11 Plus Exams Forum

My daughter has been invited to attend an interview at the City of London School for Girls. The interview will apparently last approx. 1/2 hour. Anyone out there with an experience, any tips, etc?

My daughter did the interview for City last year. She seemed to think it was fine, but it isn't just a friendly chat. Apparently they showed laminated pictures of some kind of Victorian scene which she had to talk about, and then a similar laminated picture of a 18th century pie plate, from which they were supposed to talk about fractions. Possibly also an MC Escher picture.

There was a little bit of chat along the lines of, 'what do you do at the weekend?'. Mercifully she realised that 'play on playstation' was the wrong answer, and 'go to sailing club, do my flute practise and do homework' was the right answer.

She was at a state primary, had no particular tutoring. She got offered a place, and an award in fact, but it wasn't our first choice school.

hth

Hi Guest 27

I'm interested that you said your daughter received an offer and award but you didn't take up the place. Do you mind me asking where you listed City in your consortium list? Did you sit the exam at City ie did you imply to them that they were your first choice? My daughter will be going through this process next year and I'm getting mixed messages about whether you will only get offers from the school in the consortium that was your choice of venue for the test. Thanks for any pointers!

Mags

Thanks Guest 27

My daughter is also coming from a state school with no special tutoring (in hindsight not sure that this is to her advantage - unfortunately, we were completely unprepared).

Interesting about the award - was this scholarship (not means tested)? Since you have not taken the offer, looks like your daughter is very bright and got other offers as well. Wondering about our chances...

In any case, hope it all goes well

Just realised that my previous post came under 'Guest' as I forgot to log in.

We did put City first on the consortium form, but for the simple reason that it is a shorter journey from our house for the purposes of the exam. Our second choice was Channing, at which she was also offered a place (and an award too, as it happens). So no, I don't think the order you list them makes any difference -- if they want the child, they'll offer. I think they're too pragmatic to get sniffy about being put 2nd. In fact I preferred Channing to City, as we thought it was friendlier. But the incoming head to City has a great reputation, so probably on the up. Wasn't keen on the outgoing head, myself.

My daughter was offered a place at the state grammar school that was our real first choice -- the private schools were just an insurance.

My daughter has just received a full fee-paying offer for a place at City of London for Girls. We applied to no other private schools due to the high number of bursaries offered by the school. We cannot afford to pay much of a contribution towards the fees ourselves, but have been assured that we are on a 'reserve list' in case any bursaries become available.

Has anyone had a similar experience to this? What is normally the likelihood of a bursary arising? Are there any other routes we can take outside of the school (donors, trusts, grants) that might subsidise the fees? I am a single mother and we are a low income household.

Thank you for your help.

Hi Starcat - and congratulations and well done on the City offer - you should be very proud of your daughter!

If you pm me I can tell you something about bursaries but when I pm people first it doesn't seem to work. Not sure why!

Incidentally Hopeful 4 - did you ever get either my email or the pm reply???!! and what news - fingers crossed for you anyway.

hi there Another mother,

My dd got a fee paying place at City but not nlcs, but City is really the only sensible independent choice for us in terms of travel.

I didnt get your pm or email, please try again.

Im hoping my daughter gets an offer at latymer Edmonton. I would be grateful to know peoples views on what the 'added value' from sending my dd to City versus Latymer would be ? I have never experienced the independent sector for education.

I would be interested to know what people who have personal experience of City think of it.

Many thanks

Hi Hopeful 4
Can't believe you didn't get my email - I'm going to try and resend it now - pm again anyway!

Huge congratulations on getting the City place and Very Good luck for Latymer tomorrow - and hope we manage to communicate soon.