Handsworth Grammar School has now become King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School.

Over the years pupils have had low scores and have been able to get into Handsworth Grammar. Now that it has become part of the King Edward VI consortium, does this mean that the scores they'll be excepting this year will be higher than normal?

Any thoughts?

Do the school's publish in advance the lowest score which will be considered a pass for that individual school? In which case, they must have done so already - and was it higher than what it had been historically?

Or is the score of the last person offered a place, the score of the last person offered a place? In which case, the last score in would only have gone up if more higher scoring applicants than usual had named the school in a position on their CAF where it was the school they were allocated.

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They usually do but for KEHWG they were no scores. I've looked at last year's scores and one pupil achieved a score of 204 and got into HWG. My feeling this time around is that they won't allow scores like that as it is now a KE school. I might be wrong.

Although HGS became part of the KE Consortium as of September 2017 it took a year for the process to be completed. So, for those who started in September 2017, it would have already been part of the KE group, and they still accepted a score of 201 from the W/L.

I don’t think that scores will rise significantly as there is still (unfortunately and not substantiated) a prejudice towards the school, but this is changing.

They do not have a minimum entry score, and this has not changed for 2018 entry. The only factor which will push the score up is the range of scores of the pupils applying for the places on offer. If the scores of the initial 150 pupils who secure places range from 208 - 240 (for example), then 208 will be the cut off score, if they are 212 - 240 then it will be 212.

Hope that makes sense.

It is less likely to have too much of an impact this year surely as the CAFs went in in October...people knew their results then and applied accordingly. It may have an impact going forward, however, who knows!

Crossed with Helen....

If the school has a published minimum score which is required to be considered eligible for a place, then as a fully selective school, it is allowed not to fill its places if it doesn't have enough applicants who meet that standard. If, however, it just goes down the list of applicants until all the places are filled, then the lowest score to obtain a place is the score of the last person admitted.

(For example: our local grammar schools only deem applicants to be 'qualified' if they get at least 303 in the entrance exam. The grammar schools in Colchester and the boys' grammar in Chelmsford, which admit via the same exam, set no minimum. In practice, demand for places means that these schools never admit below our local minimum, either - but should the wind change, so to speak, it could happen).

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

The previous last scores into KEVI Handsworth Boys (for year of Year 7 entry):

In '14 was 203, in '15 was 207, in '16 was 209, in '17 was 208

I think that joining the consortium may make it more popular, but since the last admissions choices round, it has been rated Ofsted Outstanding and I've heard good things about it from parents and students - who have praised the teaching and support, so I think it would be getting more popular anyway.

Thank you all.

This is very helpful and informative.

My son decided to do the 11 plus pretty late on and he scored 208.

We did put down Handsworth Grammar as our first choice.

I’m pretty sure he’ll get a place with that score - maybe not on 1st March but soon after. A friend’s son got 214 and put HGS first but subsequently got offered an AP at KES which he’s taking as it’s more convenient for them. There will be other boys in similar circumstances who ultimately turn down HGS and release a waiting list place.

People look at the schools’ GCSE and A Level results and make a pecking order of the grammar schools based on this. However they fail to take into account the different entry scores -so it’s no surprise that CHB, where all the boys would have got 240 plus to get in, get the best exam results at the end of year 11/13.. They have more of the highest ability kids! HGS will have to work really hard with their wider ability spread to catch up even with BV and KEA at GCSE and A Level - if they manage it, I can see their popularity increasing above KEA as I think it’s a better location, especially from a transport point of view.

It’s noticeabke that in my son’s class at HGS, the one boy who always gets full
Marks, extension work etc is the one who scored 240 plus. Which makes me think that CHB have a fairly easy job to get good results out of their cohort! I know the 11 plus results aren’t always reliable and I know there are lots of very bright kids who score below 220. But I think most of the kids scoring 240 plus must be pretty clever.

I agree - not only would the boys be clever but in the vast majority of cases, they would have very driven parents and access to external tuition for GCSE and A level, too.

I know boys at Handsworth Grammar who don't necessarily have these, but are still doing very well, which is testament to the support offered by the school.