London grammar and private senior school entry 2025 part 2

[CruCru]

Here is the new thread for when part 1 is full.

You can only guess, unforttunately. It is much easier if your child is at a prep school. You will be guided as to which are your aspirational schools and which are realistic, and can compare with other classmates.

But then be realistic, it doesn't hurt if you guess if he or she is in top 25% and turns out he or she is in top 10%, that is you guess wrongly or he or she is a late bloomer. It is particularly relevant if your aspirational is among top 10, full of super tiger mums who fed the kids with GCSE materials in Year 7 and 8.

It is probably too late for the 2025 admissions batch, as I would be asking too much for you to drop your offer from an aspirational school even if you are worried he or she might be below average, or after getting an offer in a waitlist position. But genuine advice for those 2026 onwards 11+ mums.

This indeed affects kids differently. For some, especially extroverts who excel in sports (particularly team sports, say team A), the impact will be less, as he or she will still have good esteem in school, even if he or she is way below average in academics. But when I look at them, I always think they will do even better if they can be in a school where their academics are average or better.

In my case, the 1st and 2nd choice schools at the time was about 20-30 places apart. I don't think there will be any noticeable difference in teaching quality or if he or she will be dragged up in a more academic school, at least that's how I feel. Rather there is always a sense of being “ignored" unless, as I say above, you are good at something the school cares about even more, say an A team member in the most important team sport. If the gap is 50 places, then I can't be sure. There might be some differences.

Sorry if I offended anyone! Been working so just caught up.
Academic scholarships to bright state school kids do happen, just not mentioned as much on MN.

Irrespectively, all of us prep/state/from abroad have invested in supporting our DCs on 11+ so well done to us parents and best of luck in decisions.

What league tables are posters referring to?

FWIW best to go with where you think DC will be happiest, based on what DC is like, what you & partner are/were like. On an offer visit see if you feel DC might gel with likely cohort. Speak with teachers and if the school streams, does the teacher in each stream seem just as good as each other. See if texts/work on display are what you might expect for that year. If you can find out these things.

They are all good schools if they are on a league table and you can always move after GCSEs or before if it isn't right.

We are really struggling with our decision :(

Our DS has done better than we were expecting, partly because we put him through the 11+ process with lots of grammar schools before putting him forward for independents. Independent school wasn't the original plan for secondary / senior school and he might still get an offer from a grammar school (which, at this point, we are likely to decline). He was ready for the exams by the time they came around. He's a bright and confident boy, slightly less strong in sport and music for the time being. He was at state school until year 5, they started to let us down and he has thrived in his independent primary school in year 6. They didn't prep him for 11+, we did all of that at home.

We now have "full fee" offers from Alleyn's and Trinity (with an honorary academic scholarship). We also have a 25% fee reduction and academic scholarship offer from St Dunstan's. We are basically equal distance from each school. We feel like he would be normal level at Alleyn's and a top performer at St Dunstan's, for context.

We are price sensitive to some extent but at a hard push we could manage any. So we are thinking about value for money vs. sending him to the more academic school.

What would you do in these circumstances (in our shoes, not necessarily in your shoes, if you are very wealthy :) )? Do all you could to send him to Alleyn's (for example) or get the value out of St. Dunstan's?

Also, I've heard that schools are not allowed to change their offers (offer a fee reduction, for example) after the initial offer has been made. Is that true?

We are in an extremely fortunate position because he has performed so well and he is also happy, so overall, I realise this is a good situation to be in.

@SamPoodle123 congrats to your DS on the offers. My DS is also very sporty and we always felt that the school grounds at LU are very limited, the allocated slots in the very small playgrounds are not comparable to those schools with grounds on site. The lack of sport facilities free to be use in breaks made it a less preferred school for us. Emanuel is an amazing school too and they were one of the best schools, so welcoming. Not an easy decision but I am sure your DS would be happy in either!

@GridGal my state school child received 2 academic scholarships, he attended the same tutor as many kids from prep...Private school doesn't mean better preparation.

Where did your DS end up going? Or are you still deciding? I have not toured LU, so I think this will help when I go ont he offer tour and event. I have toured Emanuel when we did 11+ for dd and thought it looked great. Dulwich is another one we are looking at, which again has amazing grounds....but its a bit further out so that is making me think less likely to take it....but still decided. My dh has not looked at any so he will come and hopefully we will know.

We are in a similar situation but distance wise, we’re likely to decline alleyns as it’s too far for us.

how did you find st dunstans? We weren’t impressed at the open day but then really liked what we heard during the academic scholarship day.

