Review of School Admissions (Catchment Areas)

zee · Post by **zee** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:56 pm

Demon Pixie wrote:Does Foundation status allow schools to have their own selection procedure at 11+? I didn't think it did - although am happy to stand corrected.

RGS is a Foundation school and it has the same selection procedure as all the other Bucks grammars at 11+

If I remember correctly from the head's letter, DCGS intends to continue BCC administering the 11+ for their main admissions (I don't know whether they would be able to opt out of that if they wanted, but it would be a huge overhead for them to do themselves). BUT, being foundation will allow them to do their own thing for admissions to other years. I think that is the same as RGS.

Sally-Anne · Post by **Sally-Anne** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:56 pm

The foundation schools all use the standard, county-wide system for the 11+. It is only after 11+ that some of them have different entry criteria, and that is what Rob is referring to.

DCGS has decided to use curriculum based testing for all late entrants, allocating places by score. It is "super-selective", but only for a very small number of children.

I have no doubt at all that, given half a chance, the powers that be at DCGS would love to return to allocating 11+ places by score though.

The only other GS that currently does not use the standard Bucks 12+ test is, as Demon Pixie says, RGS.

Sally-Anne

zee · Post by **zee** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:59 pm

Sally-Anne wrote:I have no doubt at all that, given half a chance, the powers that be at DCGS would love to return to allocating 11+ places by score though.

Quite possibly, though I wonder how much difference it would make. Surely the majority of the intake would be the same whether distance or score was the decider. A crucial difference for those affected, but probably not for the majority.

Sally-Anne · Post by **Sally-Anne** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:46 pm

zee wrote:Quite possibly, though I wonder how much difference it would make. Surely the majority of the intake would be the same whether distance or score was the decider. A crucial difference for those affected, but probably not for the majority.

It's hard to say, but any effects from the change from score to distance is probably visible already in the GCSE results, or will be this year. I can't remember when the change happened - I think it was around 5 years ago - but doubtless someone will pop in and remind me!

Marylou · Post by **Marylou** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:54 pm

2005.

zee · Post by **zee** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:58 pm

Sally-Anne wrote: ...any effects from the change from score to distance is probably visible already in the GCSE results, or will be this year. I can't remember when the change happened - I think it was around 5 years ago - but doubtless someone will pop in and remind me!

As Marylou says, it was those who started in September 2005, so they'll be doing GCSEs June 2010.

However, it will be hard to measure the effect, because results improve every year anyway. Even if they increase by less or, horror of horrors, fall slightly, that COULD be because the exams have got harder rather than that the intake was significantly less able on average.

Sally-Anne · Post by **Sally-Anne** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:03 pm

zee wrote:that COULD be because the exams have got harder

That'll be the day! I am constantly shocked by the abysmally low standard that seems to be demanded at GCSE these days. Bu that's another discussion altogether!

I agree with you Zee - it isn't very likely that we will see a fall in standards, but we will never know if the standard might have been higher still if selection was by score.

Dad40 · Post by **Dad40** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:18 pm

Sally-Anne wrote: That'll be the day! I am constantly shocked by the abysmally low standard that seems to be demanded at GCSE these days. Bu that's another discussion altogether!

Oh go on ! Let's discuss it; it'll be such fun !

Totally agree by-the-way (no surprise there).

Rob Clark · Post by **Rob Clark** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:34 pm

Sally-Anne and zee, thank you both for clarifying my intentions

Yes, post-11+ only, of course. After that you need to be either extremely bright or very good at cricket

to get into DCGS. FWIW I agree that DCGS would change the 11+ admission criteria too, if they couldâ€¦

Re. whether the change of rules would/will have any effect on results, obviously itâ€™s impossible to do a direct comparison, but anecdotally far fewer DCs arrive on the train from Harrow et al than five years ago.

zee · Post by **zee** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:56 pm

Rob Clark wrote:Re. whether the change of rules would/will have any effect on results, obviously itâ€™s impossible to do a direct comparison, but anecdotally far fewer DCs arrive on the train from Harrow et al than five years ago.

The Harrow thing has always been a bit of an exaggeration. Even when score was the tie-breaker rather than distance, those out of catchment (e.g. in Harrow) could only get in if all those in catchment who qualified and put it first choice had been offered a place. Rare for that to occur on a significant scale; often they can't even accommodate all those who are in catchment. (Though I daresay there might have been the odd person who lied or who moved out of catchment once having a place.)