Dr Challoner's Grammar School to admit girls into 6th form

[DC17C]

The 4 single sex grammar schools in Gloucester are all Co-ed for Sixth form and I think the 2 grammars in Stroud share a Sixth form Centre

[Mostlymum]

The proposal is only for 45 external candidates - boys and girls. Since its from the whole area I don't think it'll make too much of a dent in DCHS.

[Booklady]

BHS already has a couple of boys in the 6th form - according to DD. Not sure if they are fulltime there - or just come over from Beaconsfield Secondary School to partake in subjects not offered there - dance for example.

[LeprechaunQueen]

I also hear that 3 A levels will become the norm there with the new system of A levels, their reasoning being that universities offer on 3 A levels.

I heard this too but a different explanation - very sketchily that funding is going to be per student rather than per A level, so it makes economic sense (for the schools) to do fewer. Only hearsay...

[mystery]

In west kent ( i do not know enough about the rest of kent) the grammar school sixth forms all seem to have gone mixed in the last decade. The opposite sex is still very much in the minority though.

The in comers are non-grammar pupils who have made the grade, grammar pupils who are swapping for a (slightly) mixed sex environment, swappers for a subject that is not on offer elsewhere, swappers between ib and a levels, and swappers that want a school that is stronger or has more pupils in a particular subject.

The sixth forms vary quite a bit at an individual subject level in terms of how well they do and the numbers doing different subjects.

Some children are booted out too who do not make the grade. My feeling is that as time goes by swapping around at sixth form level will become more the norm and the single sex sixth form will become something of a rarity.

Also, any academy that didn't have a bash at expanding its sixth form if it was economically viable to do so would be strange. So some sixth forms will gain and others will suffer until some kind of equilibrium is achieved.

Everything is sorted out through "market forces" these days, like it or not.

[ToadMum]

All our local sixth forms are mixed, even those of the two RC bilateral schools (and the boys' school at least doesn't even require sixth form entrants to be Roman Catholic - I don't know about the girls'). There is a reasonable amount of movement between the schools and the presence of 25 or so of the opposite gender in each year at the single-sex grammars at least seems to be no big deal. I may be wrong, but I get the impression that the boys (like DS1) who transfer to DD's GS tend to be more local or have some kind of connection with the school.

[Rob Clark]

Interesting. DCGS is extremely strong in maths and sciences which is arguably the weakest suit of DCHS where some of the maths and science teaching is, shall we say, not out of the top drawer. Maybe DCGS fancy getting their hands on some of the very capable female scientists from DCHS

I am surprised at the move, though. There are several mixed GS options available locally for those wanting that environment for Sixth Form, including the excellent Chesham Grammar. I wonder if this would lead to some boys moving to RGS or John Hampden? DS (at uni now) saw an all-boys school as one of DCGS' biggest advantages…

[Amber]

The 4 single sex grammar schools in Gloucester are all Co-ed for Sixth form and I think the 2 grammars in Stroud share a Sixth form Centre

Indeed they are. And from what I can tell, the rule of law and order has not broken down, there aren't orgies in the streets and nor have the waters risen and covered the seas.

Personally I think it's very healthy - I'm not a massive fan of single gender education and would have been encouraging my sons to look elsewhere for sixth form if their school didn't take girls. 16 is too old for segregation in my own view.

Deep breaths Bucks, let it happen.

[JamesDean]

Personally I think it's very healthy - I'm not a massive fan of single gender education and would have been encouraging my sons to look elsewhere for sixth form if their school didn't take girls. 16 is too old for segregation in my own view.

+1
I do like the fact there are few girls knocking around DS's school

JD

[Sally-Anne]

Deep breaths Bucks, let it happen.

No one has strong objections to the mixed 6th form per se. The issue is that, with no reciprocal arrangement with the Girls School (at least so far), this is simply a raid by one school on another.

I have also spotted a couple of interesting points in the remaining rules for 6th form entry.

Firstly, the requirement in terms of grades has dropped. For A2 it was previously 386, and for AS it was 356. Now it is 356 across the board, one of the lowest in Bucks. (JHG with 344 is the lowest.)

However I am wondering if the figure of 356 is an error, because it is diametrically opposed to the next bit, which is this:

4.2 Sixth Form Over-subscription Criteria
Where the number of academically qualified external applications exceeds the number of places available, the following criteria will be applied in the order set out below to decide which students to admit.
1. Students who are looked after children or previously looked after children.
2. 25 students living in the sixth form catchment area of the school offered in rank order of predicted GCSE aggregate score for their best eight subjects.
3. Remaining places will be offered to students living outside the sixth form catchment area of the school offered in rank order of predicted GCSE aggregate score for their best eight subjects.

So, there is a raid within the 6th form catchment area to cream off the top 25 pupils and then, not wanting to admit pupils 26 - 45 from that lot because they will be lower performers, there is another raid outside of the catchment area to find a further 20 pupils who are the best of the crop.

The 6th form catchment area is Chiltern District, South Bucks, Wycombe and Chorleywood, so the second raid will, in all probability, be on the Berks Grammars. (Or maybe the fallout from the cull at QEB for parents willing to move?)

Unbelievable.

Moving away from 6th form, there is this statement for Y7 entry:

2 places above the Admission Number will be available to boys who qualify for Free School Meals and whose score in the admissions tests would not otherwise qualify them for admission. Such candidates must have achieved a standardised test score of at least 100. Should there be more eligible applicants than places available then the distance tie-breaker will apply ie places will be offered to those living closest to the school.

While the intention is laudable, it also smacks of lab rat experiments: "Can we turn a boy who is only deemed average, by the test that we selected because it would better assess children's all round ability* (not attainment), into a high achiever."

A boy with an 11+ score of only 100 will stick out like a sore thumb at a highly academic and competitive school like DCGS, and potentially struggle very badly.

* Direct quote from the GS Heads' paper to the Select Committee last week.