Birmingham Grammar Catchment Area

[nervousmom]

From my understanding the score will be the same for all criteria.

There would also be a criteria 6 for those without the sibling.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on this year's figures to see if any places would have been offered to criterias 5 and & 6!

[mike1880]

The arrangements for 2020 are published and there is no category 6. Children with siblings at the school have priority in category 5 over others in the case of an equal score tie break, that's all.

Hi per the link I am interpreting a child who falls into criteria 5 doesn’t have to get as high a score as a child in the catchment area? Is that the case?

No. If the category 5 score is less than the priority score, in-catchment children scoring less than the priority score will qualify under category 5 rather than category 4 so out-of-catchment children will always have to score higher than in-catchment children to gain entry. (And make no mistake, exactly how much higher depends entirely on how many out-of-catchment applications the Academy Trust wants to succeed because it depends on how high they set the priority score.)

However, it will take several years for the impact of the new arrangements to really work through to application patterns (working knowledge of secondary school admissions regulations and procedures is largely limited to the members of this forum in my experience!) so it's impossible to predict how 2020 admissions will pan out at this stage.

[edit to add - I misinterpreted your question. Yes, in theory, category 5 is on qualifying score, not priority score. However, it looks to me - although there's no way to do much more than make very rough estimates - as though the category 5 score is likely to be about 10 points higher than the priority score on average, and probably considerably higher than that at the historically more popular schools until knowledge of the new process spreads).

[hermanmunster]

Mike, I was thinking this about category 5 - it is a very curious category - it could have some very, very high scoring out of catchment pupils who get a place regardless of distance but will also be the place that non PP pupils scoring between the Q score and the P score will be looking for places

[kenyancowgirl]

I think it is a little like the Warwickshire final category - ranked on score with equal scores ranked on distance - it means you have to be very high scoring to get a place if you are outside the priority circle. The difference being in Warwickshire that the AQS changes each year - whilst in theory places go to those within the priority circle first (meaning an inner person can score less than someone outside, and still get a place) - it actually allows them to put the AQS at such a point (ie higher) that they are able to include some very high scoring outer applicants (as the inner applicants may not have reached the AQS).

Not sure that makes sense but hopefully it does!

[mike1880]

Exactly so. Just to note, the QS and PS in Birmingham will (may) also vary each year, the Trust will set it after receiving applications but before the test. I'm curious to know how far they will go to placate CHB.

[KenR]

Hi per the link I am interpreting a child who falls into criteria 5 doesn’t have to get as high a score as a child in the catchment area? Is that the case?

If the ethos is to support Birmingham children why make it harder for those in the catchment areas? What would be the reasoning behind this?

I’ve probably misunderstood but if someone can clarify would really appreciate it?

That's not correct, in fact it's the opposite. Category 4 (local catchment) will be a single common lowish score as set by the Foundation and all within catchment achieving this score are expected to get an offer. The fight for places will be between those in Category 5 (not in catchment). There are not expected to be many places available under this Category and of course many children from non Birmingham LEAs (such as Solihull) will be applying under this Category. So it's quite possible that the minimum pass score for this Category could be 260+ or even higher.

[hermanmunster]

Ken - do you think that the qualifying score and the priority score might be fairly close (would enable most of the places to be filled in catchment)

[KenR]

Ken - do you think that the qualifying score and the priority score might be fairly close (would enable most of the places to be filled in catchment)

I don't think so - in the original draft admissions consultation the KE Foundation set the catchment priority scores for all schools fixed at 220 but following the consultation they decided to set a variable priority score each year (although they have said this will be close to 220). They won't want to increase the qualifying score as that would impact PP candidates etc.

My reading of why they want to set the priority score on a year by years basis is so there will at least be a few places available for Category 5 (non catchment) candidates, otherwise they wouldn't be able to guarantee places for all Category 4 (catchment) candidates.

[mike1880]

OK, what follows is pure guesswork because I don't have enough information about applications to draw firm conclusions. But I always say it's much easier to hold an opinion if you don't have any facts so here goes:

I suspect the QS will be a little higher than the 205 the Trust is using as an example, I'm doubtful the PS will be much higher than the 220 they've mentioned (which would leave perhaps 15-25% of places available to out-of-catchment). But if they go as low as 205 for the QS, CHB in particular could conceivably be majority PP entry. That would squeeze category 4 and possibly rule out category 5 entirely and certainly make it at least as challenging to gain entry as Ken suggests. However, since we're led to believe CHB doesn't like the new arrangements I don't know if the Trust would go quite that far.

[hermanmunster]

Going to be very interesting to see where the score is set this year. Also going to be hard for parents to decide what to put on the CAF - will some wish to put 2 KE schools ? (hoping that that they may qualify under category 5 for their actual preferred choice)