SW London Grammar and private senior school entry 2025

[Wlondon14]

Hi! I know there are a few threads like this out there, but they seem to focus on grammar schools outside of London. I found this group really helpful a few years ago when my daughter was going through this process.

Where are you applying, how did you find the open days? Are you using Atom learning? What is your prep plan for the next month?

I have a son applying to - St Paul's, Kings, Latymer Upper, Emanuel, Ibstock, Hampton, Harrodian

I think there's a thread already started - but for all of London instead of just SW:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5152642-london-grammar-and-private-senior-school-entry-2025

It seems very quiet for the SW grammer/private schools on the other thread. In the past, I have found the SW grammer/private threads useful. Thanks for starting up a new one @Wlondon14

We are applying similar to you. I have not gone to all the open days. But, to the ones I have gone, I liked all the schools :) I like to keep an open mind, as you never know which schools they will get into. If we are lucky and he gets into a few, then it will be a hard choice! What were your thoughts? Any favourites @Wlondon14 ?

We are using Atom. And doing some written comprehension/math, as schools are mixed online/paper exams.

Our top picks are Latymer and Hampton but if he gets offers to St Paul’s or Kings we would definitely take it! At the moment it feels like we are doing a lot of prep, but also trying to balance it with regular sport and activities. My big concern at the moment is that his results seem very inconsistent, one day getting a 100% on a Dulwich sample paper or 92% on a latymer paper and the next day getting in the 100s on Atom learning. Anyone else feeling the same way? Any advice?

Definitely following. We are applying for Kings, Hampton, RGS, Epsom and Reeds. Also finding the different formats a struggle.

Thank you for starting a thread @Wlondon14.
We are also applying to most of the same schools, avoiding St Pauls as I cant face dragging the process into the new year. Our preference ( well, my son's preference is a boys only school), however I loved Latymer upper, it's one of my top choices. Lots of good schools, fingers crossed we get the choice.

@W4mumoftwo @followfollowthesun what will you do for prep next week? I feel like I am all over the place.

We are applying to Alleyn’s, Emanuel and state schools. DC has a confirmed place at Chestnut Grove and has hopefully scored well enough for Graveney but we shall see..!

@Wlondon14 I feel I am done with prep, we will just do some sample papers and Atom learning for VR/NVR next week. My son attends a tutor once a week so he gets a paper as homework. My main focus is for him not to get too tired as some weeks there will be 2 school tests and with grammar schools, he coped well but it got to the weekend and he was totally exhausted. We also have Tiffin in a few weeks, so it's going to be intense. I wouldn't worry about inconsistent results, I think it happens to all of them..and the scores you share are excellent!

@W4mumoftwo I wish I felt like we were done with prep! Not that I want this to go on much longer, but I feel like he needs more time to improve his written comprehension and creative writing.

Same, we are not done prep either :)

Applying for girls schools here. WHS, PHS, Emanuel, Sutton, Francis Holland, G&L. Still prepping and panicking about varied Atom scores. How is that? Really perplexed about their logarithms... Glad we have 1 traditional paper test at Emanuel and the reasoning paper at WHS.

We are also still prepping here.

We did a lot of Atom and ISEB mocks last week for the ISEB exam and are going to go back to written paper prep this week. Then, once the kids are back at school, there will only be time to do a bit of Atom in the evenings, I guess.

I don't feel we can do much more, and it might also come down to how they experience the pressure on the day.

I am not from the UK, so I am still baffled that 10 year olds are assessed to this extent and put under so much stress at a young age. But we can't beat the system!

ds did only one Atom mock after grammars and not as high either, questions that went wrong are definitely tricky not straight fwd. so scores are not priority.as long as they are motivated to practice and test and review.

I think this has been a big complaint this year on Atom about their algorithms. My dd did the 11+ a couple years ago. Atom seems to have gotten more difficult to achieve higher scores and more up and down.

Understandable, ISEB is GL and you can see types of questions to practice and it has been used by boarding schools for years. Atom and 11+ consortium is very murky and new, no feedback since families don’t know the type of questions given as it differs per child and their data is not published. Paper exams is old school but you get points and friends’ DCs doing 10+ Emanuel last year had helpful feedback where points were lost. GCSEs and A levels are still paper based even for computer science. Good luck!

@followfollowthesun @BeJollyNewt which schools are you applying to? We have taken a break from Atom and going to go back to it next week. I just found it so discouraging. Was anyone else on the 11+ Atom Learning WhatsApp group? They shut it down because of so many complaints about the service.

Issues in the past for us in Atom from our year groups: errors, freezing at points. Are the data they using in Atom going to go into actually exam points? Are parents email address and kids ties together? And how do they use it going forward? Are they separated or used in actual exams for DCs? What are the cut off points where the harder questions with higher marks are not given to some DC? Do schools where exams are taken given very different pathways to other schools? Marking schemes are not given, are the schools given overall scores or are more detailed data emailed and if so what are they? Would those taking the test over 2 days versus all in 1 day get different questions and different marks because it seems harder to do all in 1 day. The different dates of exams, would the earlier ones have the same as later ones or different points of harder questions starting. The standard reply seems to be don’t worry and you can depend on us.

We are not in London, so not practicing to the level of SPG. 1st week of Jan is our test. So past papers and atom islands is more.

@HawaiiWake are there schools that do the consortium over multiple days? I know that is an option for the iseb, but that isn’t run by atom.

Yes, they shut multiple groups. People were complaint about the scores and wondering about the accuracy.

I don't complain much about accuracy, child also can go wrong even to an easy question, then it is a chance to find the weakness and can work on that weak area. score doesn't matter as long as tracking show strong/master levels ?

@Wlondon14 we are doing RGS Guildford, Epsom and Reeds which are ISEB and Kings and Hampton which are written papers.

I think it was more to do of wondering why the SAS scores were so low compared to CATs and trusting the accuracy for this. As the scores are used to help guide what schools to apply to.

ISEB but using Atom to prep.

Didn't realise there was an Atom WhatsApp group. I find the Atom Mocks for the Consortium, each time has a very different topic content. For example, once half of the maths test was fractions, another time 25% were questions on calculating which weekday from a starting point in the calendar...another time several long division questions which took DD so long that she ran out of time...! It seems it's not balanced at all. Much prefer paper tests after this experience with Atom. Did 11+ a few years ago and it's all changed since. A good point regarding GCSE's still being paper exams actually. I can't wait to see the back of Atom. Sorry for the rant...