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.

Thank you @JustInvolved! So pleased it worked out so well for you. Roll on February next year, when it's all behind us.

Gosh yes!

Good luck to everyone waiting on first stage Tiffin results today! We aren't, but have many friends who are.

Tiffin results for boys are out.

We are, for SW London indie and Tiffin girls. Just got the stage 1 result which she passed this morning. Our preference is the Hammersmith Indie so still long way to go.

Well done to your daughter, 11plus2nd!

@Gymnogene we are also sitting Hampton and Kings, plus other co-ed schools. Not doing anything specific, standard comprehension and creative writing for English, using past papers. I will probably sign up for Atom over half term! Best of luck to your son! Just 7 weeks for the last test, cannot wait for it to be over...

Thanks @W4mumoftwo ! Hope your half term prep goes well! We are focusing on Atom at the moment, ahead of the ISEB. It is a bit of struggle to prioritise the revision requirements for the different schools, but our favourites require success in the ISEB, so will get back to the past papers once that's behind us.

Is anyone’s daughter doing the exam for City Girls? The pretest is from 15 November.

@CruCru we are. My daughter is going in on the 20th for her assessment (I know this already as she has SEN requirements and that will be the day they accomodote those)…

Ah, thank you! I think that City were going to let everyone know their exam date in early November (so from tomorrow). Good luck to your daughter!

Does anyone have a sense if applications for the more competitive private schools (e.g. City, Westminster, Saint Paul’s, Highgate) are up this year? There is talk that with the VAT, a lot more people will target only the very top private schools, or else go state.

I guess that would make sense. One thing I would care about is whether a school is likely to survive - City / Westminster etc will still have a waitlist even with the VAT added. My understanding is that the children applying for senior school are still part of the 2010s baby boom so this is also likely to have an impact.

@CruCru you are right that the most sought-after schools are unlikely to be affected. And I too wonder what all this means for second-tier schools in London that traditionally serve as a “back-up” for many families. The increase of Employers’ National Insurance contributions in the new budget will also put extra pressure. Not a direct analogy, but universities’ reliance on student fee income (particularly when competing for overseas students) has widen the gap between the top 5-10 universities and the rest of the sector.

Same here

Has anyone enquired if schools are already seeing a difference in the number of applications due the changes imposed in VAT/Business Relief and Employers NI ?

I haven’t - but I suspect that the increase in NI will mean fees increase by a bit more than inflation over the next year or so. It may depend on how many part timers they have who are now caught by the changes.

I had similar queries too. When I did the school visits in SW London, I asked. They said it was still around the same number of applications but they can’t tell until the registrations have closed. Usually, they have rush in the last few days. Will be interesting to know.

Anecdotally my friend said children have been removed from her child’s private school in West London. Not sure about applications.

The latymer upper website crashed the last weekend of registration because it was so swamped with applicants.

I also booked three school tours for spring 2025, and one was already fully booked (secondary school).

The tours always seem really booked up far in advance. Presumably they only put on the tours that don’t interfere too much with the running of the school (so demand for them far outstrips supply).

I think the two Francis Holland schools give advance booking for tours to children who are registered for the school.

Good luck to all the children currently sitting ISEB! I hope it goes well.

Aha, our email came out yesterday and my daughter is also sitting the exam on the 20th.

I’ve started putting the dates for the interviews in our calendar - looks like the start of January is going to be very busy.