I really like St Dunstan's. I'm like you, I was much more impressed on scholarship day than the main testing day. They were really on top of things, lots of volunteer kids (current scholars) and they were a pleasure to talk to. I like the school head and the senior school head.

Catford isn't quite as nice as Dulwich but I've heard that Catford isn't too much to worry about either (I don't know Catford well, but I'm personally not a big fan of Lewisham town and hope they are very different).

The school itself seems great. Very good scholarship programme, keen and passionate teachers, results that are improving significantly. Big plans for the school grounds. A top 100 school. With a scholarship, the value they are offering seems excellent. The only slight drawback is the range of the abilities of the kids will (I assume) be broader. I do think the quality is high though.

But, then there is reputation and pure academics, and I think Alleyn's wins on that criteria. The question we have is, is that worth the ~60% extra cost plus the cost of all the school trips, which we are not really used to yet.

You’ve got a difficult decision to make!

The tours will make it clear, we are in a similar situation, we will decide between KCS and Hampton next week

We were in a similar situation a couple years ago and now two sons both very happy at Dulwich College. It’s very down to earth and love how many opportunities they have there. Not at all just for rugby boys as I’d once feared! Also, results this year amazing- 24 have had Oxbridge offers. I know that’s not everything but have been very impressed overall with pastoral care and academics.

My DS is in state primary and has just had 4 offers and 3 scholarships from excellent schools. One thing I will say is that his school were zero help and a lot of the prep was down to us. Luckily he is a hard worker but it definitely seems like we had a harder journey. Chatting to friends who did the journey from prep or moved in year 4 to a prep - seemed to have had an easier time of what is a brutal process for any 10/11 year old anyway. The school advising on which schools to go for and doing practice tests at school and writing scholarship letters all definitely help. Our school were not interested at helping which I totally understand. There were only a handful of parents doing it so it's definitely lonelier than if everyone around you is doing it but saying that- he got his top 3 so it is doable!

I know 2 children who received academic scholarships this year coming from state schools. Both are good kids but naturally bright and totally deserving.

The majority of kids I know with academic scholarships were state primary pupils.

Private schools are fully aware of the advantages prep school brings re secondary applications (and in other areas) and weight things accordingly. My son’s school knew exactly how much extra maths teaching he would have missed out on by being in state, for
example. Their intake is always roughly 50/ 50

My DC is also state school and received 2 academic scholarships. They had to work very hard though, and had weekly tutoring since end of year 4.

How is everyone’s decision making going? Anyone committed yet? People waiting for offer holder days?

we have now had all offers in… pretty certain of our choice but doing holder days for two of the choices just to make 100% sure we are happy.

Hope everyone’s decision making is going well. Just wondering if WL are likely to move next week or is it realistically after state offer day? We are hoping for a place at Surbiton High from WL but not sure how likely this will be.

I think waitlists are more likely to move after the state offer day but can move prior to. It depends how fast people make decisions. If I remember correctly in the past people said WLs were moving for some schools before the state offer day....you can try looking in the past threads to see this.

it will depend on where the school is… is Surbiton likely to have applicants who are waiting for Grammar school acceptances? If so I would say yes then WL is likely to move a bit after national offer day. Otherwise they may move after next week when offer holder days are held

@SELondonFamily1 Catford is definitely a different feel to Lewisham town centre. I mean I’m not sure there is anywhere in London that is free of petty theft and antisocial behaviour, but Catford feels far more polite and calm compared to the busy shouty nature of Lewisham TC in my experience. Not had any problems there in late evenings after events at the Broadway or anything. Worst bit of Catford is that road system there between the town hall, theatre, and that giant pub. I see so many near misses with pedestrians there so would be drilling into DC how dangerous that interchange can be. As long as they don’t run out on a red thinking they can get across, it’s fine of course!

We are choosing between two other SE options (Colfe’s and Eltham College) and are hoping everyone who says the visits will make it clear will turn out to be right. Everything on paper is quite level pegging right now. Scholarships to a state school kid here too, and I’m sure at least one other in DC’s y6 class has as well. Clever and hardworking kids come from all backgrounds.

i must say I am not too keen on Catford, but the upside is that the school is so near the train station and buses. It will make a big difference when the kids are older.

what are your thoughts on Eltham college v Colfe’s? We have offers for both (plus st dunstans) so also waiting for the offer holder days

The same ;)