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!

underthesea3, why did you decide against KCS?

Interesting to see you're asking other people about their school decisions on other threads, while choosing not to divulge yours on the thread you've been on for months...

Different parents have different attitudes on share the bit of information they are willing to. As long as it is not deliberate fake information that misled others I don't see any problem with that.

Those different parents should then not ask direct questions to others...

It is just a curious thing, don't think questions and answers should be recipicate.

Does anyone else feel that there were fewer offers per person this year? In previous years it seems that many people are lucky enough to hold several offers, but that just doesn't seem to be the case anymore…

It seems like the standards have been driven up massively to the detriment of the kids....

Many people that I know for 4 or more offers - people sometimes not comfortable saying what might seem like a boast but happy to answer if asked.

This was our first experience, and we were lucky. I am nervous for my next dc who is in year 4. When speaking to others in our area it seems many were not lucky, had no offers, WL only or just 1 offer.

@SamPoodle123 I agree, lots of waiting list, only or solo offers. My opinion is the landscape of the 11+ is changing and so many schools which were preceded seen as 'back up' or 'dead cert' cannot
(quite rightly) be counted on this way.

My only concern is that the pressure seems to be increasing exponentially on children to get places and produce results for the 11+. At some point, this madness needs to stop.

Sorry, that should say 'previously seen as' not preceded

@SamPoodle123 I assume SPSG has the same ratios accepting as other top schools but recognize there is a lot of hype around this particular school. I think for some it is the holy grail of schools whereas for others, it's one of several schools (including G&L where your DD is off to!) that are equally good, if not better for many DD.

Mostly I think our decision was a choice FOR another school rather than against SPSG. After many years overseas, we are comfortable with a more independent feel for 'middle' and 'high' school. At the school we chose, we loved the number of group projects, the thoughtful ways learning was extended beyond the curriculum at all levels, and the intentionality around developing soft skills for the 21st century (including their own UCAS-accredited global perspectives course), rather than what we saw as simply adding more and more subjects at GCSE and A Level. We felt that the value add was impressive at the school we accepted, rather than a more sort of generic pushing for more. In my mind, there are lots of reasons people might choose G&L or LU, among many others, over SPSG.

Yes, someone I know, did not make it past the first round to a school they thought was their dead cert. It worked out for them though, as they at least got an offer to what was their first choice school.

I think there may be a smaller group of families with multiple offers and a large group with few or none. This is a guess but as things have become more competitive there are parents who are ramping up their prep even more.

I know 2 families who have older kids that got offers from top schools ten years ago and no offers for their younger siblings (the siblings have large age gaps) - one of them was surprised as they put in a little more prep this time and said their younger kid is actually academically further ahead than the older one was at 11+ age.

The standard is very high and to be honest there is no incentive for it to change because it pushes the school's academic ratings up too. It's a bit of a vicious cycle and yes, it is at the detriment of kids.

Having said that, any children that have parents finding good schools for them are going to be turn out fine - even if they don't go to the top school's in London!

I've been lurking on this thread throughout, just chipping in my tuppence worth having just gone through the 11+ now.

Oh, maybe technology will change the game... I think training our kids to be the equivalent of an AI robot to pass these exams might change the game. The pace of technology and AI recently could make schools / parents re-evaluate what education is for - just my opinion but Silicon Valley folks don't send their kids to the types of schools we're talking about for a reason....

In the spirit of sharing information that might be useful to others....
we have (well, our DD has) now decided to accept the offer from WHS so will be releasing KGS (a close second), Emanuel and IPS this evening (in addition to other offers that we released straight away).

@SamPoodle123 sorry I didn't answer your first question and see I now see it's a bit controversial (!) and I didn't mean to be coy...we (DD) accepted LU and released our other offers and withdrew from the WL DD was on.

Divulging information does not give one the right to demand others to do the same. And we know for sure some info are fake.

@QuiteAJourney @UKUSMum Thanks for sharing and congratulations on making the final decision!

Haven’t got a clear idea of numbers of offers to kids at DD school since we’re relatively new and people were being pretty secretive during this process like when DS did 7+ a long time ago . We were lucky enough to get offers to all 4 we applied to which i’m very happy about but not entirely surprised since all were a bit less academic than what DD is measuring at so I can’t help to wonder what would have happened if we had still been in SW London and gone for schools mentioned on this thread . We are really happy about the top choice we got where I have friends child . Maybe it’s good for DD that way around not being such a confident kid . DS went to a super selective boys school at 7 and has done amazing (11 A GCSE , A in EPQ and 4 A* predicted in A-levels ) but for years I’ve wondered on and off if the environment had too much pressure . Generally he seemed to be happy there and there’s always been a good balance with the academics and music ,sport ,drama etc and lots of extra curricular stuff on offer that he’s taken apart in a lot of . He was always insecure like DD and a perfectionist like I used to be and still is . I hope by this age (18) he’s learned to give himself some credit … I’m still working on DD . I don’t think she even realised she should be more happy about her 4 offers ! She’s always putting herself down .

I'm sure it was a tricky decision as your praise of KGS was high but interesting that in the end the decision was WHS. I'm sure your dd will love having a shorter journey and lots of sport locally based plus a larger pool of dd to form friendship groups.

@sailingsunshine it was indeed a tricky decision. We really liked both of them and would have been very happy for DD to go to either. At the end, 3 interrelated factors - logistics / proximity , DD's preference and (marginally) curriculum have been the deciders.
And, as others have said, once you get an offer you detach yourself more from the admissions process experience and can focus more on other aspects

I know plenty of people with multiple offers. DD got offers from PHS, WHS, G&L, JAGS and Alleyn's, plus a couple of less academically selected schools. DD is our first. at a state primary school and we're not from UK so we really had no idea what the standard is or we would not have applied for so many. We did not apply to St Paul's or CLSG because we thought the former might be too much of a stretch for DD and did not particularly like either of them.

A negative impression of PHS during application process put us/DD off, but we would have been happy with an offer from any one of WHS, G&L, JAGS and Alleyn's. DD was quite focused from September Y6 onwards but did not at any stage drop any sport or other activities and continued to do her share of chores.

I think some parents, particularly those who are not from an immigrant background, may pay for independent preps and/or one-on-one tutoring, but don't necessarily empower their children as independent learners or inculcate the value of hard work.

Hiya- we had a good offer from another very academic school and in the end we preferred the other school to KCS. I am sure KCS is a fab school and would've been our second choice but in the end we felt our DS would be so much happier in the school we have gone for. KCS always felt a little more formal to us. but am sure our son would've been happy there also. I don't think there's a bad choice when you are looking at these schools and in the end we went for feel and DS choice. Best of luck!

Just hurry up and release offers instead of making ridiculous sweeping statements about how hard different groups work

"Just hurry up and release offers instead of making ridiculous sweeping statements about how hard different groups work"

Why should anyone hurry up and release anything? Schools set a cut off date for accepting/rejecting offers. Schools all make more offers than they have places - in the case of some schools the number of offers they make is a multiple of the number of places they have. Schools generally don't offer waitlist places until after the cut-off date for accepting/rejecting offers. Apart from virtue-signalling, I don't know what the point is of people posting on this thread saying they have turned down offers at X school or Y school.