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Options for residents of Milton Keynes

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:23 pm
by Guest
I live in Milton Keynes and have just been investigating whether my son (currently in Year 5) might be admitted to a grammar school. It seems that the only possibility is the Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School in Aylesbury, for which all qualified applicants were offered a place in 2006, though I have no idea at the moment whether there would be suitable transport to this school.

I know several people in Milton Keynes whose children go to the Royal Latin School in Buckingham, I know that school buses run between this school and Milton Keynes, and I seem to remember reading that 400 children from Milton Keynes attend this school, so I am now wondering why it seems from the information available that nearly all children from Milton Keynes have no chance of being admitted to the school. (The out-area admission distance is about 10-11 miles.) Have the admission rules changed?

I would be very grateful for any information about the options for children in Milton Keynes.

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:45 pm
by Etienne
Dear Guest

The admission rules changed in the last year or two. The final criterion for grammar schools used to be the 11+ score. This has been changed to distance from the school. Out-of-area children who do not live close to a Bucks grammar school are likely to be disadvantaged.

There are certainly children who travel in to Aylesbury from Milton Keynes, although transport is not as convenient as for the RLS.

If your son were to sit and pass the 11+, you could consider appealing for your preferred school. You would need quite a good case, as you are unlikely to be the only appellant. An appeal panel is free to consider anything, so a very high score might possibly still be an argument!

MK transport

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:50 pm
by Marylou
Etienne,

Transport between RLS and MK is indeed convenient at present, but presumably the large fleet of buses currently operating will dwindle over the next few years now that the rules have changed to admit oversubscribed applications on the basis of distance rather than test score. The buses are only supplied to meet demand based on the previous admission criteria and have to be paid for by the parents. I think only a small area of MK would be covered if the out-area admission distance remains at around 10-11 miles, however I would expect this to vary depending on the number of qualified applicants in a particular year.

Best regards
Marylou

Thanks

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:32 pm
by Guest
Many thanks, Etienne, for your quick reply, which was really helpful in clarifying the situation for me.

Re: Options for residents of Milton Keynes

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:17 pm
by Guest_from_MK
I don't know if this helps at all but my daughter passed her 11+ two years ago just when the rules changed and she failed to get a place at Royal Latin as we lived a few hundred yards outside the 'distance zone' they had calculated. We decided not to appeal and I heard rumours that they extended their zone slightly after the appeals (perhaps they didn't get the numbers they required?) so she may have got in after all if we had appealed but that's life I guess.

At the time I wasa bit angry as I felt that those in MK (we live in West MK i.e. one of the closest estates to RL) had minimum/no chances of getting a place at RL and this should have been made clearer at the open evening (I've even seen recent ads by RL in the local MK paper this year!!) and I felt as if I had let my daughter down for putting her through the stress of the 11+ unnecessarily. (Since then they have started putting down the actual figures of number of places against number of applicants etc. which is helpful.)

However on the bright side and two years down the line I can look back and see that the time I spent with her helping with the 11+ had a positive impact on her Y6 Sats (she got 5's in all subjects) and also in her first year at the local high school where she is doing extremely well and has been identified as G&T. In fact so much so that I plan to enter her younger brother in two years time even if he has no chance of getting a grammar school place.

P.S. I also know of two other girls in MK who passed their 11+ last year and failed to get into Aylesbury Girls school because of over subscription.

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Re: Options for residents of Milton Keynes

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:45 pm
by Guest1
Hello,

As I'm hoping to enter my son for the 11+ next year and we live in Milton Keynes, I'm interested in finding out how many MK children (i.e. not in Bucks LEA) have been offered places and at which grammar schools so if your son/daughter has been successful could you please let me know? Thanks.