Fort Pitt Appeals

[jdwarwick]

Hello mm, p and rhb!

I can answer some of the questions because some of this was covered in the appeal.
1. There are enough places for all who passed the test
2. It isn't a first choice system anymore - if you put a school first but don't meet their criteria (eg distance or score) they go to your second on the list and see if you meet that school's criteria and so on. Equal preference they call it.

I was told of some who got RGS but wanted FP and vice versa. (not at the hearing btw...just playground gossip!)

I am sure someone thought it a good idea, personally I think it makes life even more confusing.

jd

[tiredmum]

I don't think I'll ever understand how the system works. A couple of girls I know put RGS as their first choice and FP as their second. They were allocated FP but there seems to be people on here who had it as their first choice and didn't get it. Confused .......

IF a child put RGS first and fort pitt second, and were offered fort pit then its because the child did not meet the cut off score for RGS (this year it was 534) but lived withing 4 miles of fort pitt (last child offered FP apparently lived 4 miles away - bar siblings)

I know a child who put fort pitt first and RGS second, they were offered RGS as they lived 6 miles away from FP but got a high score.

So different criteria for each school - LEA will look at first school on form and see if you meet their criteria, if you do not then it is passed to next school on list - and so on

[tiredmum]

Hopefully if those girls are appealing at Rochester Grammar they will be successful and free up places for FP.

Just to confirm though, every Medway child who passed the Medway test has been offered a GS place?

RGS appeals were over a month ago

like jd said there are enough places but not every child has been offered a place of their choice- to date. my friends daughter wants FP only - the other grammars are not easy to get to - she appealed last week - and so at present time has a secondary school offer

[jdwarwick]

Am so glad you wrote that tm - had begun to doubt myself (after I had posted of course, isn't that always the way?)

[tiredmum]

jd, im just pleased medway coming out of hibernation lol

[jdwarwick]

It's the heat that does it

[Gman]

Prior to leaving Medway I was looking at FP and RGS for daughter. Was told that Medway has enough places across all GS, but they scale up or down so that they only admit 25% of all children in Medway.

I believe the criteria for this is 25% of all registered children in Medway of that school agre. This means the numbers have fallen as the child population has fallen in Medway.

The admitted numbers do not scale up if they take children outside the area, it means a medway child loses a place.

[rubyhettybetty]

Ah, sorry, didn't know the RGS appeals had already been heard.
My angst is DD1 *should* pass with a score where she will be accepted into RGS...but she would like Fort Pitt FP *is* OUR nearest grammar - it makes me so mad that 'townies' really have their pick as far as distance is concerned No doubt DD1 would thrive at RGS and it's a better option than HoH of course, but the following year I have her sibling doing the same and she really would NOT cut it at RGS *she* is probably borderline, but her best friend will be going to Fort Pitt (bright, and has sibling link). Since we live 7 miles away we basically can eliminate FP from our choices

Leaving us with Chatham Grammar School for Girls....

Or RGS for DD1 and Gads Hill for DD2

[tiredmum]

Since we live 7 miles away we basically can eliminate FP from our choices

Leaving us with Chatham Grammar School for Girls....

Or RGS for DD1 and Gads Hill for DD2

This is why i think that FP will be silly not to open an extra class this year because people like you - with 2 kids - may not even put it on their choices next year or could change the order of your choices - FP could lose some good kids at this rate!

[sherry_d]

Sorry to budge in but is FP based on distance from school and RGS based on score?

How about Chatham Girls?

FP seem to be in a much more central and within walking distance of Pentagon? Can girls walk to Chatham girls from Pentagon?