SW London Grammar and Private year 7 entry 2024

[lolo99]

Not sure if this thread has been started but if not, I would like to share experiences, tips and generally talk about schools and their pros and cons and processes to ease the anxiety and pain for us parents :)

Thanks for starting! Yes it's begun, with lots of open day visits last month and this, and tests this Friday and Saturday. Not sure which schools to apply for yet - we'll be doing a mix of state and private. Very interested to hear others' experiences over the coming months!

Thank you. It's such a daunting process. We are in a state school and feel like we are at such a disadvantage as the Preps prep them. State schools just don't do any prep. It's all on doing extra at home. Where are people applying? I have a DS and we did 10 plus. Now trying for 11+ and it feels so intense.

A thread has been started so I will move over to that. 11plus Sw london

Hi @lolo99 do you mind sharing link to the thread?

@Iffiyas this one : https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4906737-11-sw-london-202324

Just wondering if anyone knows what is the comparison for schools are for girls. I am going through this process for the first time and have no knowledge of ranking. I was told G&l is like kings collage standard and is above leh. Whereas leh is more like kingston grammar are more similar.

https://www.londonpreprep.com/2023/08/london-gcse-ranking-2023/

does anyone have the times list as I don’t have the subscription.

For Sunday Times parent power ranking published last year the results are based on last year (2022) and heavily biased by some wired weighting towards A level (A-B) which subject to a lot of criticism, see https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4692885-parent-power-2023?page=1

Times did publish a national ranking based on GCSE result this year 2023 in August but by the time it published all the schools like GL LEH KCS not yet released their result. So the ranking I posted in the earlier thread is actually more up to date if anyone obsessed and wants to drill the head into one years ranking.

Do note some girls schools only do 9 GCSEs, not all. Most schools do 10/11 GCSEs, some do more. Do check language options and A levels requirements ie. You need Maths at 8 to do A levels whilst some are only top sets allowed to do Maths, not even if you get high marks but are not in the top sets. Some schools, only top sets can do triple sciences whilst other is more a give it a go.

It might be impossible to rank but I was hoping to create a helpful list (for boys and then co-ed) on how high the DC needs to be to get in. eg: hardest to get in vs easiest (although not sure that exists anymore) in SW London and surrounds.

@lolo99 , it's easier to put schools in blocks rather than rank so if you get into Hampton you should get into the block below which includes Reeds and St George's Weybridge. But if you get into Hampton you may not get into the block above - Tiffin and Kings Wimbledon. The outliers are Kingston Grammer, Epsom College and St John's leatherhead which being mixed and very very popular are harder to predict (siblings being viewed sympathetically etc).

The schools's %'s will all slightly adjust when the tables are published later in the autumn because the scale of papers going up after marking reviews is large.

This website compiled A-level and GCSE results for London schools this year https://www.londonpreprep.com/2023/08/a-level-results-2023-top-london-school-ranking/

The current ranking (esp GCSE) can be a very powerful indicator of difficulty to get in for 5 years ago. A level ranking suggest the difficulty to get in 7 years ago + some turnover 2 years ago.

And grammar will be harder in general because the economic barrier.

Thank you so much @tennissquare

Thanks so much for sharing. Is this different to the times best school guide list?

Is it a true assumptions that G&l is same as kc for boys in terms of academics?

The times uses a formula that weighs a-level results twice + the gcse results. I believe the times also measure scores A-B and this ranks it according to A\A so the ranking will be different when the times list comes out because they use slightly different metrics.

Times is based on results in 2022 which are still inflated because covid.

This is a very funny assumption to make comparison between these two schools. Not sure why this matters.

KCS has avg IB score at 41 points this year vs G&l at 40.7 (2023). NLCS achieved 41.5

Yea, sorry I wasn’t clear - the times list is from 2022 results and londonpreprep is 2023 but the lists will still be slightly different when the Times publishes their new list because of how they weigh A-levels and GCSEs.

I think the point is to make influence for schools academic based on the single digit percentage difference on public exam for a particular year is close to meaningless. As some PP mentioned the number of total subjects taken is different, a lot of turnover at sixth form year, boys vs girls vs coed etc.

@Ilikelists very useful information thank you!

@Ilikelists dontou by any chance have the times 2023 for alevel and gcse?

@tennissquare do you know girls schools too? I am wondering how much higher ranked G&l and city are compared to the one in outer Central London ones?