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 :)

"According to girls who sat PHS and then Ibstock, the cross-over material was about 1/3, not just the odd question here and there. That's clearly unacceptable"

How many girls talking about here?
1/3 is across all sections or just maths? All working the same pathways of questions?

I think the schools need to do some serious fact check which is straight forward to do.

Exactly, the heads of the schools involved - PHS, Ibstock and London Consortium - need to ask Atom to show them three tests that have been sat already and demonstrate that there hasn't been significant repetition.

I can only go by what other parents have said so far re repetition of material - some said they had whole exams (English and Maths sections) with a lot of repetition, others said about 1/3 was repeated. Unsurprisingly, they've now all clammed up and don't want to give any more information.

The schools should def investigate this further. But that being said, what really could be done? Other than change things for next year. Last year my dd sat Putney and London consortium. She did not see repeats. And she did not see repeats when doing Atom learning. However, it could be she did not do Atom learning enough to see repeats.

Wouldn’t it be progressive if the schools could in fact prioritise pupil well being over everything else. If a group were brave enough to do this I’m sure that would be a start.

Atoms marketing to schools has certainly been successful.

Not sure how much overlap in terms actual. Intake between PHS and Ibstock. If large repetition between Consortium and PHS exam probably a bigger issue. However PHS had been on Atom in the past years doesn't seem to have people report it the same as consortium last year? Maybe most of the parents keep quiet or not significant enough to be notice at all.

You seriously talking about stop 11+ in this thread 😂

No I’m not. Just thinking about ways it could
be improved for the children involved. I think that is a valid discussion in a support thread for people currently going through the process.

I agree there must be a better way than kids sitting multiple exams for different schools. I don't know what it is, but I know that a lot of DD's teachers hate Atom and hate the fact that with so much energy going into preparation for (badly designed) online exams, far less time is spent on developing writing and critical thinking skills, or doing long-form maths, which would serve them much better across the curriculum when they get to senior school.

@11PlusCraziness worrying to hear large parts of the exams might have been repeated. Agree it gives an advantage to those sitting lots of exams, and in this case arguably also to girls over boys (who obviously wouldn’t have sat the girls exams)? What a mess.

Yes, someone else has made that point to me about girls being disadvantaged over boys. Hopefully Ibstock candidates who might be affected will raise it with the school.

If the coed school trying to maintain a fair balance ratios between boys and girls (not sure if Ibstock did) then girls won't be disadvantaged even with this.

Sure, I think it is a valid point. Just point out that, as mentioned earlier, it is really hard to strike the right balance for individual schools or individual parents.

Some parents want to have high level, exclusive selection for this process, so they would try all the academic selective schools regardless exam format, number of applicants and number of rounds.

Some other parents try to prioritise other things but still like to have some selective element in the process. That is how these ISEB or Consortium kind of test emerge with the aim to facilitate and make the process easier for the parents and kids.

There won't be a single answer for all.

Ibstock emails are out.

yes super pleased/relieved to make it to next round, hope others also had positive news.
I wonder how the numbers stack up in terms of offers for the next round. I'm sure I found a thread about it but of course can't find it now!

@Roundstone last year I think they missed out on a lot of qualified kids and in the end they didn’t have as many people take up offers as they expected. I suspect this year they will have more invitations to the second round and more offers.

Has anyone heard from Surbiton yet? I looked back at the info they sent through and it said we’d hear by email on Fri 1st Dec.

I think WHS first round results were out today too.

Woldingham results are out

@farfallarocks hope it went well.
Last year they also released ahead of schedule and on same day as Emanuel

Hope so!

First round of Shs and Whs is out

Offer from Woldingham for my DD. She's so pleased. So are we.

Nice to start on a positive.

@MooseLooseAbootThisHoos Congrats!

Dd also offered Woldingham thank you! So nice to have an offer. She’s thrilled. Good luck to anyone with results coming in today.