SW London grammar and private year 7 entry 2024.

[Hatty999]

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4907226-sw-london-grammar-and-private-year-7-entry-2024

This is the previous link. Hope it works.

Yes Harrodian interview here too. Well done to the others who have them. Phew 😮‍💨

Great ! Congrats 🙌🏻

Thank you @QuiteAJourney that is helpful 🙃

@QuiteAJourney it was your post. 😀 Thank you for the information. Good to know what DS can expect and it’s nice your DD enjoyed it. It’ll be our last interview and I’m sure there’ll have to be some form of celebration afterwards! Good luck to everyone for the final leg whichever schools you have.

Mega thank you! Also wonder how the news about the bridge affects them? Article today saying at least 10 yes before the bridge opens to cars . I wonder (and hope!) it might make them consider changing their bus routes to south of the river? Clapham, Wimbledon etc

Did Alleyns academic scholarship workshop invites went out at the same time as the interview invites?

In the email about the exam day, it said “Academic Scholarship workshop for candidates selected after the 20 January small group activity and interview: 26 January”. So guess they won’t send invites till after Saturday’s interviews.

How do the Emanuel academic scholarship invites work? Would they have mentioned this in the email invite?

Looking back at emails , Emanuel said “Academic scholarships are decided based upon the performance in the written assessments, interview and group experience. All pupils are automatically entered for this process.” So I assume there isn’t a further stage for academic scholarships, it’s all decided on exam & interview.

I think there is another stage according to our alleyns email 5/1.

Academic Scholarship workshop for candidates selected after the 20 January small group activity and interview - 26 January.

(Sorry for double post - phone glitching on the train!)

@WeezilWords funnily enough I looked at this point last night too and reached the same conclusion as @minipie. From the wording of the email, it appears that scholarships are decided after the group session and interview. It may be that there is a further academic scholarship interview but I’ve not seen anything on this. Of course, if anyone has received such an invite would be great to hear about. DS felt the maths went very well and generally had a good exam but that is no guarantee of scholarship level, just curious as to process.

DS was awarded an academic scholarship at Emanuel this time last year. There was no additional interview/assessment (lovely school, went elsewhere in the end but would have been delighted if that’s where he ended up)

You are most welcome! We asked about the bus routes last year and they said that they had no plans on that front, but maybe worth asking them again.

Thank you @Trickleg

@Summerma when DS got the invite for Saturday for Alleyns I assumed he was definitively not up for a scholarship and that it was either 20th or 26th. If actually tomorrow is a deciding day then that adds both hope and pressure! (altho tbh it feels like a small miracle to have got this far at all in any case)

At a lot of these schools local parents put together a bus if they aren’t served by their routes. I know this happens for St Paul’s, Emanuel, Ibstock and Harrodian. So it is worth asking around when you consider your offers.

@ALongProcess i thought same but re read that email, think is is decided post Saturday… not holding my breath at all here.

Do we know if there is indeed an increase (or significant increase!) in the numbers applying this year, or in recent years?
That is the ‘official message’ from the schools, who are obviously trying to soften the blow to unsuccessful applicants… so that may not actually be true.
But is it getting even harder to get in? Are there more applicants? Are standards going up?
I would be really interested to know - one could have thought that with the cost of living pinch and the threat of paying VAT on school fees, as well universities increasingly going for positive discrimination against private school applicants, the numbers applying to private schools might be going down?…..
Would love some insight from people genuinely in the know.
PS i know that many SW families are international or super wealthy and not hurt by cost of living… but still!

I suspect the numbers aren't hugely higher. 3 and 5 years ago all our interview/ offer letters etc said numbers were higher than ever, more competitive etc etc!

More state primary schools kids applying for private secondary after Covid. Also, families saving fees at primary for secondary. More scholarships offers at secondary schools to offset costs.
The better, contextual offers from universities are not for high performing grammar schools, where applications are very high. Population boom for the last few years, so more children applying.
There are more kids applying due to relocation as post Covid, movements in jobs market.

Yes 2012 was the peak of the mini baby boom across the UK. I don’t know about numbers of 10/11 year olds in SW London specifically though or how many are applying for private secondaries - not sure anyone has the stats on that!

I do think the average number of schools applied for per child has gone up a bit over the past few years - bit of an own goal there as of course if everyone does this it decreases the chance for each child to get their preferred school. So it could be an increase in applications rather than applicants iyswim.

G&L said 2 years ago there were 800 candidates and this year they said 900.

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/births-by-mothers-country-of-birth-in-london

Bulge in births from 2010-2012. This also explains why the catchment areas for sought after schools were so tiny when these children were starting school in 2014-2016. Now some primaries are struggling to fill their reception classes. The same is true in in the private sector, with schools that had huge waiting lists now not running at full capacity.

Good luck on those DC who are doing Emanuel interview this morning😉