Sir William Borlase

[Guest]

the children who are about to go into yr 9 are the first year, I believe, when their highest score got them in, rather than the average. So less able students only had to"hit" the 121 once rather than twice to be guaranteed a place.

Combined with the reversal of the rule where, once out of catchment, the highest score counted to the new rule that those nearest the school are first to be offered out-of-catchment place, must mean that the average ability at grammar schools has gone down?

Yes - and no. Whilst it surely made a difference in some individual cases, the number of grammar school places is still more or less the same, so across the whole county, it probably hasn't made a huge difference.

[Guest55]

I agree that the same proportion reached 11+ but these pupils are distributed between schools differently. As a teacher I will find it interesting to see next years KS3 results to compare to 2007!

[yplx]

Thanks a lot. Could not undertand all of the technical side of admission criteria bit discussed here ..... I am more eager to know, compared with AGS, RLG and Beaconsfield, how does Sir William stand? Because, I am in catchment of AGS and if Sir William is so good, I will consider moving

By the way, what is VRTS and VR?

[Catherine]

By the way, what is VRTS and VR?

VR stands for Verbal Reasoning, VRTS, Verbal Reasoning Test score. In the discussion VR is used for VRTS.

[Guest55]

VRTS = verbal reasoning test score and VR is the short form!

Personally I would not move for this reason - SWB is co-ed so you need to compare the boys results with those at the other schools you are considering ....

[yplx]

that is interesting.. generally do girls do better than boys? anybody has looked into this?

[Dad40]

Just on average point score, this is the order:

Borlase - 565
Burnham - 555
Aylesbury Grammar - 541
Dr Challoners Grammar - 541
Aylesbury High - 532
Royal Grammar - 527
Wycombe High - 522
Chesham High - 497
John Hampden - 497
Dr Challoners High - 478
Beaconsfield High - 471

I sadly don't have the figures for Floyds or Royal Latin.

Is average point score the right thing to hang your hat on though ? Both Challoners plus Wycombe High scored maximum 100% on pupils achieving at least 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths.

[hugh]

I am more eager to know, compared with AGS, RLG and Beaconsfield, how does Sir William stand? Because, I am in catchment of AGS and if Sir William is so good, I will consider moving

I think they're all good schools academically.

Results vary from year to year (even a good school can have a year group slightly poorer than usual), so don't look at one year in isolation.

Don't put too much store by league tables as different ones measure different things and some schools boost their rank by entering pupils for extra (but not necessarily very useful) exams to boost the number of passes (though maybe not the average grades), whilst other schools are effectively penalised by some tables only count the best 8 passes by each pupil.

You also need to consider the different specialisms and atmosphere of the schools and which would best suit your child.

So whilst I did move into Bucks for the grammar school system, I would be wary of moving within Bucks to get one grammar instead of another purely on teh basis of league tables. On the other hand, you need a backup if your child fails 11+ and the upper schools vary a lot, so it may well be worth moving to have a good backup plan.

[Guest55]

Generally girls do outperform boys at GCSE [and indeed A level] - I would put very little store in this particular measure as it depends how many subjects are taken and the school's entry policy i.e. are pupils 'encouraged' to drop subjects if they are likely to get below a C!