Spgs waitlist

[Tigermumhere]

Hi,

Our dd has been placed in SPGS waitlist for 11+ does anyone know how small their waitlist are and what are the chances of everyone getting it this year. Any experience from previous year would be helpful. Thanks

I don't know, but I would imagine there isn't a huge amount of movement as anyone offered a place at SPGS is likely to take it. It think it would be most people's first choice.

Past few years, offers given in Easter break and Summer terms to families but they paid deposit and first term fees of offer schools. Others turn down WL offers since they decided to stay with offer choice.

If you haven’t already, contact them and tell them that they’re your first choice, and you will accept and pay the deposit immediately if offered.

Thank you so much , this is really helpful to know . Yes I already emailed them and told them it is our first choice and they have acknowledged that . Fingers crossed now we have to just wait and see . Thanks again x

The waitlist isn’t as long as at other schools and there is some movement - although often after the acceptance deadline. As well as you keeping in regular touch (but not over-regular so as to annoy them - a fine line!) with the registrar so you are top of mind should a space become available, if your daughter is at a prep / private school, the head should also be pushing for your DD to get off the waitlist. From that perspective, it’s worth finding if there are any others from your school in a similar position, so you know if your DD is the only one your head is pushing to the SPGS registrar. If at a state school, build the relationship with the registrar in as un-annoying a way as possible (you don’t want to be ‘that’ parent!).

Absolutely do this. I’ve known people have success taking this approach

Don’t email. Phone them and tell them you’ll make payment there and then.

Thank you @CloudPopand @Butterpecan21so much for all the helpful info I will do that and let’s see. Fingers crossed x

There will be movement - some offer holders are also waiting for grammar school results

There are definitely families with offers genuinely unsure about taking their places at SPGS — most are waiting for admitted students day to get a sense of cohort and fit.

There will also be families who have places at SPGS but need to wait to hear from grammar schools — which is early March, I believe.

Ditto the time when families need to either pay the deposit or lose the place — what movement there is I’d imagine happening there.

Someone posted on another thread that chances of a WL offer from SPGS ‘are very low and about 1 year’. Whilst I agree that it is less likely than at other schools, I know several cases where it has materialised. SPGS keeps a short waiting list vs other schools and I don’t know if it’s ranked or raked in ‘tranches’. If a space is offered, just be prepared for it to be after the acceptance deadline and anytime between now and September (by which time you may have changed your mind anyhow).

Hi I posted on another thread where the same question was being asked. I would also add to my original post that calling and saying you will pay a deposit straight away will not do anything. What you have done so far is great but please remember you probably will have to pay 2x deposits as it is unlikely you will get offered now if at all.

I have gone through this process twice for my daughters (with one at SPGS and the other at G&L) and I would just offer some supportive advice. The chance of getting in to SPGS on the waiting list is next to nothing maybe 1 offer per year. Therefore for the sake of your daughter’s confidence I wouldn’t wait. SPGS is great but the top 5 London day girls school rotate in regards to ranking. Look at this year how the table has got G&L on top so just remind yourself that the top 5 girls schools are all amazing.

Good luck to your daughter

Thank you @IsThisRealLife@Butterpecan21@Knightsbridgemummy for all the inputs. It’s really helpful. As much as we are following up on the Spgs waitlist we have also mentally prepared to take our second option and pay the deposit. If we eventually get yes I understand we will be losing one of the deposits . Fingers crossed . Thanks a lot for all your support. I will keep you all posted if we are lucky. Good to luck to all of you and your daughters xx

I don't know if there was much WL movement around offer acceptance day, but one or two girls got a place in my DD's year over the summer holidays (and as other people have said, have then just forfeited one deposit). And because there are a lot of international families at SGPS, there is movement in Y7 and Y8 too - families leave to go abroad, and girls are offered their spots from the WL then (and there is no problem with them fitting into the cohort late - they make friends in no time).
As other posters have said, it's a very small WL usually, and some parents will be waiting for Henrietta Barnett and Tiffins offers on National Offers Day in March.
What's your second choice - is it a school you're all broadly happy with?

