Some minor stats on 11+ preferences
Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators
Some minor stats on 11+ preferences
Thanks to Bucks CC for answering two specific questions on the cohort who entered secondary school in Sept 2007.
The questions were designed to find out how many children sat the 11+ even though their children had little/no prospect of going to grammar school (not least because the parents had written down an upper school as their first preference).
Q1: How many pupils sat the 11+ AND didn't pass AND had an upper school listed as first preference anyway?
Ans: At the end of August, this figure was 1241.
Q2: How many pupils sat the 11+ AND did pass AND had an upper school as their first preference?
Ans: We get very few children who go on to qualify who put an upper school as their preference. For this year, it was less than 10.
Further thanks to Bucks CC for the following stats on the cohort who entered secondary school in Sept 2006:
1. Of the 2537 who qualified in 2006, 721 were out of county residents. Of these, only 308 were actually offered a Bucks grammar school place.
2. Of the 2537 overall qualifiers, 489 qualified from all partner schools. Of these only 329 actually took up grammar school places.
Some of the second group will have been out of county residents (i.e. there are overlaps between these two sets of figures).
Any thoughts from the panel?
The questions were designed to find out how many children sat the 11+ even though their children had little/no prospect of going to grammar school (not least because the parents had written down an upper school as their first preference).
Q1: How many pupils sat the 11+ AND didn't pass AND had an upper school listed as first preference anyway?
Ans: At the end of August, this figure was 1241.
Q2: How many pupils sat the 11+ AND did pass AND had an upper school as their first preference?
Ans: We get very few children who go on to qualify who put an upper school as their preference. For this year, it was less than 10.
Further thanks to Bucks CC for the following stats on the cohort who entered secondary school in Sept 2006:
1. Of the 2537 who qualified in 2006, 721 were out of county residents. Of these, only 308 were actually offered a Bucks grammar school place.
2. Of the 2537 overall qualifiers, 489 qualified from all partner schools. Of these only 329 actually took up grammar school places.
Some of the second group will have been out of county residents (i.e. there are overlaps between these two sets of figures).
Any thoughts from the panel?
-
Sally-Anne
- Posts: 9235
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Re: Some minor stats on 11+ preferences
Dad40 wrote: Q1: How many pupils sat the 11+ AND didn't pass AND had an upper school listed as first preference anyway?
Ans: At the end of August, this figure was 1241.
Interesting stuff, Dad40. I find that particular figure extraordinary! Undoubtedly it is correct, but one has to wonder exactly why so many children took a pointless test.
Assuming that they were all Bucks residents, as they had listed an Upper School, the bigger picture is then:
Total Bucks resident cohort: 6227
Number opting out of testing: 1015 (16.3%)
Number tested who put an U/S as 1st pref: 1241 (19.9%)
Remaining pupils: 3971
Those achieving qualifying mark: 1481 (37.3%)
So one could argue that the "underlying pass rate" for the 11+ in Bucks is actually 37%.
That takes us back to the discussion we had about "why the pass rate is so much higher for Out-of County schools", at around the 35 - 40% mark. Now wekno what we were only guessing at before, which is that there is no difference - the only difference is that they are opting in, whilst Bucks kids are not being opted out.
Sally-Anne
Indeed ! I actually asked the question with a strong suspicion that something like this was going on, but I would have guessed the number would be in the region of 800 max.
However 1241 it is (I did query - it is correct). There is obviously a fair amount of inertia/peer pressure out there.
One of the documents from the Bucks admissions forum (May 2007 minutes?) said that the council did a comparison exercise across maintained and partner schools a few years ago and they concluded that qualification rates were "broadly similar" in reality.
It just goes to show that you can't directly compare partner school and maintained school pass rates.
However 1241 it is (I did query - it is correct). There is obviously a fair amount of inertia/peer pressure out there.
One of the documents from the Bucks admissions forum (May 2007 minutes?) said that the council did a comparison exercise across maintained and partner schools a few years ago and they concluded that qualification rates were "broadly similar" in reality.
It just goes to show that you can't directly compare partner school and maintained school pass rates.
-
Waddle
As a teacher, I've had some parents tell me in the past that, although they do not expect their child to pass the 11+ and have chosen an upper school as first preference, life is about competing and that the process of actually taking the test is character building, particularly in today's testing regime. Amazed it's quite that many, though!
