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.

We’ve done 4 schools, 4 interviews…

I think it's a personal and stressful process for most (children and adults) and we should all be mindful that what works for one family, might not for another. Some might choose to enter just one school and others far more...it is for them to decide what is best for their family- in my opinion.

5 for us including Tiffin girls, we could have done 4.

So 5 in total including one from 10+ last year and 3 Indie this year, 1 grammar. Feel like ALOT.

Just two here, and through to interview/final round of co-curricular scholarships for both. Roll on Friday.

We only did Emanuel for 10+. If we don't get in this year we'll go for 4 probably next year for 11+. @11plus2nd you said 5 including the 10+ from last year, does that mean you deferred the place?

Definitely, there wasn’t any intent in asking just interest especially as I’ve continued to question whether one more would have given us more certainty (rationally probably wouldn’t have but as a first timer there is always that niggle).

I know some who only applied for one, as that was the school for them and they were confident (and also had been through the process twice before so much more relaxed). 5 felt too few when it was suggested to us, and we were going to do 8 but glad we didn’t in the end and trusted the school as personally our DC just would have flagged at the end of the process.

The process is so stressful, so can understand why some people applied for a lot as a better chance but I recognise that people may have applied for a lot because genuinely the felt all were good fits and/or their DC were more than happy to do the exams and/or because they were open to moving so had a geographical spread and/or whatever other reason they may have had.

Our school recommends at least 6 on average. On the basis that you include a couple of stretch schools (because you never know, on a good day your child may be able to get in), a couple of safety schools (both to have a place at the end of the process and because it is good interview practice) and a couple of "should get in but no assurances" places.

I know of children who applied to 4 and got into all of them and some that applied to 4 and got in nowhere and that can be really stressful. So really depends on your child (the right school fit and how your child will do in actual exams sometimes is hard to tell without prior experience).

For us it was a case of feeling there are only two schools that would be a better fit for DD than the state options available to her. Her siblings are at different private schools which are great for them but wouldn’t have been good value for DC3 if that makes sense!

Any thoughts on how much schools over offer by? I am curious for Latymer and Emanuel.

Would be super interesting to know theories by how much they over offer by. Hoping by a lot to increase Ds chances of good news on Friday. Wonder if they have already made decisions or still deciding. Wish I could be a fly on the call in the admission office.

Good luck all! The wait isn’t pleasant at all!
then once it’s all over, if successful… austerity for the next 7 years for us 😂…. And further pressure in March if we get 1st choice state…😬

Over offering - Emanuel said they do 2-3 times over. Some schools will do more and some far less e.g. spgs I imagine most accept and so probably only over offer by about 10 places or so.

Good luck all, I remember this week was awful last year......

We only did state grammars and it seems a long time ago now! And even that was a killer as we did 4 lots plus 2 lots of 2 rounds and some music aptitude tests. DC has a friend who did very similar plus private schools on top (I think 3 with multiple rounds) - they are exhausted! We still need to wait until March and reading this we now jealous that most of you get some news this week. Hopefully mostly positive!

I wonder about further fee rises too… to reflect the other budget changes eg NI employer increases. This wouldn’t be provided on offer day but I suppose communicated just before summer term start?

DS applied 5 with 5 exams. One got offer last week and the rest on 14th. Good luck everyone!

I’ve seen it suggested that schools over-offer by 1.5x to 2x but I’m not sure that this came from any authoritative source.

It must vary quite a bit school by school, and this year schools will face much greater uncertainty over acceptance rates. So they may make more offers than previously and/or make more use of waiting lists.

On another thread it said St Albans School indicated they would make 150-180 offers for 72 places this year. I think some use it as a backup for Habs and the top tier London schools, but generally I reckon applicants to SAS will have applied to fewer than the 5 or 6 schools that seems common in London.

Hard to know whether those two factors mean their acceptance rate (and therefore their offer rate) is higher or lower than the London schools.

I think it depends on the school. A few years ago, City Girls offered 100 places when they only had 70 and, once they had had 70 acceptances, the remaining offers exploded (from memory, only a day or two after the offers were sent out). People were very unhappy about it.

Some schools will offer 2X the number of places.

Unscientifically I suspect the school we have an offer for offered 2 to 1.

this is based on the fact all the girls who applied from our prep got places and typically half of the girls, sometimes a little less will accept them.

But that is completely finger in the wind…. It is seen as a back up school as well and they are aware of this (despite now getting ‘good’ academic results).

admissions is a mystery!

Yup, I remember not too long after we accepted the offer, we got an email about the fee rises for dd two years ago.

Ah yes, some schools also post offers and acceptances on their website. That might shed some light or give an idea.

Over offers numbers, this would be a mystery. Due to number of siblings applying and if they get a space the overall numbers may change since it would be considered quite a firm acceptance from families. Some schools have sibling policy, some have sibling discounts, scholarships from some schools are 15% to 30% discount whilst other are approx £100, bursaries numbers. There is no way a fix figure of 2x or 3x or 20 spaces since the overall application pool is not known outside admission office.

Can I ask a question whilst we wait… if you get multiple offers, what will be your top criteria for choosing a school?

• DC preference
• academic results
• music / sports / drama provision etx
• scholarship eg discount on fees
• commute
• anything else

Language options.
GCSEs options, how is it selected and choice. Number of GCSEs to take.
Art/ Music/DT/Drama.
Sports the amount and the different types. For some, pool, rowing, tennis, etc.Football vs rugby. Fixtures and teams.
Coed vs single sex for some.
Trips options and they open to all or allocation method.