Out of interest how many people had children who sat the Thomas Telford entrance exam this year and how many have been offered a place?

And if you were offered a place at TT would you accept it in place of an offer from the grammar schools listed in this forum.

Very hypothetical questions.

My DD took the test. The postman hasn’t turned up today so I don’t know if she got an offer but if she did we would be turning it down. Thankfully she managed to get a place at her preferred school. We had ruled out TT even before today though as, had we been able to look at the school without having to sign up for the test we would not have applied anyway. The school seems amazing in many many ways but just wasn’t the right fit for several reasons.

I would agree with calico to be honest. Our posty did arrive and it was a no from tt. this is my 3rd child and third no I'm not sure what 'magic' words need to be written on that application form.
results aren't that fabulous either in my opinion. We had ruled it out also.
would be very interested to know the formula for obtaining the 'golden' ticket...tongue in cheek

We also got a no but our DD had a high enough score to be offered a place at her 1st choice grammar school.

Our letter also stated that 1000 children applied for 182 places and if TT are sincere about having different ability bands A to G then that also reduces the number of available places.

I suspect TT actively seek pupils who are very sports orientated, judging by the induction film which we watched on the day of my DD test.

Yes I would agree about the sports. Tbh I had lost the will to live after arriving a little early for the test and having to sit through half an hour of football commentary. I thought the virtual headmaster set things off for a generally cold welcome to the school. The kids who showed us round seemed to have lost the will to live and didn’t seem to like the school hemselves. However, I have a few friends with (very sporty) kids there and they seem to have a great time and progress well. If the classrooms had had children in them, and teachers had been around, I felt parents would have got a better feel for the school.

Why are you not able to view the school before decicing to apply? They didn’t even let us in the grounds to drop off the application.

My DD was very anxious about travelling too far for school and that ended up being important to us having looked around 12+ schools. More important than we thought it would. So, again, we shouldn’t have really taken the test and would not have if the decision could have been made after viewing all the schools on offer. It seems they want inflated application numbers to help hold up their reputation.

I hope it doesn’t sound like I am bashing the school too much. In the end I know very little about it other than the feeling I got from looking round and the data available publicly. As I say, everyone I actually know with children there says it is wonderful.

I agree Calico11

Our DD was offered TT as well as Newport High, but it was an easy decision to decline TT.
She's not too bothered about the superior TT sports facilities and results at NGHS are far better.
So one place up for grabs for the 1000 who didn't get offered TT!

Until yesterday I would have agreed with the comments about actively seeking sporty kids, but the 2 or 3 most talented sporty ones at DD's school didn't get offered a place. In previous years it would almost have been a 'given' that they would get places, so maybe there has been a slight shift in emphasis.