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 :)

@Lolakath19 I do think the way a school handles the admissions process is important. It's such a strange process to put young kids through, if they can do it with calm, kindness (and cookies!) I think that says a lot, and is much more revealing than any number of speeches at open days about their focus on pastoral care!

Indeed! I was so glad for all the schools that took some time to make the process smooth less and as enjoyable as possible for the children (who are still so little to go through this madness) !
also appreciated the schools where the waiting time in between round was as short as possible.. WHS was one of them! PHS not so much unfortunately as we had to wait until January to find out about round 2. Hope they have changed it this year

@Lolakath19 Yes, I like that some schools are being totally transparent about the process ("You will hear about stage 2 on X date") while others are pretty vague (which only compounds the anxiety). Given how experienced schools must be in the 11+ you'd think a clear timeline would be a given!

Looks like SpGs and Clsg is next week for first round. I guess consortium is early Dec? And then some north/west London schools before Xmas. Time flies.

What about for the boy schools? I do remember the ones we were looking at seemed to have them within a day of each other....where as for my dd she got lucky and had a week break between exams.

Frankly, I doubt that the headmaster’s speech or the snacks during the event give much insight into the school’s pastoral care. From what I’ve seen, this varies a lot depending on the situation. Ultimately, many parents will choose the schools they already had in mind if they get the offer.

Some schools are a lot better at the admissions process or wooing parents/students. I was really impressed with Emanuel for example. My dd went for the school that we felt showed the least amount of effort for the admissions process (for example teachers not really interacting with parents during the interview wait, while other schools had the headmaster mingling or other teachers approaching you to answer any questions you have). However, once you got an offer they picked it up and dd is very happy at the school.

Glad to have this group, and let’s try to keep it supportive and respectful 😀

I had a question about the ISEB. We’ve only applied to one school doing the ISEB (others set their own papers). My DS’s primary school doesn’t offer it so he’s doing it at the school we’ve applied to but he has to sit it all in one sitting. Is that normal for the ISEB or do children usually sit it in parts? Not sure there’s anything we can do about it, but just curious to know.

@travelturtle We're not sitting ISEB but I think a lot of prep schools do sit it over two sittings. I would check with the school he's sitting it at whether there's a break between modules not least as I think it's good for the child to know how the exam will be run. But I agree it's an odd system where there's not a uniform approach. With the London Consortium exam there's a very strict, very clear module schedule which has to be followed, wherever they take it, which is much fairer.

Not direct experience but I hear from past years (a trusted source but not sure this year) the state school applicants who took ISEB in one go at the same day for all sections in the designated school, whereas for some prep schools which host the ISEB themself does allow their own students to take the ISEB across multiple days (for exam one section on day 1, the other section on day 2). It seems not very fair to some students in terms of how they admin this. Below is the link on mumsnet on this topic FYI.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4185758-ISEB-exam-results-bad-day-or-system-botch-up?reply=105389577

ISEB tests in some schools they have sessions over 2 days. Others sitting it have it in 1 day with breaks. There are test centres in overseas locations and they are over 1 day with breaks.

I imaged that those most "academic" schools with a lot of applicants, not necessarily actively try to impress the parents during the process, due to limited time and space to accommodate for all the applicants. It is more focus on efficiency. However once you got the offers and in the offer events most of the schools are really engaging at that point.

In terms of London consortium online exam, last year for state primary if the school have the computer and facilities, the candidate can take it at their own school, however I won't expect the staff in your school which has no interest in admin the exam strictly follow the procedure.

There is someone reported last year the Consortium exam setup actually favor for some prep feeder schools (see below post), not sure how did it go but I hope this year can be improved and fairer.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4546315-new-london-consortium-assessment-for-2023-entry?reply=122061550

I also had a DS who went through 11+ last year and am a bit surprised at how quiet the entire MN is this year. I still browse MN occasionally as I still have another DS coming up for 11+ in a few years' time.

Some of the above names do look familiar to me, and while I can't remember every post made by @PreplexJ last year, I remember quite a number of his/her posts were quite objective and useful and perhaps sometimes he/she got a bit "aggressive" was when he/she was too eager to counter others' misleading information. My impression is that he/she is willing to share information/opinion (even if subjective) for the benefit of prospective parents, and certainly not with any hidden motive/agenda.

Can't say everyone was like that. I still remember one very active mum last year whose DD was in year 5 (so will be sitting this year instead) began with humbling requesting advice in the early posts, to, in the later stage educating everyone on how to prepare 11+ and why you should not over prepare and not to focus only on the very selective schools. Somehow, she disappeared this year, or maybe using another name?

