Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Eleven Plus (11+) in Warwickshire

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jujuflops
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:03 am

Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by jujuflops »

Hi, we are starting the 11+ process for our DD, and as we live in North Worcetershire, we are looking at both Camp Hill Girls and Alcester Grammar. There seems to be a notion that Camp Hill is harder to get into than Alcester - does anyone else out there have experience of trying for both of these schools, and what did you find? At the moment I think we prefer Alcester, but is it worth putting her through 2 exams with Camp Hill as the second choice, if she is less likely to pass KE than Alcester? Would love to hear from anyone who can enlighten us!
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by mike1880 »

Pass marks are roughly similar for both (you need to be in about the top 25% in the exam in both cases - out of c.3600-4000 in B'ham and 800-900 in S.Warks). I imagine that translates into roughly equally difficulty getting a place, but hardly anyone has ever posted scores for both tests (one person I think?) so that's purely a guess.

In any case, 11+ exams are not precise scientific instruments, there can be quite a lot of variation in scores from one test to another. It's certainly worth taking two tests if both schools are serious options.

Mike
jujuflops
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:03 am

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by jujuflops »

Thanks for that Mike, I read your posts on the similar topic on the Birmingham section too :? . As you say, we could do with more people who have taken both exams posting their experiences/scores!
Mr Benn
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:26 pm
Location: Redditch, Worcs

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by Mr Benn »

Mike , did you mean that 800 to 900 people sit the AGS exam ?
If so , only 90 places are up for grabs. So that means 10% get in doesnt it ?

When do you get to know your scores from the exam ? is it not until the school offers go out in March ?
magwich2
Posts: 866
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by magwich2 »

In warwickshire you do not get any results from the 11+ exam until offer day in march.
I have had several conversations with the local authority about this as it clearly contravenes tha school admissions code.
They reluctantly agree that if a fuss were to be made maybe even involving a complaint to the Schools Adjudicator, they would probably have to act and release the scores before the preference form had to be submitted. It is clear that they are not going to play fair until people complain so it is up to those affected this year!
Sherbetlemon
Posts: 57
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:31 am

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by Sherbetlemon »

Mr Benn wrote:Mike , did you mean that 800 to 900 people sit the AGS exam ?
If so , only 90 places are up for grabs. So that means 10% get in doesnt it ?
The figure is for the S. Warks 11+ - therefore includes the Stratford grammars. There are 240 places available in total.
Mr Benn
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:26 pm
Location: Redditch, Worcs

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by Mr Benn »

I cant see what advantage it is to them to withold the scores , but it could be really useful for the parents. :evil:
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by mike1880 »

Depends where you are - it would probably work quite well for Warks parents to be given scores, there's very little geographic overlap between schools. In B'ham it would be the stuff of nightmares.

Mike
Rose petal
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 9:37 am

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by Rose petal »

If your DC does well it would be useful to know the scores, so you can put the grammars on your form in the secure knowledge of getting a place. If your DC does badly you know not to bother wasting the choices on the CAF with grammar schools you won't have scored enough to get into - unless you want to appeal later of course. This though is not such an issue in areas where you are allowed to name 6 or 7 schools on the CAF.

As there is no pass mark as such in Warks but the mark for each school is set according to the scores of the children who wish to go to the school, you won't know what the cut off point is until all the CAFs have been submitted. Therefore if your child has scored around the cut off mark from previous years I don't see that knowing the actual score of your DC has helped in any way - you still don't know if they have a place or not until 1st March and will still be putting the grammars on your CAF and hoping.

All that said it would be nice to know scores earlier in the process for piece of mind if nothing else.

Rose Petal
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Alcester vs Camp Hill Girls

Post by mike1880 »

Basically, you can tell from the S.Warks scores that almost everyone who is qualified for either AGS or a Stratford school goes there and that there is very little overlap in applications between the two areas. So given that the number of places is known, if you knew your child's score (which tells you where they are in the cohort taking the exam even if the LA doesn't tell you their ranking) you'd be able to work out your chances reasonably accurately - unless either you were very close to the borderline or there was a substantial change in the numbers taking the test. (And if they told you scores, ranking and numbers taking the test as they do in March then you'd have a very clear picture indeed.)

I assume B'ham's 6 CAF choices is partly to compensate for our ignorance of GS score. Knowing our scores wouldn't necessarily help because, unlike S. Warks, the qualifying score is determined more by parental preferences than by overall numbers. For B'ham parents I think it's therefore perhaps more advantageous to live in ignorance with 6 CAF choices than to have the score but fewer choices.

Mike
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