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.

At her interview, my daughter was asked which other schools she had applied to: she answered truthfully. Will it impact on whether or not she receives an offer?
Thanks

@Laura71 that happened to my daughter a few years ago in a number of interviews. For her it didn’t impact, she got offers from those schools who had asked despite answering honestly about the others she’d applied to

@Camordgh I admit it is difficult to tell which open questions are strange and which are not.

Open questions do not always test knowledge, but they are common in interviews. However, they usually focus on a topic that is helpful or pertinent to any general area that relates to the candidates, skillset, experience, potentials, where you can probe more extensively or in detail.

The well design interview framework should avoid weird or irrelevant questions from the interviewee pov, as well as questions that lead to a lot of personal bias depending on the interviewer.

State school admission code can not do selection based on ethnicity.

Private school they can select whatever they like, so ethnicity can be one of the factor.

Is that true? Are private schools in the UK allowed to racially discriminate, e.g., no blacks or Asians, whites only?

The Equality Act applies to private schools in exactly the same way as any other school. In short, no.

It is interesting to know that private schools strive to balance their ethnicities.

For instance, if 60% (or 70%) of the children who pass the interview rounds are Asian, and the remaining 30% (20%) are white and 10% are black, as observed in SPG’s three rounds of exams, will they try to maintain this balance, ensuring that all 10% are black, and then allocating the remaining offers with 45% going to white and 45% to Asian? In such a scenario, many hardworking Asian children might find it disheartening, as it doesn’t sound very fair.

I never say they are doing racially discriminate, but private admission policy is never transparent or fixate to a strict admission code like state schools so it is hard to you to proof otherwise.

Of course the school will not write down ethnicity as their selection criteria, there are so many other soft critiera for them to maintain any balance they want to have.

Speaking of Equality Act, I wonder how does some private coed school maintain a good balance of boys and girls year after year. They are not allowed to use Gender as their selection criteria, and anecdotally coed school are more popular among the boys than the girls.

London for example, the mixed grammar schools you will see more boys than girls about 10%-20% more but you would find it more balance in selective private coed schools.

I believe some do. My son sat at 11+ in a school last year. In the written exam (this is already stage 2, as stage 1 is ISEB and won't know the mix), about a quarter of the students are of a certain ethnic group. In the interview stage, this became 40%+, and then among those that took up the offer, the percentage was done to a quarter (or less).

Oh my goodness, this sounds absolutely brutal to those children.

@Justarrivedlondon "In the interview stage, this became 40%+, and then among those that took up the offer, the percentage was done to a quarter (or less)"

This could be certain group of student prefer certain characteristic of a school to others? It is a two way selection.

I can elloborate what I meant by soft critiera, it could be any aptitude/factors such as number of MFL candidates speak, sports play, location address, primary school attended and etc. All these can results in a way of balance the school want to be.

I’ve watched a SPGS Games mistress make her team cry because they weren’t living up to her standards. Perhaps she’s the exception but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

@MeimeiApril don't worry there is a majority of Asian kids now at SPGS. But to take your example if at interview there is a proportion 70% Asian, and the remaining 30% other, that does not mean that offers will be 70-30 as those schools don't like overly tutored children..

Would it be 80/20 then? I like the term of "over tutored", and also like the fallacy people make about "over tutored" can be identified during interview stage. What I do know, is a lot of cases who tutored (prep) way more than the reported hours in MN are offered in these schools in the end.

That sounds horrible. Luckily we have not experienced anything like that. DD is frankly awful at games and has only ever had kind encouragement from any of her teachers.

@PreplexJ might be 80-20 after indeed. And maybe those schools that say they don’t want overly tutored children are in fact just hypocritical.. given the current 11+ process. Remind me of the former Bute head who was so against tutoring on paper in a school assessing mostly at 7+ and then who left to open her tutoring agency..

Parents whose daughters have attended SPG, could you please share your daughter's CAT scores? I'm curious to gauge the aptitude levels required for admission. My daughter scored at the top end of CAT scores, but found the CEM first round challenging.

Our prep school shared data since 2018, and all girls with offers had at least two sections 138+ but could have one section below 130. But it is a very small sample - maybe 12 girls with offers.

CAT is GL style is different to CEM select, but a lot of similarities. CAT (CEM) can be improved with practice on similar type of questions, 120 -> 130, 125 -> 135.

Even it is a standarize score, it is hard to tell aptitude when everyone has practice these type of questions to some extend in the higher end.

We didn't prepare for the CEM, as I only learned about SPG's use of CEM instead of GL a week before the exam through the school’s familiarisation email. Fortunately, my daughter's school employs Atom Learning for ISEB preparation, and I hope there are some similarities between the two. DD perceived the CEM exam as more challenging, likely due to the difference from GL to CEM and no practice on CEM.

I find it very upsetting that some posters here equate Asian with overtutored. It is also extremely hypocritical. Show me the English upper middle class family at SPGS and G&L that isn't "overtutoring" their child. Some posters basically imply that Asian kids get in because they are "overtutored", not because they are smart. As if the white candidates got in on their sheer brilliance without hard work and "overtutoring".

I agree, all kids going to super selective schools tutor for them, racial dynamics have no bearing. Though, cultural group’s differences, maybe some are more open about tutor and that it is something not to be ashamed of or some guilty secret. We know kids in those schools whose parents say they would never tutor and DC mentioned 2 hours weekend creative writing camps since Year 2.
Holidays in France or Spain, and au pairs from those countries so kids grow up nearly bilingual.
So opportunities are being utilised and some parents want to hide it whilst others are more open and honest.
The top music scholars in those schools have external help and courses and top professional training or even parents with music diplomas to assist. No one is getting to that level from just half an hour school music lesson.

I agree that private prep schools assist children in preparing for ISEB secondary school entry exams, and while many have private tutors at home, but not every child does. My other child didn't have any tutors, prepared for one specific school 11* entry exam only during Christmas time and sat the exam in early January, and earned an academic scholarship for one of the top independent schools in the country. However, he observed that almost everyone he knew in prep had tutors or multiple tutors at home. On a different note, music is different from academics that some children can self-study. My own child achieved a grade 9 in maths at the age of 10, entirely self-taught.

Isn’t this just another form of competitive parenting? If the child gets into a school that others don’t, one claim it’s because of their innate talent and the school has magic ability to weed out the 'overtutored' kids. If the child doesn’t get in, one say it’s because the school is full of 'overtutored' kids and don’t want to be part of that. If both get in, one say her did less effort and her DC still seems superior.

There are many reasons one choose/get in a schools and rightly so. Come on, get real.

PS what is grade 9 at maths?