Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Eleven Plus (11+) in Buckinghamshire (Bucks)

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Nino
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:18 pm

Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Post by Nino »

Just to let you know we have been informed that our HT will be delivering a ppt presentation on the changes to inform parents. Apparently this will done at all primaries before half term.

Having suggested that it would be good if a representative from at least 1 of of local Grammar schools could attend the meeting, given that they are the main architects of the changes, I was informed that;

"Primary heads have been pressing for reform for a long time and some of our concerns have been taken on board in the changes. I will raise your request with BASH for a future meeting." I.e. no.

So the Primaries are the ones having to face up to parents with the changes but I will still be pressing for the GSHTs & BCC officals to talk to us at some point!

Nino
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Post by Guest55 »

BCC officials have nothing to do with the changes so it's the GS HTS that you need to question.
Sally-Anne
Posts: 9235
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Post by Sally-Anne »

I think that you need to understand that the changes to the system have been wrought almost entirely by the 13 Heads themselves, and they are the people to whom - as G55 says, your questions should be directed. You cannot reasonably expect them to attend 200+ separate meetings within what amounts to little more than 3 weeks, in addition to other evening commitments that they may already have at their own schools.
Nino wrote:So the Primaries are the ones having to face up to parents with the changes but I will still be pressing for the GSHTs to talk to us at some point!
I think you might do just as well to post your questions on here. There is just a possibility that answers to valid and pertinent questions will appear, as if by magic, in the BCC FAQs about the new test. :wink:
Nino
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:18 pm

Re: Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Post by Nino »

Well as Academies who are now responsible for their own admissions policies the GSs are clearly the driving force behind the changes but it is interesting to note that the communication I received from the school included a letter from BCC's Sue Imbriano
(the Strategic Director Children and Young People’s Services) and that my HT implied that the primaries had also had input into the discussions.

So whilst I agree that the time scales mean that the opportunity for any meaniful dialogue is severely limited it does illustrate that it would have been helpful if parents had engaged with at an earlier stage.
Sally-Anne
Posts: 9235
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Primary school briefing parents on 11+ changes

Post by Sally-Anne »

Nino wrote:it is interesting to note that the communication I received from the school included a letter from BCC's Sue Imbriano
(the Strategic Director Children and Young People’s Services) and that my HT implied that the primaries had also had input into the discussions.
They did. There were a couple of Primary Heads on the working group, and all Primary Heads were notified that the test would be changing at meetings back in May. There was an "information gap" between then and December which did cause a bit of annoyance, but the reason was that the working group did not want partial information about the tests to seep out. In the event it did, which is probably not surprising, and that caused a degree of frustration.
So whilst I agree that the time scales mean that the opportunity for any meaniful dialogue is severely limited it does illustrate that it would have been helpful if parents had engaged with at an earlier stage.
The working group wanted to keep things under wraps until the official consultation period began.

I think it is possible that there was also an agenda to make it more difficult for professional tutors to prepare for the test, and for parents to sign up for tutoring this year. Some parents may have already done so, and if they have paid upfront, they just have to hope that their tutor can adapt quickly to the new test. I can definitely say that any parent complaining about that to either a Primary or GS Head will receive little sympathy though. Tutoring is frowned upon by a considerable majority of them. (I apologise if I have put a particular slant upon your use of the word "helpful" - it is merely an assumption on my part.)
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