Waiting for 11+ Independent schools results for 2024 entry (North and Central London)

[JoeDoe]

Any parents here whose kids have finished interviews and waiting impatiently for the 9th of February (e.g., for Highgate/City/Girls Consortium/UCS)? What are your thoughts so far? Have you gotten the interview call backs you expected? Feeling optimistic?

When should we get in touch to release offers? Should I be doing this during this coming week or the week we go back - are the admissions offices also on half term?

Honestly, I think it depends on the school. Some schools will have office staff (including admissions officers) in during half term.

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound lecture-y. Last year some of the senior school threads got quite unpleasant. One person said he / she intended to hang onto offers they had no intention of taking as their son should get to keep his prize for as long as possible. Predictably this upset quite a few people.

Absolutely agree. The whole process is stressful enough, and I feel for those put on waiting lists with no other offers elsewhere, the sooner they know they have a place the better :)

We have turn the offer down for Francis Holland Regent’s Park Yesterday for our DD. Hoping someone on the waiting list will benefit from this.

We accepted NLCS for DD, so released offers at Habs, FHRP and Channing on Friday. I think most of the waiting list movement will be in the couple of days after the deadline for offer holders to accept (I.e. after 5 March) as the schools over offer in the first instance.
@CruCru good point about the state school place- though they aren't out until 1 March so will have to wait a bit longer before doing that.

Congrats to all of those who received their offers this week.

I’m planning ahead and wanted to know how much tutoring and prep you each did in order to secure offers at these schools? My daughter is only in year 2 but I’m trying to gauge how competitive the process is. She’s also at a state school so isn’t going to be prepped by her school.

Any tips would be gratefully received.

Every child is heavily tutored including private school children. It’s super competitive. WindyDock I recommend you start beginning of year 5. I worry how these children will cope when that start these schools. That’s the system.

Yes, it worries me too. I don’t want to send my daughter somewhere where she would be constantly fighting to keep up. It would be a miserable school experience.

State school children are generally tutored - sometimes by a parent - for the top schools. Around us, this is usually for 2 years before the exams, so midway through y4.

Not all prep school children are tutored. My DS wasn’t, and has a clutch of offers.

I second that not all prep school kids are tutored. We had a tutor a couple of months before the exams began just for reassurance but i don’t think it would have made much difference. Interview prep however is more important.

DD was at state school until beginning of y5 and then home educated. I subscribed to Atom for a couple of months to familiarise with the adaptive format. We did not tutor or have interview coaching, we simply carried on with our learning as usual (which is quite history-heavy as it's DDs favourite subject).
DD was offered a place at her first choice school so she is super happy and proud of herself. Friends' parents from her old school said that for them, interview coaching was more valuable than tutoring so maybe that's something to consider? Two of her friends (at two different state schools) were also not tutored and got their first or second choices. So it's definitely not the case that all kids are tutored.

Good luck to those starting to prep for the 11+ exams for 2025 entry!

My experience is that interview coaching is the least important thing to do for 11+. Catching up gaps in curriculum, doing exam techniques and practice is much more useful.

The amount of tutoring needed depends on the child, but I know of no child who was admitted to a top school that hasn't started preparation/tutoring at least a year in advance. But this includes targeted parental involvement, from playing chess & scrabble to past papers, which in substance can be more productive than having a tutor. Plenty have started 2 or more years in advance. Of course there will be the outlier case of a very bright child with little/no tutoring that got in, but statistically this is extremely rare. @PreplexJ is right that interview prep is not important and in fact might be counterproductive.

I can definitely relate to targeted parent involvement. I was just referring to paid tutors. Preparation is paramount of course but as @JoeDoe said it comes in various forms, that in my view go above and beyond paid tutors. I personally don't see how interview prep could have helped but some vouch by it. I do question that if a child needs such intense tutoring, which frankly makes learning unpleasant anyway, whether the 'top' schools are in fact suited to them on the long run. But as someone else commented, each child is different and as parents we can assess our kids' needs in detail and find the right solution that works for us.
What did help us a great deal was attending a 'tutor' talk at the primary school in y4 aimed at those thinking about 11+. The tutor was experienced in 11+. Clearly knew all the admissions processes inside out and were able to simplify it for parents. It really helped make the right choice of school based on knowing your child, honing in on their skills and strengths and making the choice based on what environment they'd thrive in rather than just 'school reputation'. I still have these notes if they can be useful to anyone.

I would really appreciate the notes if you wouldn’t mind sharing them.

Hi, DD is on the waitlist for nlcs, when are we likely to hear back if they can offer her a place or not? How likely is it she can still be offered a place?

I would love the notes too.

They will over offer so until those offers have been accepted or expired there will be no movement on wl. Was that one of the schools that did explosive offers a few years ago, so was first come first served and eventually even those remaining with offers were declined. If they do go to wl it probably won't be until after their offer deadline and National Offers day for state schools.

@LIZS NLCS never did exploding offers so that isn't something to worry about at least.

Most schools deadlines are similar 5th March, so by then you have to accept another offer, what do schools do if so many people reject them on the last day and wl candidates have accepted other schools?

NLCS normally give out offer 2x of the places available. Not sure if they need to draw place from the WL. In the past even they have more DD accepted places than the school expect they just open one extra class - the school have space and capacity to do so if it is needed.

Hello my son has his Hampton School Interview on Monday - can anyone help with what they ask etc? Many thanks

Please can I have the notes @maya1983

Hi! Please could you share the notes @maya1983 - I’m new to 11+ process and finding it all v confusing for my DS coming up!

Hi @BabyS2025 and @lovingthekids I will delete my earlier post as I don’t have notes anymore it was a long time ago for us now. Good luck everyone!!