LSST/The Priory apptitude test

Eleven Plus (11+) in Lincolnshire (Lincs)

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lotus
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:03 pm

LSST/The Priory apptitude test

Post by lotus »

My daughter wants to apply for LSST/The Priory in Lincoln and i am looking for information about their apptitude test.

Also can anyone tell me whether this school for gifted and talented children only. She is bright, inquisitive, hard working and is likely to achieve 5's in her YR6 Sats , but she doesn't strike me as a child prodigy.

I don't want her to go to this school if the work load is too intense. On the other hand i don't want to ladden her with my feelings of not being good enough!

Advice welcome.
yoyo123
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Location: East Kent

Post by yoyo123 »

http://www.prioryacademies.co.uk/priory ... 009-10.pdf

this is the link for the prospectus.

any use?
Alex
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Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

She is bright, inquisitive, hard working and is likely to achieve 5's in her YR6 Sats
She sounds exactly the sort of child they like to encourage to apply!

It is a very high achieving academy and it's intake does have a higher average prior attainment than most comprehensive schools. It actively promotes itself as being an academic school which serves academic children well and it deters those who don't quite fit its desired profile by saying it does not do so well with children who will not enjoy a fast pace and an intellectual challenge nor a very strict discipline and uniform code.

My personal feeling is that Year 7 can be a bit intense as they shape the kids into the "priory mould"! There is a fair amount of homework and minor misdemeanours like forgetting a book result in instant detentions etc. It all tends to ease off a bit once you get into the next year and I think it is true to say that the vast majority of children enjoy school and thrive there.

But over 260 children join each year and, of course, they are not all prodigies!

Large numbers take the aptitude test. Many children also take tests near the end of Year 5 to get places on the Master Classes which they run. Although this will have no impact on whether you get a place in the normal allocations, it undoubtedly helps to have attended master classes and possibly also to have attempted the aptitude test if you have to appeal for a place. Generally at least another "classful" of children get in on appeal and as the admissions policy is unusual and it is sometimes rather hard to work out the likelihood of any individual child getting a place, the appeal route can be important.
lotus
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Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:03 pm

Post by lotus »

Thanks Alex (I have only just noticed your post) for taking the time to reply. Your comments are reassuring- as a mum i only want to do the right thing!

My daughter is even keener on the priory than when i posted.

Do you know anything about the Apptitude tests or the exam for the Master Class, what the style of questioning is? I guess they are not like to SATS. Thanks again for your help.
Alex
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Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

For the Masterclasses they generally set two different exams for the Saturday classes - one for the arts based streams and one for the more science and maths based streams. They have an evening presentation about the masterclasses where you are invited to apply for whichever stream(s) your child is interested in. So you could take either just the one or both exams depending on what your child wishes to do. The exams themselves I don't think ask anything vastly different from what they will have covered at school, though perhaps they are looking for some ability to "think" rather than just regurgitate. Whatever, they don't expect any preparation for them. There is another exam if you want to do the extension maths which used to run on a Tuesday pm - I am told this was a bit like the School Maths Challenge format. I may be a bit out of date - you should get notices from your primary school about the masterclasses if you are in one of the feeder primaries - if not ring the Academy and ask.
The aptitude test again cannot really be prepared for. As it is for technology some of the questions have that sort of bias (only one I can remember being told about was something like imagining you were living some years in the future and could make 4 adaptations to your bike using new technological inventions, what would they be). Others sounded more like straightforward logic type questions.

Hope this helps a bit.
nalm
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:30 pm

Re: LSST/The Priory apptitude test

Post by nalm »

I think it is also worth adding that the Masterclass program and Aptitude test make no difference to a child being admitted to The Priory LSST unless they are one of the children who successful obtain one of the 25 places based on aptitude . . . and as around 300+ children sit this exam each year, it's unlikely. You can find out if your child passed the exam if you contact the school a few weeks afterwards. A pass obviously doesn't equal a place though.

Many parents seem to think the school cherry picks and they can't. Places are based on geographic location to the school and you compete with children within your own primary school for a place. The local authority write the rule book, not the school.

For instance, my daughters primary school had four places allocated for LSST. All the children who got places were closer and either hadn't sat either the Masterclass exams or Aptitude test or had failed one or both of the exams. The only two children who successfully got onto the Masterclass program DID NOT get places as they were geographically further away than their school friends.

