Reviving advice on filling in CAF

[WISE]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the comments, they are most useful. I have a dilemma if anyone could offer some advice it would be much appreciated. My son scored 222 in the Birmingham test which I feel may be just enough to get him into Aston based on last years cut off of 221 for Aston. He did better in the Walsall test in that if I put Qmgs first I feel he would get a place there.
My dilemma is that I was not able to make it to any of Qmgs open days but have heard very highly of the school. If I put Aston first and Qmgs second and the cut offs for Aston go beyond 222, then I feel that we would be offered Qmgs but still be on the waiting list for Aston which would enable us to see Qmgs in the meantime in order to compare the two schools and decide between them. However if the cut offs are similar to last years and he is offered Aston at first choice then we will lose Qmgs whereas I would like to keep my options open at this stage. Hope that makes sense as I'm confused as to what to do.
I suppose what I'm trying to do is predict the cut offs for Aston this year..any ideas?

I visited both these schools during open days last week, is there any specific questions that you wanted to know? or do you just want to get the general feelings at and around the Schools?

Academically speaking, both schools are almost the same, if in a given year one performs better at GCSEs then the other performs better at A-levels, and in another year this may be other way round. Not much differentiation academically.

In terms of school buildings and facilities KEA seems slightly better. In terms of surrounding area QMGS feels slightly better.

The teachers quality and students diversity and ethnic/class background is almost identical at both schools. QMGS is twined with QMHS, so may have some joint activities for drama music etc. It also takes girls in sixth forms.

At both schools, both head teachers spoke strongly about students welfare and emphasised zero tolerance against bullying.

KEA head teacher mentioned privately to me that it is very unlikely that the cut off score will rise. I think KEA taking few extra students this year, that's why.

Hope this helps!

[Anigan]

Thanks Wise, toadmum and Helen0209, that is most helpful. I've tried to do what research I can via the school websites and this forum etc but it is limited. If anyone could help with the following queries I'd appreciate that:
I can't see from the Qmgs website what time the school day starts/finishes?
Qmgs have all their sporting facilities on site whereas Aston boys need to walk over to some of their sporting facilities ive been told. Also Qmgs has swimming in the curriculum and Aston doesn't as far as I know.
Does the green bus stop directly outside Qmgs?
Does one of the school excel/specialise in certain areas over others? Aston appears to be very sporty/ What are the strengths of Qmgs?
Thankyou very much for your time

[Petitpois]

QMGS has very strong military links, so if your son has sights perhaps as an Army Officer or similar, it isn't a bad choice. When we went round WGHS, there were some parents gushing about the military tradition at the school. Don't know anything else, as regardless of score my two aren't getting in,

[quasimodo]

Thanks Wise, toadmum and Helen0209, that is most helpful. I've tried to do what research I can via the school websites and this forum etc but it is limited. If anyone could help with the following queries I'd appreciate that:
I can't see from the Qmgs website what time the school day starts/finishes?
Qmgs have all their sporting facilities on site whereas Aston boys need to walk over to some of their sporting facilities ive been told. Also Qmgs has swimming in the curriculum and Aston doesn't as far as I know.
Does the green bus stop directly outside Qmgs?
Does one of the school excel/specialise in certain areas over others? Aston appears to be very sporty/ What are the strengths of Qmgs?
Thankyou very much for your time

I don't have the exact time table for QM Boys but from the time one of my nephews goes to school now and other nephews used to go and when my daughter went its around 9.00 am and the school finishes around 3.45pm maybe later.

This is a link to a page on QM's website.
http://www.qmgs.walsall.sch.uk/index.ph ... Itemid=250" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At QM boys there is a small swimming pool.

The green bus stops on the road outside the school.

Both QM boys and Aston are good schools.

This morning I saw the green bus in Walsall around 7 20 am picking children to go to KE Aston and KE Handsworth girls.The reverse is also true from areas in the center and north of Birmingham to QM boys and to QMHS for girls.

Good luck in completing your CAF if you have not already done so as today is the last day.Remember any amendments after today will put you at the end of the lists in allocations.

[Anigan]

Thanks Quasimodo and Petitpois. Im so relieved to have finally made the decision and submitted the form early this morning! Best wishes to all with their school allocations and remember it all works out for the best x

[Ricky74]

Thanks Quasimodo and Petitpois. Im so relieved to have finally made the decision and submitted the form early this morning! Best wishes to all with their school allocations and remember it all works out for the best x

Went to QM last night. The HT mentioned getting to school at 8.30 in a story he was telling....

