SW London Private and Grammar - applying for Year 7 in 2023 (Part VI)

[QuiteAJourney]

Following from our previous thread (link below)

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4731973-sw-london-private-and-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023-part-v?page=40&reply=123775541

Looking forward to continuing the journey together!

Don’t get why you would make such a silly comment? Sounds a bit rude.

Yeah, please do let offers that you won’t take go sooner rather than later. Children at state primary schools (or independent schools that go to 11) won’t have the option of choosing to stay on for years 7 and 8 - so the parents will have some real time pressures.

Not meant rudely - meant honestly.

There’s no point making false comments about caring about people who didn’t get offers they wanted or any at all and those on waitlists if you decide to include in every post a long list of all the offers your brilliant DD got.

By all means make a happy celebratory confirmation post - we can all get behind that, it makes sense to share joy - but including your victory list (because let’s be clear it’s not about your kid it’s about you at that stage) in every post thereafter is at best thoughtless and at worst a little heartless and mean…just facts

Agreed. And it dilutes the thread. Congratulations have happened. Let’s move on gracefully.

We will go to the offer event when schools are back to make sure of our choice since I haven’t seen the school at all in person having been too unwell the first time around then we will release the other offers .
Congratulations to all offer recipients and I hope things work out for people on WL and everyone else . I have to say DS GCSEs during the pandemic 2 y ago and the applying to universities now has been far worse in a way although he’s handled it all by himself but the stress and pressure has/ is crazy . We had DD registered to 6 schools we chose from current schools list ( of which we dropped 2) and visited them then DD had her school prep her and we tried to remind her to do a few extra bond assessment book pages or things the school was giving but nothing more and no tutoring which I wondered if we should have done in my panicky moments while waiting . Other than repeating stuff kids were saying at school she didn’t seem bothered just went to do the 4 sets of exams and interviews and admitted to none of them going perfectly ,and it was only during waiting for the last 2 m since her exams and interviews were a bit spread out that I’ve gotten worried . Still happy not to have to do it again and so proud and happy for her . I do wonder how she’d done if we applied to more academic schools in London as we planned while we lived there . I’m sure she’ll be happy in our / her top choice though which has a lot to offer and my friends child is very happy at . Her school is a feeder to it so she should have people there she already knows too plus maybe some from her previous school too .
We are going away abroad for halfterm now to celebrate DS 18 th birthday ,getting his drivers licence and his Imperial College offer plus DD school offers but of course everyone is a bit under the weather with a cold ( not Covid we’ve tested and it’s different than when we had that )! Feeling half dead while having to pack everything inc for the dog since hadn’t managed until now due to everything going on but so happy we are done with this bit !!!! Best of luck to all still waiting !

How is everyone s feeling today? I have started calling people with DD in school that we are interested in in order to make our choice as quickly as possible.
hopefully WL will start moving wc 27 as lots of offer holder event on the week before.

Congrats all those with offers and good luck to all on WL, hope everything works out for everyone.

I would really appreciate some advice. My DS got two offers, one from Claremont Fan Court and one from Ibstock, he got a WL place for Reeds and a no from Epsom and St Johns. In terms of academics IPS would be our first choice but it was a last minute application and we haven’t visited the school. Claremont is a lovely school but there is a significant difference in the GCSE results between the academic performance of the two schools. Which isn’t the be all and end all.

I would really appreciate any informed opinions on IPS to help in our decision between Claremont and IPS. Thank you so much. I don’t know anything about the school or anyone that attends as DS is in a state school. Thank you X

Thank you!

@pme the hunger games comment was a reference to how horrible this process is for children, albeit I had hoped, a tongue in cheek one. That anyone could then use it to justify such selfish behaviour is crazy!

As for hard work, ALL the kids and ALL the parents worked hard. Yours is lucky enough to have had that result in a bundle of admissions offers. How is that not enough for you? Regardless of how you think WLs work, it was unkind and thoughtless of you to make that comment.

