Oxbridge entrance records for the Grammar schools

[quasimodo]

I appreciate some people may not like the topic but it is a reasonable topic to be informed about particularly if your children are going to be going to those schools.

[succeed]

Firstly, I am not sure how 'informed' parents are likely to be by conducting a heresay straw poll, rather than contacting the foundation office directly. Secondly, as you said earlier, any information is not going to affect your choice of school.

[quasimodo]

I am not asking for a straw poll. I am sure there are many parents out there who do there own enquiries before making an informed discussion about a school and may have this information and there are parents in the schools who will be aware of these figures. Any personal experiences are always useful when decisions have to be made on behalf of or with others. The information may or may not be available from the Foundation office. For someone who attended a state school with uneducated parents who passed the Cambridge entrance exam and was placed in the inter collegiate pool after interview from which he was not picked out this is a legitimate line of enquiry. I made basic mistakes like applying to the college with the second highest public school intake, applied for the wrong course and was inappropriately dressed for interview. I have been able to steer some teenagers away from some of these pitfalls. This is not an elitist subject of debate. My cousins daughter who is just about to graduate from Oxford lived in Tipton(examine the figures as to how many candidates get into Oxbridge living in Sandwell) and was what would be now termed a pp entrant. She has every right to be proud of herself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[succeed]

I am not asking for a straw poll. I am sure there are many parents out there who do there own enquiries before making an informed discussion about a school and may have this information and there are parents in the schools who will be aware of these figures. Any personal experiences are always useful when decisions have to be made on behalf of or with others. The information may or may not be available from the Foundation office. For someone who attended a state school with uneducated parents who passed the Cambridge entrance exam and was placed in the inter collegiate pool after interview from which he was not picked out this is a legitimate line of enquiry. I made basic mistakes like applying to the college with the second highest public school intake, applied for the wrong course and was inappropriately dressed for interview. I have been able to steer some teenagers away from some of these pitfalls. This is not an elitist subject of debate. My cousins daughter who is just about to graduate from Oxford lived in Tipton(examine the figures as to how many candidates get into Oxbridge living in Sandwell) and was what would be now termed a pp entrant. She has every right to be proud of herself.

The information will be avaliable from the foundation office esp if they have specific links with different colleges. Don't take this wrong way, but it sounds like the mistakes you made could very easily be avoided by most applicants doing a little research on the studentroom forum etc. This is what my son is doing at the moment.

[sbarnes]

Maybe the answers you seek aren't on this forum; maybe ask elsewhere. No point going on and on and getting frustrated. Just being honest

[quasimodo]

Thank you for your e mail success. There was no internet in my generation. We use all the websites now including the student room and all the threads.Many thanks.

[solimum]

Also worth remembering that many pupils shift between schools at sixth form, so Oxbridge entrance figures can reflect that in a number of ways (positive or negative!):

1. Pupils (such as my DS2) joining a grammar at sixth form after success at a 11-16 comp elsewhere, valuing the experience of being with a larger cohort of potential Oxbridge entrants and the experience of the school. Some independents are particularly keen to attract Oxbridge potential at sixth form level for this very reason

2. Pupils being "encouraged to leave" if their results are unlikely to increase the A*AA proportion..

So in both cases Oxbridge success many not fully reflect 11+ selection processes

Other things to consider - a school which becomes too focussed on its Oxbridge/med school candidates can shoehorn too many bright pupils in this direction without looking at alternatives, and not give good advice and support in the increasingly bewildering world of university entrance to either these or its other pupils: it can be too easy to stick to the well-trodden paths

[Guest55]

Oxbridge is no longer the 'best' for some careers ...

[sbarnes]

Cambridge is the forth best ranked university in the world, one place better than Oxford.

[quasimodo]

"Guest55" Oxbridge is no longer the 'best' for some careers ...

Obviously you are not talking about the law, journalism ,politics, leading our armed forces,our leading civil servants, being a tv executive,a broadcaster or being involved in financial services amongst many other areas of life as evidenced by the number of nobel laureates at each of the Oxbridge universities. Individuals like Stephen Hawkins a leading cosmologist who seems to be doing a decent job in explaining what we are doing on this little planet in the Milky way and how the Universe was created spontaneously from nothing.

This is now off my original question and would be grateful if we could stick with the brief.