London grammar and private senior school entry 2025

[CruCru]

Hi all

It doesn’t look as though one of these threads has been set up yet so I thought I’d do it.

I have a daughter going into year 6 and a son going into year 8 next month - both will be moving to senior school in 2025.

Just got the jags sports scholarship invite! Happy!

Hurrah!

We received an invitation for the academic one an hour ago or so.

Invites for the Dulwich interviews were also sent earlier this afternoon.

Good news!

@CruCru congrats - only top 10% where called for it!

My message was for @DreamyDreamy re jags academic scholarship!

Thanks! Congrats to your DD as well for the sports invite! Mine is academic but not sporty at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

Congrats @DreamyDreamy and @Lana1985 ! Anything helps with the dreadful VAT is great!

Alleyn’s 20th January as you’ve probably now seen. Can’t wait to be done one way or another. That said DD who has loved the taster days and scholarship assessment at Alleyn’s said yesterday she felt it ‘was not her vibe’ 😵‍💫

City traditionally take more boys from state junior schools so have a bigger 11+ intake than 13+. St Paul’s & Westminster’s main intake is 13+ rather than 11+ (& they have their junior / under school)

I remember that City were gradually reducing the number of boys who came in at 13 compared with 11. At one point they were nearly 50:50 but now it’s gone past 70:30.

Hi All!

Was hoping somebody might have some info on NLCS… how many applied? How many do they take on for interviews and any tips/past knowledge about the interview?

Many thanks ☺️

@FatGirlDosing yes thank you saw the email. Going to be a long 2 weeks to wait.
im sure if she goes to the offer day she will love it again if enjoyed the taster and scholarship days?

@555Stars DD did NLCS last year and I'd say the interview was a lot more academic than other schools. Mixture of interests "chat" plus a comprehension and a maths puzzle. Having said that, she found it straightforward. Solved the maths puzzle with trial and error and was totally fine. Good luck with it!

Curious if anyone has experience with the Dulwich interview? Is it straightforward with what are your hobbies and tell
me about yourself type questions or do they throw in some academic ones as well?

Also, curious why Emanuel plans to send emails out today and tomorrow? I’ve always heard of Schools sending everyone in one day. A little more stressful for the ones being told the second day.

It is odd. We are end of the alphabet so I’m assuming tomorrow on the basis that alphabetical order seems the most logical approach…!

For G&L, anyone knows how many girls are invited for interview, whether it’s just a 1-1 interview or an interview + group assessment. Any info on whether there are maths questions or just a general interest chat-type interview?

Yes, it feels odd to me as well and our surname is starting with Z 😩

Thank you @venice24 & wishing your ones good luck if they’re applying this year.

Are g&l interview emails out? @JustInvolved

Not yet. I think it’s 13th Jan (Monday). I was just wondering in the interim of this long wait. Fingers crossed!

@JustInvolved Last year for G&L there were about 20 girls every twenty minutes (with the overall assessment lasting about an hour) ie 60 girls per hour for an entire day. So quite a lot of girls. Parents waited in the canteen. Was all very well organised. Girls had a chat with some Y10s in 3s first (just to relax them), then had an interview with two teachers, then a small and short group exercise which didn't seem to be that closely monitored. The interview - like most interviews - you can't really prepare for. Schools (inc G&L / WHS / SPGS / LU) deliberately change the content every year so people don't prep. One year at G&L girls were asked to analyse a painting so the next year parents and schools spent hours practising that, and then it was different the following year.

Remember that G&L must over-offer by quite a bit. Most girls who accept SPGS will also have a G&L offer, and others will also choose to go elsewhere, so it's probably 2-2/5:1 ratio of offers to places.

The best thing all the kids sitting interviews can do is to try to relax, enjoy it, and engage enthusiastically with whatever material / questions they're presented with. What these schools want mostly by interview stage is kids who have a genuine enthusiasm for learning and will engage with new ideas.

Good luck to all those sitting second rounds and interviews this week and next.

I think it is an activity and an interview. I am sure they will say what to expect when they send out the emails on Monday.