As someone else has said, with the sheer number of DC applying to these schools, the difference between an offer and a rejection may be as close as the answer to one question, or even less depending on how they balance the numbers (siblings, post codes, knowledge of primary schools, whatever else). Let’s keep it in perspective here. I very much doubt your DC is Katniss.

Congratulations on his hard work and good fortune yesterday. Now share your good luck. Or, if you can’t do that, be kind on this chat.

After going through the process, I think some comments on MN have unnecessarily raised the anxiety of parents. One of these is the number of applications. This has not been rising at many very sort after schools. Some schools gave exact numbers on paper (rather than just gossip on MN or from admission). Hampton has 800 which is about the same as last few years. LU has 1400 again similar as previous years. Highgate has 750 which is far less than the 1000 often quoted on MN.

True, the competition is always keen but for future parents, you should not really read too much into some comments on MN.

Yes, best to ask the school direct. It also changes year to year or sometimes people are misinformed. I thought one school was 1,000 and when I asked for numbers on how many go through to interview, was told there were 600 applicants and half go through to interview. The same for another school, I think someone said 2,000 applicants this year, when it was 1,400.

The school you mention in the first place was Emanuel and the numbers came from the HM and staff rather than speculation on Mumsnet. On the second one, LU, the number consistently mentioned was 1400.
And to add to the initial comment about putting numbers in the right context, each school will over by significant numbers - in most cases, offers will be at least double the number of places.

LOL 😂

We will let go off three offers today and hold on to two offers and a waitlist to decide once the offer holder events are done.

I can understand the sense of achievement (which is to stay with or without) but I dont see the merit of keeping the actual place as a prize tbh, particularly knowing it might be someone else’s top or only choice.

I was referring to Putney in the first one (the one that ended up being 600 applicants). And yes, the second one LU.

Sorry, I should have been clearer that my references where to the post by @SamPoodle123 rather than yours (I quoted her post but yours was automatically embedded) and the two schools that she referred being Emanuel and LU.
We did not apply to PHS but I had heard around 600 applicants. With tallies also with the fact that it was some 600-700 for WHS (which we applied to).
More generally, I agree with the spirit of your post - check your sources and, as mentioned above, consider that offers will be a multiple of places.

Looks there is someone pretending to be someone else in this thread.

I am not part of the process this year (I was for two years running in 2021 and 2022) and I just wanted to let the people on WL know that, on the first day back after half term, there were huge amounts of movement (in general, obviously depends on the school) in great part owed to the thoughtful parents who released their places during half term. I literally have examples of people who were distraught on offers day who then have a place by that Monday. I am not trying to give false hope to anyone but really to reinforce that releasing unwanted places as soon as possible is the ethical and morally correct thing to do. Your child can’t go to all these schools, you will forever be able to say that he/she got into X school, move on!

@kagurazakamum Interesting - would you mind elaborating?

Emanuel was 970 applicants, so rounding it would be 1000, not all was interviewed this year. Therefore maybe 600 interviews.
LU being 2000, I think that may have included the 13+ applicants numbers.
Hopefully, those holding to multiple offers will release them sooner. We did released all 13+ offers after finding DC loving 11+ school rather than holding on it them until Year 8.

Just on this page, who sound like answering your response to someone else’s as if it were for her.

If you are referring to the posts above, I think it is just a question of quotes embedded within a quote rather than pretending to be someone else.
But thanks for your concerns.

In order to help our decision (and therefore releasing places and scholarship?) could anyone give thoughts to help us choose between CFC and Surbiton? Bright girl; scholarship offers for Arts at both, likes a creative environment but has risen to the academic challenge of the 11+ and we want to keep the academics up (and she needs consistent encouragement to keep it up); sporty but good all rounder rather than star at any one sport; gets involved in everything and is seen as a 'natural leader' in most things she does (but leads with empathy and encouragement!). Surbiton is logistically easier.

Would welcome thoughts from anyone who knows the two schools!

To add, doesn't know anyone at Surbiton but knows lots going/ at CFC.

@EweCee I do not know the schools, so probably not much use but I think easier logistics is always helpful