Changes?

[JamesDean]

I am interested to know if children can sit the same CEM test out of Gloucestershire (e.g Warwickshire or Birmingham) and share still with Gloucestershire grammar schools? Are our county schools used as a fall-back in case a place isn't offered in the child's home county?

Not at the moment, JC, no. There would need to be an agreement put in place between the authorities / Foundation. The Warks / B'ham agreement is only 2 years old.

JD

[yellowdawg]

Are SHS and Marling really so much easier to get into than the Slough grammars? Or do they have so much more cachet than Slough?

The original article gives the breakdown of actual pupil numbers coming from some of these areas.

Only 2 pupils out of a total school cohort of 939 pupils travel from Slough to SHS. None of the other GS have any pupils from Slough. I'm guessing these two may even be from the same family and have personal circumstances which dictate that travel - a family job move etc
So, to some extent, the above question is redundant.

Swindon postcodes provide the biggest proportion of out of county pupils - 298 out of 382 OOC pupils.
To some extent I do understand that - Swindon's schools and their results have had really negative publicity in the last few days (I work in Swindon education but live in Gloucestershire) and there are a quite a few large villages with SN postcodes on the Glos/Wilts borders where you have to go quite far on a bus to get secondary schooling anyway. So they come to Marling and SHS mainly as their nearest GS. But equally I can see how some living in Gloucester itself may get irritated.

[Stressed?Moi?]

Must admit that per se it doesn't bother me where kids come from as I know that we are very lucky to have so many and other counties don't have that choice. If grammar is the right environment for a child then I can see why people are willing to make sacrifices. I do however worry about the lives of the kids that are being shipped around the country. Having said that my dd leaves home at 7:20 to get to Ribston which horrifies my friend whose daughter goes to the local comp an leaves at 8:10, so it's horses for courses I guess.

[wileycoyote]

I've just been alerted to this by a friend:
https://gloucestershire-consult.objecti ... admissions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems that not all the schools have agreed to "consult" and a lot of this is pretty much decided on anyway, for instance Crypt admitting girls.
I wanted people to be aware so that anyone who (like me) has not been informed by their children's primary school can become involved.

[Stressed?Moi?]

I've just been alerted to this by a friend:
https://gloucestershire-consult.objecti ... admissions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems that not all the schools have agreed to "consult" and a lot of this is pretty much decided on anyway, for instance Crypt admitting girls.
I wanted people to be aware so that anyone who (like me) has not been informed by their children's primary school can become involved.

I wonder whether it's worth posting this as a separate thread, so that people can become involved if they wish?

[wileycoyote]

Good plan.

[steppemum]

Just to explain why some people travel from eg Swindon.

I have one at Marling and one at SHS. We live in Swindon. The secondary schools here are really not great. From our primary school kids travelled to schools the other side of Swindon, Wotton Bassett, Farmors (Fairford), Poulton (near Cricklade), Wroughton (on the edge of Swindon), Highworth, (as well as schools within Swindon itself).
From us, the buses to get to those schools leave between 7:30 and 7:55 am. My kids catch a train at 7:50, so leave home at 7:30.
So to get all the way to Stroud, they leave home at the same time as they would to travel to any of the schools worth going to in the Swindon area.

In fact, ds has friends who catch school buses into Marling, and very few of them leave later than he does.

Distances are so missleading, the actual travel time is more relevant.
It wasn't an easy decision to send them OOC. I have huge sympathy with Glos residents wanting to keep Glos schools for Glos kids. The problem, as always, isn't the grammar schools. The problem is the none grammars, and the standard of education they offer. Great if you live near Farmors, or Deerpark. Not so great if you live where we do. Moving isn't always an option.