SW London Grammar and private senior school entry 2027

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Starting a new thread as couldn't find one yet for entry September 2027 . It was super useful when my eldest went through it to share experiences and ask questions.

How is everyone prep going so far? Atom and a mix of books? Do you have your list of schools? i have been more relaxed this time around with my youngest. Have booked the open days though!

We’ve been a bit more relaxed second time around too with our twins. Mainly doing shorter consistent sessions rather than loads of tutoring this early on.
We started with books/papers but the kids engaged much better once we added online practice because they actually liked getting instant explanations and seeing weak topics flagged automatically. We looked at Atom but found it quite expensive with two children, so ended up using a cheaper alternative alongside one tutor session a week instead.
Open days booked here too - still undecided between grammar + indie route at the moment.
Happy to share some of the resources we’ve found useful if helpful.

I’d love to join. First time round for me although we’re at a prep school so trusting their process and not doing additional work on top of what is set.

We have a shortlist from visits last year but need to take DS.

we had to go down the atom route as prep school have been setting home work on ATOM. I’m not a big fan of it though and feel sometimes questions are repeated after a while. It doesn’t cover all the questions types sometimes faced in maths papers etc and not very helpful if you are only writing paper exams. I know there is an option to print the papers but they are mostly multiple choices questions. We did use it for my first DC as the schools applying for used QUEST. My current DC will only be applying to paper based schools( not multiple choice) so not sure how helpful it will be. It is super expensive!

@LivelyTigerWhich other resources have you used please?

Which schools are you all thinking applying to? Co Ed or single sex?

Hey, my eldest went through 11+ prep last year. He’s also at a prep school.
I wonder if you are from London? Because I found a lot of people still have tutors with prep schools.
We did and it actually helped our child immensely.
In his year group, every child was privately tutored for over a year. The parents never spoke to each other about it but the head of 11+ told me.

Funny think is the school openly says they don’t expect parents to tutor privately as they do all the prep needed. They did help a lot but my son’s scores rocketed with a private tutor and atom.

We live in SW London and I feel like there is so much competition here.

My youngest is in reception. I will be tutoring her as she is in a state school. We will be aiming for grammar school for her.

Doesn't really help your issue with the exam being written, but we use www.ace11plus.org as it is basically the same thing as Atom for 1/3 of the price. Other than that just standard bond/cgp books, but the main benefit has been buying mock test books and doing ace11plus mock tests regularly, scores have shot right up!

Totally agree with this @Nushi21. In prep schools everyone seems to tutor more than one year ahead and are very secretive about it. When my first DC was doing 11 plus the school said there was no need for tutors but everyone did as London indies are so competitive.
with my second the school has actually said please
make sure the tutor uses same methods as school so they are not at more open with it and knows everyone does although no one talks about it.

@LivelyTigerthank you this is super helpful! Will look into it

Hi LivelyTiger. I am interested in a cheaper version of atom. I used atom for my eldest and it was expensive. I tried emailing them but my email has bounced.
The website it rather simple. I wonder why my email bounced. I was only enquiring about what age they recommend to start their course as the website is very basic.

Strange, i just tried and it seemed to work for me? I think general guidance is to start from year 4 or 5, the website tests your knowledge first then gradually builds up difficulty over time depending on when your exam is (similar to atom)

I do agree that lots of tutoring still takes place, and I think we would if I thought he needed it, but he’s doing well, and CAT scores are good (133 average) so I just don’t want to add extra pressure. I may get someone to sit with him a bit over summer/next term to run though papers and what he gets wrong, but TBH throughout the autumn term they do three mock papers per week at school plus have some set for home, which I think is plenty.

Am I being naive though?

I do not think you are being naive, though I can understand why you are questioning yourself as I did when our DD went through 11+ (SW London, peak year given birth rates in 2012, pre-VAT).

We were at a prep, DD with very solid scores and we did not tutor - relied on the prep and just ensured that we were supportive and she practised any aspects that needed more work on (eg for us it was timing issues, so we got some 10 minutes workbooks to practice pace) but the prep practice and homework was the key driver. She got into all the schools we applied for and now she is happy at WHS where she is thriving without any tutoring either. Similarly for most of her prep friends - no tutoring involved in the 11+ and plenty of offers from the likes of LU, KGS, PHS or Emanuel.

If you are at a prep that indeed preps well (and it sounds like yours is), your DS has solid scores and you are realistic in your targets, tutoring is not needed. Of course, if you are aiming for very ambitious targets you might want to tutor but the question is whether that would lead to needing tutoring whilst at the school. By way of example, our prep head was clear that if we wanted to apply to SPGS then she would advise tutoring - we decided not to pursue.

Good luck with everything.

I use ace 11 plus too, has saved us so much money and the weekly overviews for parents are great! Even managed to get a free month with my referral link lol! Surprised to see it mentioned here

Yes its great, i managed to get 3 months free lol! (https://ace11plus.org/signup?ref=SSJAG3CVS - my link in case anyone wants half price!)

Joining this thread as we're SW London too, aiming for 2027 entry! Also second time for us so slightly more relaxed this time around (slightly!)

Totally agree with the Atom frustration - we used it first time and found it expensive, and the question repetition does grate after a while. This time we're doing a mix of Bond books, CGP and some shorter online practice sessions.

One thing I'd add that no one has mentioned yet - vocabulary is really worth doing as a separate focus, especially for schools that set their own English papers. Its easy to put all the time into maths and VR and forget that comprehension marks can hinge on individual word knowledge.

We've been using an app called 11+ Vocab Master - dd does it in short bursts and actually enjoys it, which is the main thing! Covers 2500 words across all the categories you'd expect. Its about £12.99 a year and has a free trial. Not affiliated, just found it a useful addition alongside the CGP books. Good luck everyone!

When we used Atom a few years ago, we found it really inconsistent - the same questions cropping up repeatedly, and scores all over the place. It's been discussed on here a lot that Atom find ways to increase your insecurity as parents and keep you paying. We only did it for a short while and gave up, as we felt there were more useful resources.

We found CGP and S&S books much better than Bond. Exam Papers Plus are good resources but very expensive - if you can team up with another parent (or two) and split the cost, it's less painful. (That's what we did - the files are password protected but you just print them off for each other, or share the passwords). Pretest Plus is good for specific online tests like the London Consortium but again very expensive, so we used them sparingly - just one of each relevant test (that we couldn't get elsewhere) for familiarisation.

There's a really good website with lots of past papers from various schools - no answer sheets, so you have to mark them yourself, but useful for practice questions and timing:

www.11plusguide.com/11-plus-papers-books/free-11-plus-papers/free-sample-11-plus-independent-school-papers/

And closer to the exams, make sure they're really familiar with the past papers for each school they're sitting (available on the school's website).

Outside of that, I'd say make sure they're reading a lot - not just because it's good for their vocab and story understanding or general knowledge, but just because it's good for them, full stop.

As regards tutoring, I would be amazed if there were any prep schools in SW London without a single child being tutored in Y5/6. Even if parents aren't talking about it (and they rarely do), it'll be happening. Which isn't to say that every child needs to be tutored - they don't. But it is widespread. And not just for those aiming for top tier schools, in my experience.

Good luck!

Have you seen Reed’s is going co-ed from 2027 and merging with FeltonFleet and Ripley court preps. The secondaries are doing everything to give families a seamless co-ed route from prep to 6th form.