Use of Well Being Power....

[Sally-Anne]

I think that most, and possibly all of the schools are committed to maintaining the present system.

You mean most of the Grammar Schools presumably?

Yes, (by default) I meant the grammars because I was referring to the 11+ testing process and not the selective system as a whole.

[pippi]

The 11+ testing process involves primary schools, not grammar schools.

[Mostlymum]

Challoner Girls will be consulting on its new proposed admissions code between now and February. New code will apply to admissions from September 2014 according to a letter from the chair of Governors today.

[Sally-Anne]

Out of purdah now that I have finally made my flippin' 5,000th post. (On Rehab if you haven't seen it and have the faintest interest.)

I notice that DCGS is also making some very small changes to its Admissions Policy. A couple relate to waiting lists and the third relates to 6th form entrance. All very minor stuff.

Everything I am picking up indicates that no-one wants to move away from the current system of central testing and a flat qualification score of 121. In a way it doesn't surprise me. The Bucks system is very stable - very few schools are heavily under-subscribed and relatively few pupils turn out to have been entirely wrongly placed in either a GS or an Upper.

The Sorting Hat may be old and battered, but it seems that there is still plenty of faith in its ability to do a pretty good job. (Although Albus Dumbledore was, perhaps, right when he said to Severus Snape: "You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon ..." )

[pippi]

Are you picking up any vibes on the Council's long awaited statement on coaching? Any day now presumably...

This document aims to explain why officers believe the LA should:
• Initiate an informed debate at LAG regarding the 11+ testing process used across Buckinghamshire grammar schools (including academies) to admit pupils.
• As a result agree a Council statement on the 11+ process – including confirmation of the LAs intention to continue to support selection, to endorse the continued use of the 11+, the preferred and agreed method of testing and why it has been chosen/continues to be chosen, to indicate any proposals/timeline to review methodology etc
• To agree a council statement on coaching and the agreed method of 11+ testing and to seek for this to be endorsed by headteachers and educational experts.

Challenges to the decisions achieved by the 11+ tests have been received from:
• Primary Headteachers – who are asking if they can coach their children over and above the familiarisation and practice pack, who believe the LAs refusal to let them coach as naïve and contributing to inequality as other schools (independent/ out county) are perceived as having no constraint to coaching their pupils
• Parents – who when they do not coach their child query why the LA has not advised them to coach their children
• MPs enquiries on behalf of constituents (recent correspondence from Dominic Grieve MP and Speaker John Bercow)
• Admissions Forum (questions at Admissions Forum regarding coaching, the test process, fairness to children in receipt of FSM)
• County councillors (who have expressed views regarding the use of score order to prioritise admissions), enquiring on behalf of particular constituents or in responding to papers presented to Community Cohesion and Equalities Forum and Admissions Forum regarding the outcomes of the tests.

The challenges are articulated through various methods
• In individual cases – following unsuccessful selection appeals - there is a general perception amongst parents and headteachers that coaching works and therefore grammar schools can be disproportionately accessed by the affluent families – a belief that it is not enough just to be bright to get into a grammar school – that coaching is essential.
• Using formal routes such as last year’s challenge to the council’s admission arrangements for grammar schools (i.e. the testing process) via the Office of the School’s Adjudicator. This challenge was predicated on the ‘unfairness’ of the process as perceived due to ‘coaching’, the lack of LA investigations on the impact of coaching, and the disproportionate effect of affluence on children’s outcomes (FSM)
• Via correspondence with DfE regarding the 11+ testing timelines, the status of the 11+ appeals, the statutory nature of otherwise of the process and the legality of the LAs refusal to permit a transfer appeal for a grammar school when the child has not been qualified.
• Persistent FOI requests from particular parents asking the LA to declare the information it holds on its monitoring of the process (there is an assumption that the LA is monitoring) and therefore requests for documentation relating to that monitoring are regular . There is a case due to be heard on 21 April 2011 against the Information Commissioner where they have agreed that we can refuse to declare information that we do not have, but the parent wants the LA to be joined to the IC defence and still believes that we hold/held information that we have not provided to him under FOI requests he has made.
• Concerns expressed by headteachers that either the LA is not responding to the issues that coaching raises or has done some research ( eg EP research item) and is withholding that from schools and parents.
• A request for the LA to bring a paper for discussion about coaching, the meaning of the Bunting and Mooney et al research at the next Admissions Forum, yet the LA has not discussed the matter internally.

Next steps

The LA needs to begin to articulate what its policy is in this regard, what its policy on coaching is, whether there are any extra checks and balances necessary to ensure there is a fair, level playing field for all children sitting the test irrespective of their family’s level of affluence or ability to access coaching.

Grammar school places should be given on merit and not because some families can gain advantage by financing extra support for their child

[Marylou]

Just wondering which department is actually going to deal with all this now that the Admissions Forum is no more...

[Sally-Anne]

Are you picking up any vibes on the Council's long awaited statement on coaching? Any day now presumably...

I haven't heard anything recently.

Just wondering which department is actually going to deal with all this now that the Admissions Forum is no more...

It will still be the Admissions Department, as it always was, and there is talk of forming some sort of body to replace the Forum, although I am not sure how high that will be on anyone's list of priorities.