you about our school?"

Out of interest, did everyone whose DD’s got through to round 2 / Athena assessment of PHS either get an offer or WL? I’m asking out of interest because that is the way it would seem from the posts on MN.

Nobody has come up but I suppose that there is a self-selection bias ... people feel more inclined to share good news rather than bad.

One person commented previously (peppermint) they did not get a WL or offer. However, they did not respond when asked further if their status was still applied. So can not be sure.