11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all

Both KEGS and RCGS have had great exam results in the past. Does anyone think that the GCSE and A-level results might now drop due to catchment area limits, ie smaller pool of talent. just wondering ....

DP

d2001 wrote:Hi all

Both KEGS and RCGS have had great exam results in the past. Does anyone think that the GCSE and A-level results might now drop due to catchment area limits, ie smaller pool of talent. just wondering ....

DP

if you mean Colchester Royal Grammar School then it does not have a catchment area.

I stand corrected regarding Colchester Royal Grammar School, but KEGS have certainly limited out of catchment candidates to a few dozen.

KEGS doesn't believe the introduction of a priority catchment would significantly affect its results. During the consultation phase, they showed charts showing where their existing students were travelling from and their argument is that the extra time commuting was tiring and inhibiting students from participating in extracurricular activities. KEGS did say the cut-off scores would go down for in catchment students, but that their experience was that there was no correlation between 11+ scores and future GCSEs or A level results.

It is even possible that with fewer students having to endure lengthy commutes, exam results could even go up. We'll just have to wait at least another four years before the first batch of students take GCSE's before we get any meaningful data..

Having analysed the data for my DS , just 2 additional marks in any paper would have given him a comfortable SS, rather than a borderline position. This could be a couple of silly mistakes on the day. This kind of thing would surely not affect the performance at 16/18 years.