North London Consortium Group 1

[Daogroupie]

So all done. How did you find it this time around? Has a favourite emerged yet? DG

[BarnetDad]

A very different thing this time around. There is a bit of a dark horse emerging in the shape of Channing! On the state school front, we're preferring the prospect of DAO to HBS, but I suspect it's unlikely that we'll get offered. But assuming we get offers from everyone, the current betting (no guide to feelings in March!) is....
1 - DAO
2 = Channing
2 = St Albans
4 - Habs
5 - NLCS
6 - HBS

[Daogroupie]

Gosh, HBS all the way down there at 6th?

[Mark Thyme]

That's interesting BarnetDad. When we were doing this before, we found it very hard to choose between HBS and SPGS.

What was it about HBS that makes you put it so far down the list?

[Middlesexmum]

Have just heard dd has been called for an interview at St Helen's, hooray!

Good luck to everyone waiting to hear.

[Daogroupie]

An interview for your first choice. How fantastic is that! Well done to your dd, I am really pleased for you all after all the letdown over Habs. Do you know anyone who can give you some idea of the format? When is it? DG

[Middlesexmum]

Daogroupie - about the online VR. Dd said it was in sections, on some sections you could go back but on the Maths bit for example, you had to answer the question within 10 sec otherwise the screen moved on to the next question. She said it was hard!

[BarnetDad]

Firstly, DD1 is at HBS and is doing well there and enjoying it, so this is not an absolute judgement on HBS!

However, DD2 is a bit lazier and slightly less academically inclined. She's also an August birthday and needs a bit more nurturing. Having said that, she's pretty intelligent in a philosophical way. One of the things you'll find is that she makes silly mistakes on easy maths questions, but somehow plucks correct answers to tricky ones out of thin air!

We have found HBS not to be very nurturing. Many of the teachers play the "treat them mean to keep them keen" game, which simply wouldn't work with DD2 (as, indeed it doesn't with a load of DD1's classmates - well, at least not yet, one supposes that it must yield rewards at some stage for HBS to get the results they do). Also most of the pupils are very competitive with each other (something I suspect would also be shared with NLCS).

By the way, one thing that DG mentions (maybe in a different thread?) is that students in Yr8 at DAO vary between SAT Levels 5 and 7. I don't know what these levels mean, but I understand that good Yr8's at HBS are expected to be capable of touching Level 8. I suspect this is unreasonable!

PS - A very quick Google suggests that Level 8 is only supposed to exist for Maths - and it was in Geography that this exhortation was issued...

[Mark Thyme]

Thanks BarnetDad.

That's interesting about HBS. We had it as a choice but plumped for SPGS, which I'm glad about. Although the teachers are demanding, and the girls all work hard and try to do their best, it's much less cut-throat than I'd expected.

The pastoral side of things is very good and reinforcing self-discipline is big, but the central approach to learning is by making the girls enthusiastic about the subject. The teaching ranges from good to excellent on average tilting towards the latter and there seems to be nice camaraderie between the girls even though they tend towards quirkiness.

I might be misinterpreting, but it's not because my daughter is winning all the prizes. She's broadly average, in the top half in some things, bottom half in others and in the middle in most. But she likes her classmates and seems to have a really good time in lessons and is stretched in everything she does, but not to breaking point.

If there's a negative, it's the I'm a Paulina sense of superiority going there seems to breed, which I find grates (having been educated in not particularly shining comprehensive state schools). But the school is right to be proud of its girls and the girls of the school.

[BarnetDad]

It's a tricky one, that. Sometimes a sense of confidence (positive) can turn into a sense of arrogance (negative) and the distance between the two is smaller than some would like to admit!