Over age and 11+

[Newie]

My son is currently in Yr 4 at school however he should be in Yr 5 as he was kept back a year as he was underperforming and not as bright as the other children. How is this going to affect him and the 11+? Will he still take the 11+ at the beginning of Yr 6 and will he get penalised with the standardised scores.
Please help.

[Etienne]

Dear Newie

If your son has been placed in a younger year group for educational reasons, and that arrangement continues, I think he would normally sit the 11+ at the same time as the children he has been working with, as an approved over-age candidate.

However, it might be possible for him to take the 11+ at the correct age if you request it. You should discuss this with the headteacher.

Whenever he takes the 11+, his scores would be standardised strictly according to his age.

Regards

[Newbie]

Dear Etienne

As he will be the eldest in the cohort, will he be able to still achieve the 141 mark??

[Guest]

It isn't really the case that older children have marks 'deducted' in the standardization proccess. This is a common misconception.

A perfect 'raw' score (i.e. in the case of Bucks 80/80) would result in a standardization mark of 141 whatever the age of the child. After that for each 'raw' mark dropped the standardization mark would go down according to the age of a child and the cohort. For example, a raw score of 78/80 might still be 141 for a child born in August, but 140 for March and 139 for September; 75/80 might be 139 for August, 137 for March and 134 for September, and so on. (These are just examples.)

Hope this makes it clearer.

Jed

[Suzi]

My son is currently in Yr 4 at school however he should be in Yr 5 as he was kept back a year as he was underperforming and not as bright as the other children. How is this going to affect him and the 11+? Will he still take the 11+ at the beginning of Yr 6 and will he get penalised with the standardised scores.
Please help.

If he was underperfoming enough to be held back a year (that is very rare isn't it?), and, as Etienne says, his 11+ score will be strictly age-adjusted, presumably he is not very likely to pass whenever he takes it? The issue is surely not which year he takes it in, but what back up plans you have for him re upper schools.