Selfish?

[Dixon]

My son will be sitting the test next year and I've been paying alot of attention to this forum recently.

I have noticed that it seems popular to tick all four boxes when choosing your DC's place even if there is no intention to ever send them there. I'm all for leaving options open however why tick a box if you are never going to consider the school?

I have read people saying they do it, 'Out of interest' however this seems to me to be a bit selfish. It's fine if your child is in the top 120 places and good for your child's morale (and yours!) but how often do you read forum users saying how awful and stressful this system is?

If more people only ticked the schools they were honestly only considering wouldn't this make life easier for the children and parents whose results have fallen outside the top 120? More children would then be in the top 120 of their chosen school making the process easier for more people.

[stressedoutmummy]

Well, it may be because you're not really sure how your child will score, especially as every school has a different scoring system. My DD's score was higher for Pate than HSFG, even though she didn't qualify. So if DD took the exam, didn't get into Pate, it would make sense to have SHS and HSFG as back-up and then RH as a forth choice. Ribston seems to give a more generous score and I do know of a few girls who will need these few points.

Ticking four boxes makes sense because it's all a guessing game until the results are in your hands.

[Dixon]

stressedoutmummy- I totally agree with what you say, you've got to keep your options open. However if a person has got no intention of sending a child to a particular school, for whatever reason why tick the box?

[capers123]

One problem is that so many primaries are just so cagey about giving out information about children's academic ability (as opposed to how hard they try, how helpful they are in class, etc) that parents don't know how able their child actually is, and need to tick all the forms as a safeguard.

The main problem of doing this is it puts a lot of children into 'the twilight zone' where they have passed but don't know which school they'll go to. Is this better or worse than when these indicative results didn't get sent out before you had to fill in the school application form, and only found how well your child had done come allocation day in March?

For most schools, if you get a reasonable pass, you'll get a place. A low pass is less likely, but still very possible.

One thing - Dd2 keeps hearing from y6's who say they're on the waiting list. She correctly points out that they're not, as there is no waiting list until after allocation day, as no-one has yet been offered a school!

[PaterGloucester]

I have noticed that it seems popular to tick all four boxes when choosing your DC's place even if there is no intention to ever send them there….
If more people only ticked the schools they were honestly only considering wouldn't this make life easier for the children and parents whose results have fallen outside the top 120? More children would then be in the top 120 of their chosen school making the process easier for more people.

The only people for whom life would be made easier would be the staff at Shire Hall.

The head at our primary strongly advises ticking all appropriate boxes: not only does it keep all your options open, it also provides the school useful feedback statistics.

[Superflygirl]

Can I just say that having been to a meeting with someone from Shire Hall that if you haven't achieved high and got in comfortably to a grammar school, that you still may not get any of the four choices even tho they strongly advise that you put the 4 - so selfish it's not unless you have managed to top 120 etc. Believe you me if I thought I'd get my first choice there wouldn't be a second, third & fourth!!!

[capers123]

... selfish it's not unless you have managed to top 120 etc. Believe you me if I thought I'd get my first choice there wouldn't be a second, third & fourth!!!

Of course, when you tick the boxes, you don't know how your child will do on the day of the test. Things can go wrong for even the brightest child. I also know of cases where the parents only ticked one box assuming the child would get it, and didn't, whereas if they'd ticked another school they might of got a place there.

[Tolstoy]

Up until 2 years ago STRS didn't give a score just a pass. For this reason some people who had no intention of going to Pates would tick the box as a high Pates score equates to a high STRS score and therefore a safe pass. Thankfully schools are now giving out more information so not everyone ticks all boxes. However in the past people have been a bit naive and only ticked for the school they wanted. even though their mark would have got them into other Grammars they have been unable to gain places in the first rounds of allocation and had to wait until the second round to apply.

[Glos_Mum]

...............

[EmeraldE]

I am not sure they do! Everyone who has trawled this site knows it. I spoke to quite a few parents, for whom this was the first time 11plus experience, and they had no idea that they needed to tick for schools other than the one they wanted. Correct me if I am wrong but people have done just that and then been shocked to discover DC did not pass and that they had to appeal to another grammar for which their child would have passed comfortably had they been included in their cohort.

However, I take the point on board, that if you have absolutely no intention ever of ever sending your DC to a given grammar, then why bother ticking it? It benefits no-one.