[All4AReason]

Hi all,
This long wait is sure going to drive me mad. Can't stop thinking about it and I'm starting to feel we completely messed up our preferences. Was it wrong to think that 357 is a safe score for wghs? Oh dear I don't think I'll survive those 4 months!!! Am I the only one struggling!!

[Petitpois]

357 is a certainty. Perhaps not as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow morning, but sufficiently certain that you need not worry about it. The cut off was 314 this year. 357 this year would have put your DD easily in the top echelons of scorers entering the school. Only a handful would have scored better, perhaps less than that. There is half a chance that she might even be the top scorer entering the school if she put it as number 1 on the CAF form.

As an aside - don't believe the rubbish that if your DD scores highly they are bound to succeed and if they get in on a borderline score they will struggle. All nonsense. We are seeing high scorers wobble a bit in terms of settling in and some lower scorers taking to it like duck's to water. Either way it matters not, as these schools have well established processes to identify issues and get on top of them quickly. We were very very reluctantly let go of WGHS, I still think it it a brilliant school that should relocate nearer to where I live , but the main lesson learned from term 1 is to watch out that there is not a gap between parental expectation and the child's potential. +/- gaps both will have consequences i.e. too much pressure vs not enough push or support.

Anyway assuming you put WGHS 1st, I envy you having the experience of getting the uniform fitting day. It is by far the best moment from the whole 11 plus thing. It's the day it all becomes real and you can feel a sense of pride for all the hard work that was put in. I and the wider family absolutely loved that bit so much so that the first day whilst a bit nervy, really didn't match up to the uniform fitting day.
PP

[All4AReason]

Many thanks Petitpois. Actually our CAF story is more complicated than this as we're in Worcester and have only 3 preferences (can't even start on how annoying and unfair this is). DD got 237 in bham and 357 in Walsall exams. She loved kefw and wouldn't accept putting anything else as 1st preference. We were told by many people that with her Walsall score wghs is a certain and we can use it as our third preference instead of our comprehensive school. So we've put 1.kefw 2.kechg and 3.wghs. The idea was that she either gets a kefw offer in March or she'll get into wghs and will be put on w/l for both kefw and CHG (mainly bcause we were keen on CHG (especially dad) so we sort of waisted one of three preferences!!! Now I'm very worried she won't get any of the three. I truly regret not putting wghs as 2nd preference and our comp as 3rd. I think we messed it up!! Don't think I'll survive these 4 months of wait!
I totally agree with u that the score is not a guarantee for success but I think in a grammar school she'll get all the support she needs to succeed and achieve her full potential. Hope I haven't ruined it all!!!

[KenR]

Many thanks Petitpois. Actually our CAF story is more complicated than this as we're in Worcester and have only 3 preferences (can't even start on how annoying and unfair this is). DD got 237 in bham and 357 in Walsall exams. She loved kefw and wouldn't accept putting anything else as 1st preference. We were told by many people that with her Walsall score wghs is a certain and we can use it as our third preference instead of our comprehensive school. So we've put 1.kefw 2.kechg and 3.wghs. The idea was that she either gets a kefw offer in March or she'll get into wghs and will be put on w/l for both kefw and CHG (mainly bcause we were keen on CHG (especially dad) so we sort of waisted one of three preferences!!! Now I'm very worried she won't get any of the three. I truly regret not putting wghs as 2nd preference and our comp as 3rd. I think we messed it up!! Don't think I'll survive these 4 months of wait!
I totally agree with u that the score is not a guarantee for success but I think in a grammar school she'll get all the support she needs to succeed and achieve her full potential. Hope I haven't ruined it all!!!

237 should be OK for KEFW- 233 was the initial score on the 1st March and we believe it may have dropped to 226 according to some posts. The 3 preferences for Worcs is a pain - we live in Worcs as well and had the same problem about 8 years ago, thankfully we got KEFW for DS. We were very pleased with the school - worked out well for DS and the journey by Green Bus wasn't too bad (although expensive). We found that there were quite a few children going to KEFW from the Wythall area and we arranged a rota for the odd after school activity or parents evenings etc.