What I will say is the Masterclass gives you a very strong case at appeal and both children who failed to get a place on general admission were both accepted at appeal. When LSST are already educating your child and both parent and child have given up Saturday mornings to attend classes, it is very difficult for an appeals board to turn a child down. It also helps if you know if your child passed the aptitude test even if they didn't get one of the 25 places.

My daughter left primary with grade 5's. It worth knowing that SAT's results are irrelevant as they don't sit the exams until May when the place have already been offered in March. The Primary school also has no communication with the Secondary school as to how strong the children are academically until applications are offered and accepted.

Hopefully this helps many parents who believe differently or are led to believe differently as I was. Unfortunately the geographic software used for measuring distance from door to door isn't great either. My stepson got in over a child who was closer than he was however if you use software 'as the crow flies' and freely available on the internet it actually showed he was closer by 0.03 of a mile so he luckily got a place. It seems to measure the central area of the postcodes. You have to ask if the local authority is really going to go through all 300+ applications looking at each children exact distance from door to door though just for one school though.

Good luck. My son starts September 2011 as he will automatically get a place based on the siblings policy thankfully! Siblings get places over children who are located closer to the school.

Whilst this post isn't strictly relevant to 11+ in the main part, it will reassure many parents that if their child is bright enough to get onto the Masterclass program, they are very likely to get a place at appeal even if they miss the general admission. Passing the aptitude test will reassure you that your child is capable of working to the standard LSST would like.
Alex
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Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: LSST/The Priory apptitude test

Post by Alex »

Welcome nalm,
I think it is also worth adding that the Masterclass program and Aptitude test make no difference to a child being admitted to The Priory LSST unless they are one of the children who successful obtain one of the 25 places based on aptitude . .
Yes, indeed, this was what I hoped to convey when i wrote:
Large numbers take the aptitude test. Many children also take tests near the end of Year 5 to get places on the Master Classes which they run. Although this will have no impact on whether you get a place in the normal allocations, it undoubtedly helps to have attended master classes and possibly also to have attempted the aptitude test if you have to appeal for a place.
The local authority write the rule book, not the school.
As an Academy it sets its own admissions policy in agreement with the DofE (DCSF as was) and it must be lawful. It and the LA must follow that policy and its oversubscription criteraia when allocating places.

What I will say is the Masterclass gives you a very strong case at appeal and both children who failed to get a place on general admission were both accepted at appeal. When LSST are already educating your child and both parent and child have given up Saturday mornings to attend classes, it is very difficult for an appeals board to turn a child down. It also helps if you know if your child passed the aptitude test even if they didn't get one of the 25 places.
Anecdotally this seems to be true. It is not unknown for a child who has attended the Masterclasses to fail to get in on appeal, but it is highly unusual.
It worth knowing that SAT's results are irrelevant as they don't sit the exams until May when the place have already been offered in March. The Primary school also has no communication with the Secondary school as to how strong the children are academically until applications are offered and accepted.
SATS predicitions should also be irrelevant at appeal as the Academy is an all-ability school and appeals panels should not take into account academic ability ( or attendance or whether the child does do their homework on time or not). Nevertheless many parents present evidence of academic ability and good behaviour at appeal and, anecdotally, it appears that clever, well-behaved, regular attenders get through more often than those without such a glowing profile....
Unfortunately the geographic software used for measuring distance from door to door isn't great either. My stepson got in over a child who was closer than he was however if you use software 'as the crow flies' and freely available on the internet it actually showed he was closer by 0.03 of a mile so he luckily got a place. It seems to measure the central area of the postcodes. You have to ask if the local authority is really going to go through all 300+ applications looking at each children exact distance from door to door though just for one school though.
There will inevitably be slight variations between various electronic mapping systems. It is not possible to measure the distances for 3 different schools for each of nearly 8000 children other than electronically so it is generally agreed to accept the measurements given by the system chosen - for the LA this is Microsoft Mappoint. The admissions policy for the Academy does not I think specify the system but it is quite possibly the same. The measurement does not use postcodes but a post office mapping point for the individual property.
he will automatically get a place based on the siblings policy thankfully! Siblings get places over children who are located closer to the school.
Sibling priority does come before distance. It is important to know, however, that having a sibling in the Academy will not guarantee a place. In some schools in some years the number of siblings is greater than the number of places allocated to the primary school. When this happens those siblings living closest to the school as the crow flies will get priority for places.

Thank you for trying to debunk some of the rumours which fly around admission to this Academy. You are quite right that many appear to believe that the Academy is able to select its pupils for normal admission when in fact it must follow its own non-selective admissions policy.
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