Kes birmingham

[mike1880]

Quite right, the last CHB newsletter was clearly written through gritted teeth with considerable suppressed irritation! It will do their league table standings no good at all. That year group's results were very good at GCSE, interestingly.

Mike

[hermanmunster]

Decades ago, Solihull was a bit different. Boys only for a start ! They also had a prep where kids went from 6 or 7 - plenty of lads in my class took the test and if they failed took it again next year until all who wanted to go had gone. Then at 11 plus there were 36 free places awarded on LEA 11 plus exam score.
Lots more went as fee payers.
Always seemed a nice place - can imagine it is quite popular now, as is St martin's

[poppit]

Average MidYIS score for Solihull is equivalent to top 8%; it's a little less selective than the grammars or KES but not by very much - if you reckon CHB probably averages something like top 5% judging by other indicators. Not all that much like a comprehensive.

Could you explain what the MidYIS score is please? How much does it vary across the grammars and indies in Birmingham? Should it inform my order of preferance for my DS?

Thanks
poppit

[mike1880]

MidYIS = Middle Years Information System, one of a series of tests from the University of Durham CEM to assess progress at various stages:

The MidYIS Tests are primarily designed to be taken when your pupils enter secondary school. Tests are...available for Year 7, 8/S1 or 9/S2. There is also an optional follow-up Additional Test to be taken in Year 8...The tests are designed to measure, as far as possible, ability and aptitude for learning rather than achievement...The tests are comprised of Vocabulary, Maths, Non-verbal and Skills sections. The Additional Test provides extra Writing Speed and Listening Comprehension sections. All sections contribute to an overall measure of ability that strongly predicts subsequent achievement. Test results can be used to identify pupils’ strengths and weaknesses, inform teaching and learning, identify gifted pupils and help identify pupils with special educational needs.

(from CEM website)

The score is standardised around 100 average/15 standard deviations so is similar in character to an 11+ score (100 = average ability, 110 = top 25%, 120 = top 10% etc.).

I wouldn't use it to inform my preferences - as far as I can tell it's mostly been adopted by independent schools (the most likely place to find a score quoted is in the inspection report for an independent school) so it won't help you with grammars. I haven't actively looked for it and I don't know whether you'd be able to find it for enough schools to be useful.

What it really tells you is how selective a school is, and in slightly more helpful terms than a grammar pass mark because the MidYIS average score of 100 represents a truly average child, not the average from the self-selecting minority who took a given test. Solihull's score means their average pupil is in the top 8% of ability nationally, which is (to my mind) potentially a tiny bit more useful in terms of assessing the chances of your own child being offered a place (there are plenty of caveats around that statement of course).

Mike

[poppit]

Wow! Thanks mike1880 for taking the time to put together such a detailed reponse, before I posted the question I tried doing some Google research but couldn't "get my head round it" properly.

But as I read your Solihull example the penny finally dropped for me

Thanks again
poppit