Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM Test

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Lillie
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:34 pm

Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM Test

Post by Lillie »

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/yoursay ... side_Bucks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An important discussion is taking place elsewhere on the forum which relates to the pass rates from Bucks state primary schools with the new CEM test. A letter has been printed in the Bucks Free Press from the Labour Party raising the worrying question of whether the new test has led to a significant reduction in the number of Bucks state school children qualifying with the new test, in favour of larger numbers from independent primaries / prep schools.

Of course the results by school are not published yet but this is a discussion which people should be aware of.

Perhaps one of the moderators could provide a link to the discussion on the General Forum?

Thanks.
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by southbucks3 »

At the moment it is all a bit blurry. We cannot see how many children were not entered from the private sector for example.(some schools encourage parents to opt out, as it will have an adverse effect on their pass rate stats). I would always expect the private sector to out perform the state sector by a large amount, due to the intake of children and their parents obviously pushing them educational wise. However the further decline in state school bucks area passes is very worrying and twinned with the increase in other sectors, obviously something has gone wrong. I personally think the grammar school management teams, who after all were closely involved in developing the new test, should be held accountable for the drop in local passes and should be made to publish exactly what their true motivation for setting such high standards is, rather than us all assuming they are chasing top league table positions. After all the children are not accountable and the primary teachers have no say in the test and certainly did not suddenly lower their teaching standards in 2013.

I really want to see this year's School by school stats and compare with previous years. Our school did about the same, if not a little better this year, but they had an extremely clever year of children and an odd year of a very very small class size. I think if you look over towards Aylesbury primary schools, the outcome is a lot bleaker than ever, and it was always pretty low pass wise, but again we have not got the stats yet to back that rumour up.

I am inclined to bite my tongue until stats are published per school and then join the local rally cry and make a huge stink with anyone who is out there shouting. Let's just hope someone somewhere who can make changes, tweaks the pass level just a bit before this years results are calculated.
scary mum
Posts: 8840
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by scary mum »

I think there is a shift - partly due to the 11 plus tourism we often discuss, but this:
Wycombe Labour does not believe that children in private schools are more than twice as clever as children in state schools, or have more than twice the potential. But this is what the new Bucks 11+ exam suggests
is just silly. The private schools have always had a higher percentage passing - as SB3 says, down to the simple fact that for them it is an "opt in" (ie only enter the pupils they think have a good chance) whereas for the state schools it is opt out (ie everyone takes the test unless they make a deliberate decision not to). It is also no different to previously, for the same reasons.
scary mum
jabba7
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:26 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by jabba7 »

In our primary school this year the numbers are down considerably by around 40% which is a significant number of DC.

It seems quite a few have got in on appeal. As we know from other stats that Sally-Anne has kindly posted more children did get in on appeal this year than normal.

It would be good to understand why everyone thinks this has happened this year.
Lillie
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:34 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by Lillie »

And I wonder why have the grammar school heads formed a private company?

Is there some logical, straightforward explanation for this?
Sally-Anne
Posts: 9235
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by Sally-Anne »

I hate to let facts get in the way of a good bit of private school bashing ...

From the CEM thread:

Code: Select all

2013 entry	Cohort	Tested	Qual (121+)	   % qual 
IN	         5243	4532	1056	23.30%
PAR	        1194	1030	512	49.71%
OUT	        2690	1870	836	44.71%
TOT	        9127	7432	2404	32.35%

2014 entry     Cohort	Tested	Qual (121+)	   % qual 
IN              5349	4798	935	19.49%
PAR               807	747	366	49.00%
OUT             3235	2645	1119	42.31%
TOT             9391	8190	2420	29.55%	
As we know from previous discussions on here, the figures that the politicians and GS Heads should be focusing on are these:

OUT: 2013
Tested: 1870
Qualified: 836

44.71%

OUT: 2014
Tested 2645
Qualified: 1119

42.31%

The ones in red, the increase in educational tourists who are taking the test in multiple areas and picking the "best" result. That is where the pressure on the in-county pass rate is coming from, not from the private schools.

Back to the Partner Schools, the repeated, mistaken assertion that “all children at Partner Schools are from private schools” really does need to be laid to rest, so I have dug and delved a little further into the statistics.

These are the 7 state schools among the Partner schools, together with their PAN. All seem to admit to their PAN each year and all apart from Holy Trinity are rated "Good" by OFSTED so are presumably delivering a standard of education that at least matches the average for a Bucks primary school.

Barnfield Moorlands School 54
Bisham CE Primary School 16
Christchurch CE 30
Cookham Dean Primary School 26
Cookham Rise Primary School 30
Holy Trinity C of E Primary School 32
Langley Hall Primary Academy 104

That gives a state cohort among the Partner Schools of 292 children.

Of those 292 children the pass rate will be somewhere in the range of 20% (as for Bucks children) through to 50% (OoC opt-in children), so somewhere between 58 and 146. A fair median seems to be a figure of 100.

Therefore, out of the 366 children from Partner Schools who qualified, it is likely that 266 (approximately 75%) were from private schools, and they represent approximately 11% of all qualified children.
Sally-Anne
Posts: 9235
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by Sally-Anne »

Oh, for goodness sake. That article has more holes in it than a sieve.
Bucks Free Press wrote:The proportion of Bucks grammar school places going to children from out of the county increased by a massive 12 per cent, from 35 per cent to 47 per cent, between 2013 and 2014.
OH, NO IT DIDN'T!

The figures quoted are the increase in OoC children who qualified:

Code: Select all

	          2013	2014
Tested	    2404	2420
Qualified	  836	1119
%	          35%	47%
They have absolutely nothing to do with the allocation of school places whatsoever.

As we know from another thread, 650 of the children who qualified didn't even put a Bucks GS in first place on their CAF. And then there are the 342 successful Review cases, many of which will have been for Bucks resident children ...

Dangerous, scaremongering manipulation of statistics by people who have no grip on the situation at all.
Lillie
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:34 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by Lillie »

What can be done about the educational tourism which it seems from the figures Sally-Anne reveals is the real culprit?

Do the local grammar schools want the exam to be so difficult for local children when many of the so-called "qualified" pupils are not ever going to take the place offered to them? I hope this will be taken into consideration this year.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by Guest55 »

Some primary schools had more qualifiers this year ....
MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

Re: Pass Rates at Bucks State Primary Schools with new CEM T

Post by MamaBear »

home school children living in Bucks apply too, and may be classed as ooc when in fact they are not.
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