Entrance Criteria for Spalding GS & Bourne Grammar

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SJ

Entrance Criteria for Spalding GS & Bourne Grammar

Post by SJ »

Can anyone clarify the entrance criteria for the above? Seem to have got a little confused with what I thought it was v what other peoples perception is.
Guest

Re: Entrance Criteria for Spalding GS & Bourne Grammar

Post by Guest »

SJ wrote:Can anyone clarify the entrance criteria for the above? Seem to have got a little confused with what I thought it was v what other peoples perception is.
According to LCC documentation, Spalding GS allocate 120 places and these go to in-catchment pupils. If more than 120 qualify (usual Lincs 220 standardised score), places allocated by score. If all places not filled from catchment area, out-of catchment pupils will be offered places in score order.

Pupils achieving the required score but not allocated a place will be held on reserve list.

It also suggests that Bourne GS follows normal county admission policy and has no special procedures.

Hope this is of some use.
Guest

Re: Entrance Criteria for Spalding GS & Bourne Grammar

Post by Guest »

Anonymous wrote:
SJ wrote:Can anyone clarify the entrance criteria for the above? Seem to have got a little confused with what I thought it was v what other peoples perception is.
According to LCC documentation, Spalding GS allocate 120 places and these go to in-catchment pupils. If more than 120 qualify (usual Lincs 220 standardised score), places allocated by score. If all places not filled from catchment area, out-of catchment pupils will be offered places in score order.

Pupils achieving the required score but not allocated a place will be held on reserve list.

It also suggests that Bourne GS follows normal county admission policy and has no special procedures.

Hope this is of some use.
Bourne GS has a new head who has come from an independent sechool and who ,on open evening , made it known that he would be prepared to take students from far and wide to get "the right students" into the school.I am a Bourne parent and feel that this makes a mockery of the school's pr blurb that it is a community school.

SG
Guest

Re: Entrance Criteria for Spalding GS & Bourne Grammar

Post by Guest »

Anonymous wrote:
SJ wrote:Can anyone clarify the entrance criteria for the above? Seem to have got a little confused with what I thought it was v what other peoples perception is.
According to LCC documentation, Spalding GS allocate 120 places and these go to in-catchment pupils. If more than 120 qualify (usual Lincs 220 standardised score), places allocated by score. If all places not filled from catchment area, out-of catchment pupils will be offered places in score order.

Pupils achieving the required score but not allocated a place will be held on reserve list.

It also suggests that Bourne GS follows normal county admission policy and has no special procedures.

Hope this is of some use.
SG's post has touched a nerve. I am aware that staff in this school are openly voicing concerns about the direction in which the schoool is going.

David S.
Guest

Post by Guest »

A school must follow its own admission policy and in the case of a Controlled school this is the County Council's admission policy:- not much scope at the moment for favouring higher scoring candidates from further afield.

Does the head have plans to apply for Foundation status? Don't know the grounds on which a school can do this.

Sara
Guest

Post by Guest »

Anonymous wrote:A school must follow its own admission policy and in the case of a Controlled school this is the County Council's admission policy:- not much scope at the moment for favouring higher scoring candidates from further afield.

Does the head have plans to apply for Foundation status? Don't know the grounds on which a school can do this.

Sara
Absolutely - I can't see there being massive deviation from published admission policy as this surely would open the appeals floodgates, wouldn't it?
Guest

Post by Guest »

Can't see there being ANY deviation at all. Would be a tremendous "blot on their copybook" if they were to do this.

Sara
Guest

Post by Guest »

Anonymous wrote:Can't see there being ANY deviation at all. Would be a tremendous "blot on their copybook" if they were to do this.

Sara
The head has openly stated that the new system will favour inately brighter candidates because in his opinion you cannot coach for nvr . He wants to disbar the children who have been coached , most of whom he argues are borderlines. That way he populates the school with inately more intelligent kids without increasing the pass mark and thus"blotting the copybook".

I know this to be true but can't reveal my id- I'd lose my job!
Guest

Post by Guest »

The new system of testing is, of course, a different issue from the admissions policy.

I have a feeling that the new head's assumptions may not be borne out by experience - time will tell!

The underlying assumptions are that:

1. There is a pool of bright kids out there who are not getting through the VR tests - well, I guess there are some kids who will be helped by NVR testing and for this reason I am in favour of its introduction, however, the suggestion that these kids may be BRIGHTER than those identified by VR alone is a dubious one.
2. You can't be tutored for NVR. My experience was that practice improved scores just as it did in VR. There is an approach to doing the questions which can be learned just as the techniques for VR are learned (and a great deal quicker too in my experience).
3. The children getting through under the new system will perform better:- the measures of performance are in KS3 tests, GCSE's, and A levels. I don't actually believe that you need to be "superbright" to achieve well at these! In fact any school with the basic top 25% intake should be gettng nearly 100% pass rate A*-C at GCSE (includng English and Maths!) Good teaching, good discipline, good motivation are the key here. A level scores are a bit hard to assess - depends on what entry standards the school ask for and whether the school has the same kids or gets a further intake from schools without a 6th form.
4. High NVR score will translate into high public exam success more than high VR score - very doubtful!! In fact if NVR actually favours boys, as has been asserted, then one might expect more boys in the mixed school population and boys in general have poorer attainment than girls.

The system is designed to identify the top 25%. In a falling population the schools will probably need all of that 25% to put enough bottoms on seats in the future!

I do wish the Grammar Schools Consortium, or the County Council or someone would collate and publish all the information about the results of testing countywide - relative numbers of boys and girls taking and passing, whether there is any sex difference between scoring on VR and NVR, whether scores between the two tests are highly correlated, whether there are area differences, relative numbers of children who pass gaining a place in different areas, whether schools which admit in score order do better than schools which admit on an area basis, the social characteristics of the intake etc, etc.

Sara
Guest

Post by Guest »

Anecdotally about the coaching issue, my daughter at grammar school tells me that quite a few pupils in her class had a tutor - they include pupils who are achieving near the top of the class Having a tutor is probably more about parental anxiety, having enough money, whether or not you have the time and confidence to help your child yourself etc than whether your child is "borderline".

Sara
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