Anybody chosen Skinners from Langton/Rusthall area ?

strobeme · Post by **strobeme** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:17 pm

Many Thanks KentSussexBorder

SSM, Johndoe, No problem. Just realised that Johndoe was probably replying to hamster's comment (not mine) anyway .

I was just a bit concerned that this thread was starting to go a bit "off-topic"

johndoe · Post by **johndoe** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:14 pm

kentsussexborder wrote:If scores are standardised and there are roughly the same number of passes as last year, then won't there be roughly the same number of children achieving 420 as in previous years? So isn't the possibility of cut off points for super-selectives suddenly rising 10 points unlikely?

I did say local 420s. As he cannot be named and others have pointed out its all about the distribution of the scores. There does seem to be a clear drift of high scores westwards as the amount of tutoring in West Kent increases in respond to the pressure on local grammar places for boys caused by Judd and Skinners admitting boys from out of the area.

Personally I hope that Judd and Skinners get to requiring a 420 from all entrants sooner rather than later. At that point, because admission will be by distance, the schools will, again, become local grammar schools.

doodles · Post by **doodles** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:02 pm

johndoe, that would be ok for all of you that live in the Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells but not great for those of us in Sevenoaks etc as we don't have a local grammar school!

kentsussexborder · Post by **kentsussexborder** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:06 pm

JohnDoe, could you answer a couple of questions for me:

Who is '******?' This reference crops up now and then and I have no idea who or what this person is.

What do you define as local? Is it within 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles? Within any of those distances then children from Sevenoaks will be excluded from TWells grammar schools.

Do county boundaries come into it? With Tunbridge Wells so close to the border between Kent and Sussex, do children who live on the 'wrong' side of the county line get excluded? Take, for example, Groombridge which is divided by the county boundary, do you take children from one side of Groombridge and not the other? Tunbridge Wells schools are closer to Groombridge than the nearest Sussex comprehensive, regardless of whether you live in Kent or Sussex.

How do you know that there are more local 420s this year than previously? Can you point me in the direction of some statistics?

And finally, surely if 420 becomes the required cutoff for Skinners and Judd, they then become (even more so than at present) the domain of middle class parents who can afford to pay either for intensive tutoring or to send their children to prep schools which prepare for 11+.

SSM · Post by **SSM** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:48 pm

'******' is a gentleman that has his own website giving information on the 11+ in Kent. The website is very informative but as the gentleman offers his services for a charge the administrator of this site have deemed it as a money making site and so cannot be 'advertised' on here.

If you google ******* I think it might be the first one listed.

SSM · Post by **SSM** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:51 pm

johndoe wrote: Personally I hope that Judd and Skinners get to requiring a 420 from all entrants sooner rather than later. At that point, because admission will be by distance, the schools will, again, become local grammar schools.

Admission will only be by distance for the boys achieving 420 which is something like the top 2% what about all the other boys?

kentsussexborder · Post by **kentsussexborder** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:11 pm

SSM - thanks, I think I have worked out who by doing a bit of googling.

And Strobeme, my apologies as this thread has now deviated away from your original intent.

BTW can anyone provide evidence that there are more 420s in the Tunbridge Wells/Tonbridge area than previous years? Any information that I've managed to dig up has only shown county-wide and ooc pass/fail stats, but perhaps there is someone 'in the know'?

From my own sampling of children from 3 schools close by there were 3 420s, 1 415, a number of low 400s and then a surprising number of 'non-selectives'. There is no significant change in the 420 scores and probably less than usual for children between 405 and 420.

johndoe · Post by **johndoe** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:36 pm

kentsussexborder wrote:And finally, surely if 420 becomes the required cutoff for Skinners and Judd, they then become (even more so than at present) the domain of middle class parents who can afford to pay either for intensive tutoring or to send their children to prep schools which prepare for 11+.

They already are. As others have pointed out, that's the problem with the first past the post system. It favours families able to invest thousands of pounds to gain those few incremental marks that pushes the child over the threshold. On demographics Judd and Skinners have intakes indistinguishable from public schools.

mystery · Post by **mystery** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:32 pm

Why is it always Judd and Skinners that people complain about on this website, and not TOGS which is the superselective grammar school for girls in Tonbridge?

kentsussexborder · Post by **kentsussexborder** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:45 pm

But JohnDoe, on that reasoning why do you want 420s scores for the supers? We certainly don't fit the socio-economic profile you describe and haven't invested thousands of pounds in tutoring or sending our child to a prep school. So hopefully, if the cutoff isn't 420 this year there will be at least one child from outside this 'public school' demographic.

And mystery, no idea why people don't complain about TOGs and their selection policies.