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Borderline candidates.........how do they choose?

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:42 pm
by Pepper2
Happy New Year everyone...............lets pray that we all get what we hope and have worked for in 2007

Not sure whether this has been asked under previous threads but, does anyone know how the Birmingham grammar schools choose between candidates that are borderline and/or have the same standardised scores? My son took the KE Foundation, Bishop Vesey and Handsworth Grammar exams in November

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:45 pm
by KenR
Hi Pepper

The answer is that for candidates with the same Standardised score they prioritorise on the basis of the straight line distance to the school from the childs home address.

In the case of the KE Foundation there is often about 12+ candidates on the waiting list with the same Standardised score just below the pass mark.

If you are in this situation, the Foundation Office will advise you where you are on the Waiting List taking distance into account.

However, you need to be aware that the Foundation Schools set the pass marks (and make offers) of more than the total places available ( to allow for parents not taking up the offer), so a position on the waiting list is not necessarily a true reflectionof how far you have to move up the list

I know the process from 1st hand experience last year as we were in this situation with one of the KE Schools.

Regards

Ken

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:37 am
by David_C
KenR, would the KE schools know by now who has passed? What is the phases to go through?

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:29 am
by jah
I expect that the Foundation knows who it is offering places to; but it doesn't know whether the KE offer will be the applicant's first preference. My understanding is that there are several iterations of the offer procedure before the 1st Mar offers are finalised.

My daughter says that everyone in her class has stopped talking about secondary schools, and they are all trying to forget about it at the moment. However, some children are likely to be doing entry exams for the various independents; which brings it all back to the surface again.

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:01 pm
by KenR
I'm afraid I don't know the precise details of the procedure. I'm sure you are correct Jah regarding this being an iterative process.

The Foundation will certainly have the exam results back from the Univ of Durham, so they will have the full standardised scores.

My understanding is that it is the Head of the respective KE Foundation Schools who make the final decision regarding the pass mark for each school.

You might get a bit of an insight into the process and statistics by looking at the Governors Reports for previous years. The following URL is the link to the KE 5-Ways Governors Report for 2005. http://www.ke5ways.bham.sch.uk/sections ... 202005.pdf

I got this from the KE5Ways web site. (I think by far the best and most informative web site of all of the KE Grammars, but I'm probably biased now as my son goes there!)

There is an interesting paragraph about admissions and LEA preferences for Sept 2004.
10. Entrance Examination
374 boys and 254 girls made Five Ways their first choice in 2004. This was slightly down
on last year, a trend noted across the city. Eventually 111 boys and 43 girls were admitted.
Five Ways was named as one of the five preferences on the Birmingham LEA form by 1662.
It is pleasing to note that the number of girl applicants (first choice) has remained constant in
a declining pupil market.
Also some interesting stats about KS3 results and GCSE/A Levels.

Best of luck

Ken

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 12:20 pm
by jah
Details of iterative procedure may be found here:-

http://www.bgfl.org/services/admissions ... 202007.doc

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:25 am
by Guest
Eventually 111 boys and 43 girls were admitted

This is from the Five Ways website. Interesting since the school is "co-ed". I am glad I haven't chosen Five Ways for my daughter, since it is clearly a boys school in disguise. Great for boys, as it is often said that girls "calm" down the masculine environment of single sex boys schools. I don't think I want my daughter used in this way.

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:55 pm
by Dibble
Anonymous wrote:Eventually 111 boys and 43 girls were admitted

This is from the Five Ways website. Interesting since the school is "co-ed". I am glad I haven't chosen Five Ways for my daughter, since it is clearly a boys school in disguise. Great for boys, as it is often said that girls "calm" down the masculine environment of single gender boys schools. I don't think I want my daughter used in this way.
LOL

There's a content filter on these forums, so I'm a bit limited, but I think I can say you're being... Well? Naughty?
Yes, that's it. Quite... quite....errmmm naughty!

I've met couple of the girls from that school - mad as a maup'ny frying pan but very bright.

Go on; Say it to them; I dare ya!
I'd stick to school premisses if I were you though - safer :-)


I do however love the idea of a "boys school in disguise", though I'm not quite sure whether this should be
boys in blue tights and sensible skirts -or-
girls in tweed jackets, cloth caps and obviously fake moustaches?

What have we got to lose?
Lets try, say, one day of each per year to raise funds for the......... inept?