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.

I thought for Emanuel one day will be for 11+ candidates and the other for 10+ candidates - but realise that may be totally wrong!

When dd did it a couple years ago it was just a 15 minute interview. It was your normal getting to know you questions plus sort some images and explain why (no right or wrong here). But like pp mentioned schools change it up year to year.

Thank you! Very helpful info. It will be a massive relief to get G&L offer for us and DD! Hope most of us get an opportunity!

Also agree that it’s difficult to prep and more importantly, not want to come across as rehearsed. Best for DD to be authentic and for the school to assess fit.

Hi, to all those that sat girls for these schools before I'm just wondering if the girls that get G&L offers are the same ones who get the other top academic schools like NLCS, SPSGS, LU and City for example? Or do girls who tried 2nd tier schools get offers...e.g. Putney, NHEH, and Wimbledon? Just trying to manage expectations. Where does LEH sit now? It doesn't seem as popular as it was? Is it 1st tier or 2nd tier?

I guess we'll test that theory today since we have an A surname 😁

Never considered LEH myself but it's a great school. I don't think the candidate pool overlaps a lot with the Hammersmith schools, definitely not City or NLCS due to the location. And yes it seems to be less popular from what I gather from DD's friends. WHS gained a lot of popularity in the recent years and many seem to prefer it over LEH or Putney.

We prefer co-ed, then 2nd preference is closest to home so only have Hammersmith schools in radar plus KGS. Daily commute to KGS would take 50mins plus the sport fields are further out for us so it might not work(both parents are office base so wont be able to ferry her during the week). With VAT and so much politics happening at the moment our final decision will be depending on state choices(Tiffin girls) as well which we didnt consider previously with our first child even she passed it.

For LUS, still need to understand better with regard to their non-gcse approach. We know the school very well and kinda very confident with their teaching, our very sporty elder daughter went there and had the most amazing time overall and very successful academically too so we indeed keep everything crossed for LUS result.

We've also applied to LU - for us it wasn't a top choice because we prefer single sex, but I actually like that they are trying to innovate their approach to education. I keep reminding myself the real world is not single sex and a co-ed could be a really good exposure for DD to prep for life ahead. If we are lucky to receive an offer from LU along with some other girls' schools, it will be a very difficult decision to make.

Good luck!

@11plus2nd Would you choose Tiffin over LU? I really liked the explanation on non GCSE from LU on their open day, but it's not a tried and tested system, so that places LU further down our school choices despite being the closest school for us.

@W4mumoftwo very very tough decision for us indeed. I try not to think too far ahead as we havent got either of the offers. My elder daughter had all 9s gcse with LUS(and very high scores for all subjects with a subject at 100%) however she did say that so much of gcse is ticking the boxes only. Although we havent seen the alternative and its outcomes yet so indeed is still very doubtful atm.

Best of luck, I am sure decision will be clear once you attend offer holder days 🙂

@Londonangst Indeed many girls apply wide (NLCS, G&L, SPGS, Latymer and City) and get multiple top offers. The tests are slightly different to each school though so I also know girls who got into G&L because they did very well on the Consortium test and did not make it past LU first rounds as an example. And vice versa.

@Londonangst , LEH have a had a few varied years, about 3 or 4 years ago they added another class for year 7 but only announced this when the offers were made, adding 25 girls places into the SW London area has quite an impact on WL's, ie someone on the Putney WL got a straight offer from LEH.
Then they had a change of head coupled with an unexpected weak set of A level results in 2023. 2024 was much better with the new head settled in. It's hard to say where it sits now and academically it's the same as WHS so less reason to travel over from the Wimbledon area.

Yes I guess a lot depends on which type of test suits your child more and how they perform on the day. It just seems like the whole process could be made a lot easier. But that's down to the schools and I guess they like making money from the application fee?

Anyone have news from Emanuel yet?

I'm not sure how to reply directly but thanks for the updates on LEH. If definitely doesn't seem to be as popular as some of the other girls schools despite the fantastic facilities. I'll be interested to see who gets offers from our prep school. It's been a very long wait.

Without wanting to start a bunfight, I'm really interested to know what are currently considered the '1st tier' West/North London girl's indies? SPGS, NLCS, LU, City, G&L... and what others? Would Highgate, SHSS, Habs, NHEHS... even FHSS make the list too?

what are people's opinion on London Park School? we have it as our back up plan but curious to hear from other parents/schools view on it

nothing yet
this is torture

Nope. Nothing here either.

No news, DH tends to get emails way ahead of me, his surname starts with A. I will message here whenever we hear!

A couple years ago Emanuel emailed about the interviews past 7pm, so perhaps emails might come later today? Otherwise, tomorrow it is! The wait feels like forever!!