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.

Yes, congratulations!

How are people finding the wait? Time seems to have slowed down in this house!

The wait feels so long. Time is dragging on slowly! Wish the emails would be sent earlier! We find out one this Friday and the rest on the 14th. What about you?

Does anyone know if WHS and PHS send their offers before the 14th? Unlike others who clearly state the 14th in their key dates, I think these two say offers before mid February.

All 14th 😵‍💫

Good luck with the wait everyone! DC offer news on the 14th! It’s feeling super long, and think the wait is worse than interview wait!

Cannot imagine waiting for so long with nothing. Would drive me crazy. We have some each week… last Friday, this Friday, and the rest the following Friday. And even that is painful enough 😆.

Two years ago dd received an email from PHS on feb 7th.

Thank you @SamPoodle123 - was it a week before half term?

I don't remember when the half term was two years ago. I just looked up the email so found the date that way. The other emails came on the 10th.

@Lana1985 just looked at the dates and if you are going by prior to half term that would be for this year Tuesday the 11th.

Good luck with the wait. We got WL for our preferred SW girls school so now need to wait and see. Hoping schools haven’t over offered this year and that they’ll get to the waiting lists. 🤔

congrats! Which school was this for?

That is hard to get a wl to start, but it isn’t a no and the waitlists will move after half-term.

@SamPoodle123 many thanks for checking! The wait is indeed so long and painful. We have 5 to hear back from and all seem to be next week. So glad for those who have started to receive their offers! You can breath a sigh of relief!

Blackheath High. I think a few of the GDST made offers yesterday, as I know Sydenham did as well.

Such a relief to get one offer, but now onto the hoping and wait for the next lot. I think our last expected ones are around 20th so still a lot of nerves here.

@Lana1985 Two years ago PHS released the offers some days before the infamous Friday before half term, as @SamPoodle123 memtions.

WHS did it on the Friday (we got an email before lunchtime). The school had emailed beforehand (on the Friday confirming that emails were to be send on the Friday morning). The letter arrived the following day by post.

It must be so delicious to have had an offer. Still got over a week to go.

Is anyone else getting a bunch of adverts for various schools through social media? Some are surprising … really hard to get into so I shouldn’t think they need to advertise. Perhaps they are expecting to be more affected by VAT than I realise.

I’d love to tell you that it’s amazing and I’m not stressed at all but even with one in the bag am anxious for the favourite schools!

Doesn’t help that two of the favourites sent emails today, one giving an early heads up re offer holder dates (with a caveat just in case) and another who had invited scholarship interviewees to a current scholarship night to see it all in action (again with caveat re it’s only sent because we expressed interest).

re ads - I have noticed a lot! And also had a school which is non selective but usually almost full sent an email advising they are closing our enquiry (we didn’t apply in the end) but saying if we are still interested to chat to them - this is after offers are already out. So I suspect a lot are in a bit of a panic re the impact of VAT.

What I am very interested in is the fact some historically over subscribed preps still advertising potential reception places….

I know of some oversubscribed preps who expanded for pre prep and therefore have more places to fill.

@Namechangenancy99 Gosh lucky you having an offer already though (even if its not for your first choice, its great to have one in the bag and hopefully bodes well for more to come for your DC!

Do all schools have offer holder events? I've not had emails about that yet! Maybe you only get the dates if you have an offer! Spot the panic setting it! Not sure I've quite got my head around all this even at this stage! 😩

I've noticed so many ads on my feed too! Each one seems to get more elaborate! I wonder if schools are now worrying about take up re VAT - Seems like a couple have published offers earlier than expected too.

None of it helps the stress levels though 🥹

We had an offer last Friday - huge relief just to have one- it's a great school but not as competitive as some of the others by virtue of being smaller and a bit further out of London. Now we need to wait for another this Friday and then the last few are all on the 14th! Good luck with the wait everyone!! Nearly there!! I keep picturing the admissions teams sorting all the children into yes, no and waitlist piles.. but in reality they are probably all done and ready and are waiting along with us all!

I think MOST do. The one we do have sent us the date straight after the offer. I think it's very helpful to get an idea of peer group and also to be able to ask questions you can't really ask before.

I am absolutely fascinated by the Admissions process. I picture it similarly with piles of photos of the children, and for some reason the room is like a detective film with low lighting, the team crowded round a small square table, steaming mugs of coffee and exhausted expressions (stop short of a full ashtray what with the smoking laws)!

I would love to know how it works in practise, and how they really bring all the component parts together.

I imagine it’s a slightly more prosaic giant spreadsheet! With exam scores and interviews scores/comments.

Although our target school has introduced an online admissions portal where you could book open days and make your application and they send you information about arrangements on the exam day and then whether you’ve made it through to the next round. So the school probably uses the same software to score and rank the applicants and then fire out the offers.