Having gone through this process last year, my advice is to stay calm and don't panic. I know it is stressful, but what I observed last year was that there were very few surprises at the offer date. Almost everyone got the offers they expected, especially those at preps, where they already got advice from the heads. Don't feel intimidated by those numbers, like 1400 applying for LU, 1000 for Ibstock and KGS, or the small number of places for some schools. There were, in the end, very few surprises.

I’m a lurker because my two are through this now, but good luck everyone!

I’ve been lurking on 11+ posts on MN the last year and now it’s finally our turn! My DD is sitting for Putney, Latymer and a few consortium schools. Putney is coming up first and she has declared it her dream school. I am a bit worried about her being too invested but hopefully that’s driving her and she has seen a lot of improvement in her Atom Learning scores recently except for NVR which I believe Putney don’t test for. Any other tips on Putney prep for the last week before exam day would be so helpful from the experienced parents! Thank you!

Went through 11+ last year with DS, doing it all over again next year with DD, so interested to know how everything goes this year in preparation. Last year I didn’t know about the mumsnet thread until after offers day ! Very different thinking about it with a DD, seems there are more options for girls. Both DCs prefer coed schools whereas I’m slightly leaning towards a girls only for DD. Although very happy with DS’s coed so far.

Happy to share our experience with SW london boys and coed indies and learn more about girls options.

my DD took the Putney exam last year and one thing that was notable was that the girls were all grouped together with their classmates and that they were on many different types of devices taking the test. Some complained about tricky/sticky ‘old-fashioned’ computers, other girls on iPads, also very little elbow room. Not sure this was the case for all of the girls and if there is anything to do about it, but maybe recommend if your daughter only ever practices on an iPad or Mac try using a PC or the other way around. Last year, the girls all finished the exam fairly quickly and, according to my daughter, the teachers supervising seemed shocked and a little bit concerned. Not sure what that means for how they may have changed it for this year. My daughter said it was exactly like the atom learning assessments and even thought some of the questions were the same.

Another mum from last year (wave to quite a few names that I recognise from last year as constructive and inclusive contributors). Hopefully this year's thread picks up steam and avoids tensions and (imho, uncalled for) confrontation.

Like others, happy to contribute on the back of my personal experience (direct and of those that I have witnessed) - always wary of generalisations and pseudo-analysis!

it is a tricky process and can get quite emotionally involved. I, for one, was thankful to be able to share it with others ...

mine Went through Putney as well last year and what I remember is that all girls had different questions test is supposedly adaptative with Atom but did not even start with same few questions so not sure how fair it is. I think it is @SamPoodle123 dd that ended with lengthy problem and was stressed not being able to finish where some other girls that passed this assesment did not have those

Yes, exactly. My dd said she kept getting lengthy difficult questions and she could not finish. She thought she bombed the test, but in the end did well. So if dc is not able to finish, tell them not to panic. Some do not finish and still pass, some finish and do not pass (and some finish and pass)....you just really do not know until you get the results.

Yes, the exams were given on different devices. I was a little nervous about this, as at the time my dd rarely used an ipad and was not used to using one (and she ended up getting an ipad for the exam at Putney).

From discussing with Atom about the adaptive tests they say you do not want your dc to say it was easy because the more you get correct, the more difficult it is supposed to get. But apparently the test is supposed to just end when it has enough info on your dc to assess. I am not sure how that works exactly. My dd also said it was very similar to Atom, but she kept getting long questions that took time to answer. Would be so interesting to see the transcript from a variety of scores to see how it works exactly...

Yes, I felt they were focused on efficiency too.

Some refresher to 11+ parents

Adaptive online test - the more correct answers you have in a row the harder the questions you will get, and higher mark you will get. The candidate might not able to finish all questions. But rush to answer question incorrectly will get set to a easier question with less marks.

ISEB, London Consortium (first part) and some Atom bespoken exam are adaptive.

CEM Select test and Consortium second part is non adaptive test, the candidates need to be aware of time pressure to answer the questions. Best strategy is not stuck in one question for too long but carry on finish the rest of the questions.

In case useful, my DD has similar experience to @SamPoodle123 's DD but on sections of ISEB. She thought she had done badly, which was not the case at all.
So telling them not to panic if it gets trickier and they don't finish is key.
At the other end of spectrum, my DD's best friend finished PHS's maths with lots of spare time as "all questions were easy" - cue much worry by parents as to whether she had made silly mistakes at the start and not got to the tricky / weighter questions. She got an offer. So very difficult to read what good looks like.