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 :)

Thank you for the reminder of where I am looking. If I knew difficulty levels for some then I wouldn’t have asked. No my DC isn’t a good gauge. If you find the helpful thread then please do post it here as I am sure others too would like opinions.

lolo99 I’ve not seen a thread discussing “tiers” but there was one discussing what CAT score levels seem to correspond to entry at various schools. Will see if I can find it unless you’ve already seen it? Suspect it is out of date for a few schools though, Emanuel definitely.

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

found the link earlier in the post. Thank you to the mn poster who added it.

If you read the Times, the latest rankings came out Sunday before last in the Parent Power supplement.

From memory PHS had gone down (was about 35th when WHS was about 20th) and Emanuel had gone up (was about 50-60).

What schools are you applying to? I see one poster mentioned you applied to Hampton? From what I understand see below the schools from most difficult at top (for boys and coed). I don't know all the schools and this is just what I get from looking at posts, difficulty in sample 11+ papers etc. Someone might want to add their thoughts or move schools up or down if they think otherwise...

St Pauls
Kings
Westminster (not sure if this might be higher on the list, as I have not looked at this school, just heard about it from people going and applying)
Latymer
Emanuel
Dulwich
KGS
Hampton
Ibstock

I would put KGS and Emanuel more or less at same level, with KGS maybe a tad more competitive. Hampton and Dulwich more or less at that level too. Maybe add Harrodian to that group.
IPS much lower, especially after last year's debacle.

Updated below. Anyone else, feel free to add schools etc

St Pauls
Kings
Westminster (not sure if this might be higher on the list, as I have not looked at this school, just heard about it from people going and applying)
Latymer
KGS, Emanuel, Dulwich, Hampton
Harrodian
Ibstock

Latymer emails for eventual second round to be out end of today😬.
everyone🍀🍀🍀🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 i m not convinced at all , DS will go to interview stage as he could not finish the maths paper even though Latymer was out first choice, but lets see.

South, SW London or Surrey

Westminister / St Pauls
Kings
Latymer Upper
KGS, Alleyns, RGS, Hampton
Emanuel
Dulwich, Whitgift, Trinity
Harrodian
Ibstock

Waiting as well! Hoping for good news two days in a row - we had PHS email early in the day yesterday. Fingers crossed for everyone!!

Westminister / St Pauls
Kings
Latymer Upper, City
KGS, Alleyns, RGS, Hampton, UCS
Emanuel
Dulwich, Whitgift, Trinity
Harrodian
Ibstock
Radnor, Kew House, St Benedict’s, St James

Interesting that you are putting Emanuel so high in these lists when in the rankings (like the one shared from the pre-prep blog) it seems to come out a lot lower in the rankings? (I was surprised when I looked at those rankings : it seems to perform at the same level as IPS and Harrodian, whereas when people speak about it it sounds like a better school?).

Difficulty to get a place (how selective the intake) and academic outcome in the Ranking has causal relationships.

Whereas if one school sounds better school than other means a very different thing and it is to the individual kid. It is little to do with the former.

Sure - but I don't understand why a school which is supposedly harder to get into ( in theory this would skew to more academic children?) - would then produce the same results as a school which is easier to get into?
Does that not raise questions about the value added of the school?

I think you are right. Harrodian, Ibstock, Emanuel should be in the same category based on the recent results - but it does seem more valued/harder to get into -- maybe more difficult than it was 5 years ago when these gcse students started at the school?

I don't think it is to do with value added, maybe to do with ranking itself as a 5-7 years lagging indicator of the intake selection?

IMO at that range it is probably belong to the same difficulty tier bucket with a big variability anyway.

@CocoC the results correspond to a cohort that entered the school a while back (in fact, some IPS DC would have been there since primary) rather than the cohort entering now.
Emanuel has been considered as being on the up in recent years and it has been increasingly competitive to get into it. IPS is on a different trajectory. So they may be producing similar results because back the cohorts were rather similar .. or even Emanuel was less competitive than IPS to get into at that point - many of our friends with older DC clearly recall Emanuel being seen as a back up option some years ago to an extent that it is not now.

Emanuel results have been improving considerably from year to year. They have become far more selective if I compare DD1's friend's I know who got / didn't get into the schools respectively (Ibstock vs Emanuel intake). I'd be pretty confident that in 2-3 years' time Emanuel GCSE results will be stronger than Ibstock / Harrodian. But of course that also means that it's not necessarily about value add. Just stronger intake. For whatever reason some schools become popular and well regarded, can become more selective and then boast about their improved results. That is unfortunately how London day schools work!

With Emanuel, didn't they also change their selection process. I think they used to have a cap on the number of applicants, but then interviewed everyone. This would have some impact on the candidates they were selecting from. Now there is no cap, so they have a lot more applicants to choose from.

Worth noting the Emanuel is harder to get in due to its sibling's policy.

@Iffiyas I think they have stopped that?

They do have a sibling policy indeed , the sib still needs to do 11+ exam but with pass mark of 65% in maths and english.

Those waiting for LU emails I’ve checked back and 2 years ago it came at 16:40. Hasn’t stopped me hitting “refresh” most of the morning though!

Oh right! Thanks@Wondermumof4 And what is the pass mark for the other, non-sibling children?

Also does anyone know for the 2nd round in all these schools - is it a 'level playing field', ie if you are above the pass rate, they then look at different criteria such as personality etc, on the assumption that you are good enough to be in in any case... or is it still very much skewed to the exam, ie if you were towards the bottom and close to the cut off, then you have a low chance of getting an offer even if you are interviewed as they will refer back to the exam?
Thanks!