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.

Ah amazing, congrats! That is wonderful news

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Congrats for the surbiton offer, that’s wonderful news! The next week and a half feels like an eternity away at the moment - hope everyone is hanging on in there!

Great to see good news on surbiton! Well done to your dds!

Congrats to your DD😊

Do you mean Surbiton or Sydenham high?

Waiting on Sydenham high

Oh well done to those with offers today! I’d forgotten some of the girls schools go earlier with offers. We have a DS and none of ours will come until 9 Feb so still feels like a long wait.

Surbiton, sorry for not being clear!

same for us @travelturtle but we had an offer for Wetherby senior school 2 days ago (our back up option) good luck for the wait😅

congrats @swlondon24 great news!!

Congratulations on the SHS offers!

My DD has really flourished there.

huge congrats to those with offers from Surbiton! 🥳

Congrats to everyone with offers at SHS! You must be so relieved!!

I can’t remember who else was talking about Radnor, but I’ve just re-read their last email and they say they will email results by 6 Feb - so that one should come earlier than the rest.

Have they sent to all or just the ‘yes’ ?

Streatham & Clapham also 6 Feb

In case useful - Putney was 7th Feb last year (Tuesday ) and SCHS on the 9th (Thursday). Clearly SCHS going earlier this year, I wonder if PHS will be earlier too (they were a bit unexpected last year)

My third daughter is doing 11+ at the moment (offers out next week) and I have heard from a few other mums that prospective schools ask current schools for examples of how parents communicate with the school. One of my friends has been very vocal about a few issues at the school (quite rightly) and is now worried she has scuppered her children’s chances. Has anyone else heard this?

@SWLondonGP I think this might be the 11+ rumour mill going into overdrive! Between exams, interviews and references, I think senior schools have enough material / data points to wade through without considering (very subjective) reports of parental behaviour over the last 7 years!

I have found this whole 11+ process so incredibly opaque! It’s frustrating and stressful. I asked a question on here before re how Emanuel etc mark papers and, whilst people share very reasonable opinions (which I too share), they are just opinions… does anyone actually know for sure how on earth each school does this and what networking between junior and senior schools goes on behind the scenes… Has anyone had sight of the reference their junior school provides to senior schools? 😖Can’t wait for this to be over… Bring on half term for some R’n’R! ✌🏻

I’m new here. Could someone explain the purpose of school interviews? Do they filter out borderline candidates? My daughter encountered thought-provoking questions during the St. Paul’s Girls’ School interview—none related to academics.

@Bluerose2020 i share your frustration. I think the reality is that all schools operate in a slightly different way, which is part of the reason it seems so opaque. The way that Emanuel assess kids seems slightly different from other schools - for example they interview a higher proportion of candidates. It would certainly be so much more straightforward (and easier on the kids) if there was a common assessment that was used for all schools.

I also think the relationships between junior and senior schools differ depending on the schools. Our primary headmaster seems to have stronger relationships with some schools than others. Ultimately I don’t think it matters how strong or weak communication/relationship between the schools is. The secondary school will want to take the most talented and capable kids regardless of what primary they are in.

Not sure it is thought provoking, but last year DD had a number of philosophical kind of open questions discussed during the interview with a number schools including SPGS.

I think the 15 mins interview for all these schools just try to flag out unusual candidate and filter out borderlines, there is no magic recipe.

@SWLondonGP I don’t think your friend would need to worry about that. I wouldn’t think any school would be checking that type of thing.

I know that one of the schools (can’t say which sorry 😣) literally ranks the children based on their exam score - there’s a cut off for a certain % of kids who get invited to interview and the interviews and school reports move them up or down that list depending on different factors. I’ve long suspected most schools have a variation of this - but what those factors are that move them up or down will vary from one school to another and are likely to be subjective things like “teachability” which would be very difficult to predict unless you’re actually on the admissions team. Agreed the whole process is opaque but I’m actually glad it’s not all solely based on exam results.

I have been told by a couple of parents (who have kids at private schools) that the benchmark for state school kids are different compared to private school kids. I am wondering if this is true or not. I was under the impression that there is a pass mark that all kids need to pass (whether state or private), but these parents seem to think that state school kids don't have the same benchmark. Anyone know?

@SamPoodle123 That sounds like unfounded speculation. Are they insinuating that the pass mark for state is higher or lower than private?