SW London Grammar and private senior school entry 2026

[firsttrax]

Setting up this thread for those of us with DC joining year 7 SW London schools in 2026.

We’re planning to apply to KCS, Hampton, Epsom and Reed’s.

Have been living in Dubai for three years, returning in August for year 6 at DS’ old prep school.

DS has an online tutor focussing on exam technique and any gaps in the curriculum, plus Atom. Current school is great but definitely not preparing him for 11+!

@Seasaltlady we are using Atom Quest tests for the consortium prep and our tutor advised to use GL practice papers for ISEB prep. I like the adaptive nature of the Atom tests which helps replicate the exam day but I have no idea about the difficulty levels. My daughter scores highly in maths but less so in English and VR so we just plan to practice/master that before the test in December

How was Tiffins stage 1 for everyone today? (without giving details)

Oh that’s good to know about GL papers, I’ll have a look into them. There are also ISEB test papers in the test section on Atom, we’ve tried a couple of those and they seem to be very similar to the Quest ones - just longer papers. Sadly we are not yet scoring particularly high in anything yet - but hoping that with a bit more practice we’ll improve. She does very well on written papers that the school test with but is only taking online tests for the schools we are sitting for so I feel we need to change tact now

Good luck, there’s still time and it’s probably the online exam technique she needs to master now if she’s doing well on paper

The girls one was hard to finish.

Hi
Just found this thread. I have a son applying for 2026- we have just done Tiffins and Wandsworth Test and he is doing Emanuel, Alleyns, Whitgift, Trinity and Kingston Grammar

Tiffin Girls results have emailed

We must be near each other. Our son has done the Wandsworth test & is doing Alleyns, Emanuel & Kingston Grammar (far from us). Graveney & Alleyns are our two favourites but ambitious. What's your preference?

Yes we must be very near. Our preference is Emanuel but also really liked Alleyns and Graveney. To be honest I think our son would be happy at any of the schools- it’s just such a drawn out process isn’t it?

It's ridiculous. And I think extra hard on the kids doing both private & state selective. At least we get the Wandsworth results next week

We are applying to Ibstock place, Putney High, Emanuel and Latymer Upper for my DD. Starting to worry we don’t have a good back up/easier option. Has anyone considered Harrodian?

Oh and applied to G&L as well!

We are aiming for the same schools as you bar Latymer! Need to decide between Thomas’s and Harrodian for our ‘easier’ option. Also keen on other’s thoughts on these :)

We applied to all these schools before. And Harrodian is not a reliable back up. Although many put Harrodian on as a back up....you never know if you are getting in. For example my ds got into Latymer upper and got a WL at Harrodian (about a week later he ended up getting an offer). But as Harrodian offers came out first from all the schools, it made us very nervous getting that WL. A friends son got a no from Harrodian and he got yes to Emanuel.... I do think it is a good idea to apply just in case. But it is hard to know if you will get an offer or not. You have a nice range of schools.

I would say, Thomas's is probably more of a sure thing over Harrodian.

Thank you - I also hadn’t realised they only have 40 spots for 11+ entry until recently. Interesting that their offers came out a week before the others, this is very helpful to know in advance as I don’t think my nerves would cope!

Yea, it seems the schools tend to follow the same schedule every year for offers. But sometimes it randomly changes 😅Also, keep in mind that it can take hours to receive an email after others receive them. It does not mean anything negative if you have not received. Last year some worried that they had sent the yes out first so you were a no if you did not get an email when others were. But this was not the case.

I am interested in hearing feedback on Thomas's for a year 7 entry please? how many places do they offer? do they take any state school children? thanks

My DD is at Harrodian. I don't think it's a reliable back up either as it's hard to predict who they will make offers to, plenty of kids we know had offers from Hampton, Emanuel, Ibstock etc.. but not Harrodian. We'll put Thomas's as our 'back up' this time and maybe Radnor.

DD is applying to JAGS and SCHS. Her older sister is at JAGS (I found these threads a real support when she applied 5 years ago - it was a covid application year and it was a nightmare with last minute changes all over the place depending on restrictions).

We've already had her interview, creative writing and group exercise at JAGS as we applied pretty early and think we must have been in one of the first ones held. It wasn't a disaster is about as much as I can tell from DD!

We've also been doing Atom and her scores aren't great at all, so I think JAGS will be a stretch to get into. We did a fairly last minute application and look round Streatham & Clapham which DD absolutely loved (she liked it more than JAGS) and I think might suit her more than JAGS anyway. We'll carry on with the JAGS application anyway, and see what happens and make a decision later if she gets into both.

Anyone using exam paper plus maths ‘independent school’ packs to prepare for latymer upper and Emanuel tests? Would you say these are very difficult? Thank you!

We used exam paper plus for math and some of it was very difficult. It felt quite overwhelming as there were SO many difficult math questions it felt impossible to prep for them all. You never knew what would come up on the actual exams. My ds said the Latymer Upper exam was the most difficult exam he took out of all for the math. Emanuel he said was okay. He felt very confident for Emanuel, but Latymer he was not sure how he did (he ended up doing well on both). He did a mix to prep (past papers for Latymer/Emanuel, exam paper plus, Atom and past papers from other schools we found online).

Forgot to mention, he thought Latymer was more difficult than Kings, but he did not make it to interview for Kings. I suspect he made some silly mistakes. Sometimes it can be luck of the day for the exam. Best thing is to do a variety of targeted prep. Do not rely only one source of prep.