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.

2023, yes. 2024 was back on track. GCSEs are extremely good.

I agree with others that it doesn't discount you. I also know of multiple children who have had surprising outcome eg not getting interviews at emanuel but getting in to alleyns. 5 years ago this would have been v unusual but last year I knew of several.
Good luck with your other schools.

Sending virtual hugs for anyone who didn’t have good news from Emanuel today. Last year lots of kids who thought they would get Emanuel didn’t which was a big surprise but got into Alleyn’s and DC. Being strong on creative writing I think is definitely a win for Alleyn’s exam.

Emails are going out now.

Emanuel sports scholarship emails out. Good luck everyone & big hugs to those who are having a difficult evening.

Sending virtual hugs here too!

What are other choices apart from Alleyne’s. With my first child I thought 11+ is for all 7 years until Univ. Nope, there are 13+, 16+ and some move in year too.

Apologies, I meant @mammacatcat sorry for the not so good news. Hopefully all goes well for Alleyn's.

To all those that are struggling with difficult outcomes during this process, one thing I discovered last year is that it's important to keep spirits up and just carry on. Our DD did not get her first choice and I thought she would be gutted. Turns out she got into schools that were ranking much better in exit terms of exit results. It happens. Sometimes it's the format of the test as well (in our case, she she did super well in Maths and Creative Writing but not amazingly well in VR and she was below the cut-off for some schools). In the end she is thriving at one of the top schools in the country. So please keep your and your children's spirits up and carry on. There is a great school for your child at the end of this process and -even if not- there is lots of opportunity to change schools down the line.

Going through it again with DC2 and being a lot more pragmatic, I think... Best of luck to all our amazing children. Bloody difficult process to be going through at 10/11 but it's funny how at the end of it they come out more resilient and grown-up...

I agree, venice24. I remember saying to someone after my son had gone through this that the process reminded me of trying to get a graduate job out of university - but this time it is being done by 10/11 year old boys.

Sometimes the results are surprising. Children don't get through to the second round for schools they expected to but then do get through to schools they thought would be a stretch.

Do children have to redo all the tests at 13+ at some schools to get into the next year group? What happens if the child does not reach the pass mark where do they go to?

I can understand at 16+ where there is a great deal of churning as there are big choices to be made.

In the schools we applied to we had to choose between 11+ and 13+ and not allowed to take both as tests happened in Year6. Different schools will have different processes but there will be occasional places, as people move

Some schools which have both an 11+ and 13+ entry will let children sit the 13+ as a late entrant if they didn’t get through at 11+.

Huge respect to all the kids going through this at the moment. We had an exam on Monday morning followed by an interview at another school in the afternoon and then two interviews on Tuesday.. now just 1 more interview and 3 sports scholarship days to go! Typically all on the same days!

We are limping to the finish line… a few more outstanding yes or nos for interviews but we are thankfully done now for exams.

moving to offers - math isn’t adding up when I look at leavers destinations from schools vs how many places they actually have. For example - a school I know has an intake of 70 but I’ve looked at number prep school leavers offers that they advertise for this school I can see at least 100 places cited as being offered over just 4 schools. As people usually apply for more than 1 school am I right in assuming that schools will offer 1.5, 2 or even more places to ensure they fill the year? Anyone have any insight into the dark art of offers?!

Yes, they always over offer....even the top schools. But the top schools over offer by less. Some schools will post their offers and acceptances so you can see sometimes they get 15 offers, but only 5 acceptances.

We got sport scholarship news at 7pm

Did anyone get a ‘no’ email for Emanuel scholarship applications? We haven’t heard, which I assume must mean no..!

Perhaps contact the school if you have not heard back by Monday afternoon?

What is everyone else waiting on hearing about? Anyone else waiting on Kings?

Kings said they would email Monday by 5pm....I hope it is earlier in the day!

Waiting on St Paul’s as well, not sure when we’ll hear but interviews are scheduled from 23rd Jan.

As mentioned by @SamPoodle123 , all secondary schools do over offer. Also, I know some prep schools have incorrect data. They showed offers and no acceptance for some schools but actually a few did move at 10+. If you check some schools are very accurate and update their leavers destinations and others don’t, with small print saying at time of publication it is correct. We know of late offers like SPGS in June, due to families move etc. Some schools don’t report 13+ boarding schools because leavers all leave at 11+ and 13+ is not a firm offer until the Spring term before Year 9. We know a few DC with offers that got taken away due to behaviour or study concern between 11+ and 13+ intake.

Waiting on Kings and St Paul’s. Has anybody asked St Paul’s when they will send out interview invitations?

Looking at past threads, Kings email came around midday. Really hope this is the case on Monday and it doesn’t end up being the long wait like Friday with Emanuel. Hopefully it won’t be a 4.57 email

Anyone know from past experience if Alleyn’s let people know before the date they say they will or is it only on the given date

Hello,

Does anyone know the format of the Alleyns interview? Hope not the 2.5-3 h activities we had at other schools! DD is supposed to be at a sport competition she can't really miss which unhelpfully is right in the middle of the day for about 4 hours. Unless she starts at 7am or 4pm (which I doubt school would like) we'll be having a very big dilemma!

Do they only offer the one day? If this is the case, I would email the school to let them know asap to see if she can be the first one or the last one....and she might need to be late for the sports competition or leave early....