11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi

After a year or two of stress and anxiety our dd got into her/our first choice school.

Now it is prep time for ds who will be sitting the test this year.

I just wondered if it was more competitive for girls or boys in Birmingham.

Any ideas?

Boys schools

Bishop vasey
Aston
camp hill
handsworth grammer
Fiveways (traditionally 65% boys, dont know why.)

Girls schools
camp hill girls
handsworth girls
Sutton Girls
Fiveways (traditionally 35% girls)

Similar numbers sitting so looks like more boys places than girls.

No idea if one gender scores better than another.

The exact numbers are on this forum somewhere.

Found the numbers

Boys 518
girls 460
mixed 180 (though more boys attend)

So more boys than girls in year 7 next year.

I believe it is different in South Warwickshire where there are more places overall for girls (Shottery girls, AGS mixed vs KES boys) as Shottery has more places than KES. The other aspect you have to look at is the AQS Automatic Qualifying Score. For the last few years, the AQS has been lower by quite a few points for the girls school and AGS which, to me, implies that it is "easier" for a girl to get a place as they have to achieve a lower "pass" mark.

Far more competitive for boys - there are more girls places available than boys

KECHB - 120
KEA-120
Total Boys only - 240

KECHG- 150
KEHGS - 160
Total girls only - 310

KEFW - (co-ed) - 180

Hence the reason why there are more boys than girls at KEFW

You can't really count Handsworth Boys Grammar in the stats

Sorry Ken you have lost me. Are the non king Edwards schools, bv, Sutton girls and handsworth not Grammer schools in Birmingham. Genuinely confused.

They just happen to be part of a consortium for convenience (and cost saving by sharing the same exam) - but there are 3 distinct school types:-

The KE Foundation grammars (5 schools)
The Sutton Coldfield Grammar (2 schools BV and SCG)
Handsworths Boys Grammar (1 school)

HBG is a bit of an oddity - selective yes, but it used to have it's own entrance exam. The general view is that HBG is not really in the same league table as the KE grammars or the Sutton Grammars.

Until a few years ago, the same used to be said of the Sutton grammars compared to the KE grammars, but both BV and SCG have really improved dramatically over the years by general consensus.

Very interesting. Thanks for your responses.

What if we were to include QM (Walsall) into the equation and also consider the age of our ds (i.e. he is a summer baby born in July)?

I always thought it was more competitive for girls.

Another boys school. It depends on what you are counting. All selective schools or as ken has, just the king edwards grammer schools. If you include them all then you clearly have more boys places than girls. Age standardisation means a July child will get a slight boost in score. Not the huge advantage some people talk about. Remember the Walsall school has a separate test.

This is what I was looking for. These are the official PANs:

Boys
Handsworth Grammar School 150
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School 128
King Edward VI Aston School 120
King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys School 120
Queen Mary Grammar School - Boys 120
King Edward VI Five Ways School (180) 117 *65% of 180
755

Girls
Sutton Coldfield Grammar School 180
King Edward VI Handsworth School 160
King Edward VI Camp Hill Girls School 150
Queen Mary High School - Girls 120
King Edward VI Five Ways School (180) 63 *35% 0f 180
673

There are 82 more boys places than girls in Birmingham and Walsall.