Se London private from state primary

[Eboblah]

My ds is in y6 in a lovely but non-academically rigorous state primary. We’ve recently become lucky enough to be able to consider private school but I’m a bit concerned that we might put him through the process and end up with nothing. I had thought, clearly naively, that being able to afford it was the main issue. He’s bright but not extraordinarily so, and it seems all the schools in reasonable commuting distance have very high academic standards and/or are massively oversubscribed. He has lots of interests but not any that would get him a scholarship. On atom he’s doing ok, but his written work is quite poor (we have now got him an English tutor but there are limits to what can be done in the timescale), I think he’d do ok in interview as he’s very engaged, interested in everything and a generally nice kid (imho), but not sure how much any of that would count. We’re looking at Alleyns, St Dunstan’s, Emanuel and Royal Russell. So 2 questions really - are there any other nearby coed schools that I might have missed? Are any allowances made for coming from a state primary? And I know impossible to answer but what are his chances before I put him through all this?!

Graveney selective steam much harder to get into than the likes of Emanuel...

Can anyone shed some light on St. Paul’s Barnes please? We are one salary family, thinking of St. Paul’s for year 7 but not sure how the social dynamics of the school really are? People share horror stories of children comparing gadgets, holidays, birthday parties etc. Can anyone shed some light on the actual pic please?

There are a couple of threads already about 11+/grammar/private in SW London. It's probably best to ask on those as there will be people applying for St Pauls this year so know more about the school.

Emanuel has shot up in popularity in recent years, and the standard required is significantly higher than it was (pass mark for siblings and co-curricular scholars higher and no resits, all others by highest score).

They doubled the size of the 10+ intake a few years ago, which is where mist state school joiners start, but still have plenty at 11+ (slightly more places now they've abolished 13+ as an entry point).

Graveney has 70 selective places, and a totally different style of exam.

Can you reach Clapham Junction or other stations so you could consider schools which are a bit further out?

I would think Graveney is less competitive than Alleyn's or Emanuel in terms of the test,

Nope. Academically the super selective places have a higher academic threshold.

From what I can see though Graveney is a bit of an oddity. There isn't a separate test. It's just done on the general banding test for Wandsworth as a whole and that is just verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. There's no maths or english test, so a child who is really good on VR and NVR but not such an all-rounder could do really well. Also a lot of the children taking the banding test won't be applying for Graveney anyway. So overall I don't think it's really possible to compare how competitive it is with private schools that have their own more lengthy admissions process.

Children in Wandsworth schools sit the Wandsworth test in school, as a banding test . Meanwhile huge numbers of other kids from outside Wandsworth and miles around… from as far away as Hounslow according to previous MN threads … also sit the test with the hope of one of the 70 selective places.

See the 11+ forums.

Yes, the test is purely VR and NVR, theoretically testing intelligence and ability rather than education. It is sat by every primary school child in Wandsworth, whether or not they have been tutored, been to a private school etc AND by huge numbers of kids who are applying to the top selective private schools and the other super selective grammars (Tiffin / Sutton grammars etc) . It is very common for children to get a place in a selective private having not got a selective place at Graveney.

@Eboblah opening up this discussion to see where you ended up with your DS, if happy to share. We are in SE London and unfortunately our DS didn't get into the two privates we applied (Alleyns and Colfe's; bright DS but disruptive state primary and we sadly didn't realise how competitive it was, although did tutoring maybe not enough) and are wondering what other options might be out there. Thanks 🙏🏽

Hi @Annu21 , I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get the schools you wanted, it's such an ordeal. We ended up applying for 4 and got 1 offer from Royal Russell. It's the least academically selective of the 4 but it was his favourite and I think a less hot-house environment will likely suit him more. I think like you we had underestimated just how competitive and how high the standard that we were aiming for was. In retrospect I think to do it from a state school with a non 'brilliant' child it can be done but preparation needs to probably start early in year 5 with regular tutoring. And that's a lot of time and effort to put in for what will still be an uncertain result. We had an English tutor every couple of weeks for about 4 months and saw a big improvement, albeit from quite a low base, but I suspect this was still the biggest, although probably not only, reason he didn't get to the interview stage with the other 3. What are you planning to do now? Do you have any decent state options?

Thanks @Eboblah we didn't consider Royal Russell as it's quite far but will check out and inquire about occasional place. Thank you!