After yesterday’s offer holder event, DD has decided she wants to stay where she is and we have given up our spot. Hopefully this opens up a spot for someone who is on WL. GLA

Really kind of you to update.

Yesterday's event solidified the thinking of the girls we know as well; their reactions were so positive, however, that I'd imagined that view more universal than was (clearly) the case. Confirmation bias is a dangerous beast.

May I ask what influenced your DD's take?

On another note, because many girls came in uniform - which they'd explicitly been told not to do on exam days - it became clear that there was at least one London prep potentially sending (give or take) twenty (!!) girls.

Did you clock that? And if so: did it have an impact on your thinking (if not that of your DD)?

@icantbelievethis001 I am also intrigued to know the the reasons why and also why she did the test in the first place (I’m assuming she already goes to a top all through selective to decide to stay put)? Is anyone from her current school moving to SPGS or got offers and decided also against this? Thanks :)

The school you refer to with the 20 girls is Bute who are probably the biggest feeder to SPGS. It is also literally down the road from SPGS. DDs current school also had a large number that were offered. In the end DD is very settled at her current school and is doing very well and although it will still be a big move for her, to move from junior to senior school, she is very much at home. Her current school have also made it really clear that she would be valued if she stayed as well as having the same opportunities that she would have if she were to go to SPGS. If it ain’t broke, leave it alone.

We applied partly to keep our options open and partly to see whether she could get it, without the need to tutor. (We did do the bond papers and atom). Some families see SPGS as the holy grail and probably think we’re mad to turn it down. But there are other schools out there as good as SPGS and in terms of last years results it is just slightly better than DD’s current school. From the open day it seemed just like any other London independent girls school. GLA

Just to reiterate what has been said on many 11+ threads over the years: one family giving up a place doesn't equate to a WL space opening up. All schools over-offer (albeit SPGS less than others) but the number of people turning down a place has to equal the number of over-offers for a school to dip into its WL.

Thanks for your reply! Congratulation for getting a spot without the tutor! She must be very clever!

I am surprised to hear that a large numbers of girls were offered a spot - Will this be like 20 girls getting spots? And maybe half might accept? (So maybe some WL girls might get in?)

Interesting to come across this post — we felt similar and have been quite conflicted. On our earlier visit, neither my daughter nor I really clicked with SPGS, but we went ahead and applied and prepared anyway, largely because it felt like the expected route for a very academic child. At the offer-holder event, she was clearly uncomfortable. She didn’t warm to the atmosphere at all, and I felt much the same, although I tried to stay positive for her sake. It may well be the single-sex setting, or perhaps we were simply unlucky in the people we spoke to, who came across as rather cold and abrupt. It feels slightly ridiculous to be turning down the offer after working so hard for it, and yet we’re genuinely wrestling with how much weight to give to whether she actually likes the school she would be attending.

I'm really sorry you had that experience yesterday.

Will PM you.

As a PP has indicated, it is true that (if yesterday's open day for offer holders was any indication...) a large (read: high double digit) number of girls from Bute House have been offered places at SPGS.

That is more/less consistent with historical norms - just as it is in line with historical norms for all offers to be accepted.

There are, of course, exceptions to that. But, as I understand it, they are vanishingly rare.

One can find many of the offers given/offers accepted tables for other primary preps on their websites.

We didn’t get that feeling when we toured the school. In fact, the girls that took us round were lovely and were quite honest about their experience, especially given they were in year 8 and thus not the polished end product that are the sixth form, who we met earlier in the process. They were very honest and it was refreshing to see that it isn’t always a bed of roses and like all schools, there are occassionally issues, that crop up but reassuringly they do say such issues are dealt with swiftly and this would explain why during the presentations by the senior staff, there was big emphasis on pastoral care. It’s what you would expect with a school that has such a bright cohort.
Interestingly, in today’s post, there was a handwritten postcard from the school to DD, expressing how they enjoyed getting to know DD during the process and especially the interview and they were hoping that she would join in the Autumn. This was very touching and it came across that they did get to know her during the process. We’re now starting to maybe have some regrets! Oh dear.