Girls London consortium schools - how does it all work?
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Middlesexmum
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Girls London consortium schools - how does it all work?
So we've seen loads of schools and our favourite for dd is St Helen's which is in Group 1 of the consortium. We also quite like St Albans High School for Girls which is in the same group.
Does it affect your chances at a particular school if you apply for others in the group? I know they all share information with each other but could a situation arise where St Helen's say no but St Albans offer her a place which is not what we really want...?
Does it affect your chances at a particular school if you apply for others in the group? I know they all share information with each other but could a situation arise where St Helen's say no but St Albans offer her a place which is not what we really want...?
Re: Girls London consortium schools - how does it all work?
Hello
Having just gone through the process that has not been my experience. My daughter sat for schools in both consortium 1 and 2. We applied for 2/3 schools in each consortium and got offers/waitlisted for most. The schools where she sits will mark the paper and then release the results to the rest of the group within about a week - some of the schools only interview if the girls have done well enough but not all of them do that. They all however have their own pass marks which can vary widely within each group. They do say it doesn't matter where you sit the exam either but it makes more sense to sit at your favourite. However nobody I know felt they were penalised by other members of the group for sitting at a certain school.
I hope this helps!
Having just gone through the process that has not been my experience. My daughter sat for schools in both consortium 1 and 2. We applied for 2/3 schools in each consortium and got offers/waitlisted for most. The schools where she sits will mark the paper and then release the results to the rest of the group within about a week - some of the schools only interview if the girls have done well enough but not all of them do that. They all however have their own pass marks which can vary widely within each group. They do say it doesn't matter where you sit the exam either but it makes more sense to sit at your favourite. However nobody I know felt they were penalised by other members of the group for sitting at a certain school.
I hope this helps!
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Daogroupie
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Re: Girls London consortium schools - how does it all work?
The consortium exists merely to prevent the exam clashes that would result if it did not. There is one core exam of English and Maths and schools add other papers if they feel they need more data to work with. They do not consult with each other as to which girls they select for interviews and/or offers. If you choose to sit at St Helens and then get through for interview at St Albans you will be required to do their Verbal Reasoning paper at interview because you will have missed it on exam day. So if you are interested in both and St Helens only does the English and Maths I would advise you to sit at St Albans so when you get an interview you can concentrate on that and not have to be doing the VR. Are you sitting any state school exams? Both my dd's sat St Albans after having done DAO, HBS and the Watford Consortium and found the VR very straightforward at St Albans compared to the VR's they had done back in November. DG
