Catchment question re grammar schools (newbie here)

[Sally-Anne]

There is a risk that people will be seriously misled by some of these comments.

it is fairly obvious that if you are constantly raising the pass mark and increasing your catchment area (which some of these Grammars are in fact doing,

1. There has been no change to the "pass mark" for at least a decade. The mark required to qualify remains a standardised score of 121, and the percentage of correct answers required to achieve that has reduced very considerably from around 90% on the old GL test to approximately 60% on the CEM test.

2. There has been no change to any of the catchment areas for years now (other than a minor change to the priority given to 6th form entrants to DCGS, affecting perhaps a handful of students.)

What does change every year is the Allocation Distances. They can vary for numerous reasons, but over a decade there is a clear pattern in most of them.

If you look at the Profiles I posted above, the Aylesbury schools are in approximately the same position that they have been for the last 10 years. SHF allocated more locally then ever this year.

The situation in Chiltern/South Bucks is very similar - the Challoners and BHS are roughly the same as ever, while BGS and CGS allocated more locally then they have done in many preceding years.

The allocation distance for RLS virtually never changes. SWB allocated further away than usual this year, but has otherwise been pretty much constant for a decade.

As both rgs and John hampden failed to fill all their places this,year, even though the first has children from 18 miles away and the second even further, providing good quality education for their catchment children is clearly not a priority of the academies.

The problem is virtually exclusive to Wycombe, with all 3 schools allocating places further away than in many years.

However, that is not without precedent: in 2011, for example, both RGS and JHG were "All Offered" on 1st March. In the previous year, 2010, and the following year, 2012, the school had its narrowest allocation distances ever. As I alluded to above, it is one of the least predictable schools in Bucks, and Wycombe as a whole is far less predictable than other areas.

providing good quality education for their catchment children is clearly not a priority of the academies.

Sorry, case not proven. Demographics and underlying variations in the cohort play too large a part in the process for that conclusion to hold water.

[bgh]

it is fairly obvious that if you are constantly raising the pass mark and increasing your catchment area (which some of these Grammars are in fact doing,

1. There has been no change to the "pass mark" for at least a decade. The mark required to qualify remains a standardised score of 121, and the percentage of correct answers required to achieve that has reduced very considerably from around 90% on the old GL test to approximately 60% on the CEM test.

Is it not the case though that the percentage of Bucks children who qualify for GS is getting lower each year?

[Tolstoy]

I bow to your superior knowledge SA re catchments and the schools providing for the local cohort ... in my defence re catchment I was using it because I couldn't for the life of me remember the word allocation. but that was what I meant and actually catchment is a fluid thing anyway and therefore a misnomer for all schools. Popular ones rarely accomodate it unpopular ones often exceed it. Grammars ultimately prioritise 'a score' over it.

However in regards to the 'pass' mark saying it has remained the same at 121 is disingenuous because the whole point of a standardised score is that it can be fluid to account for different levels of difficulty in the test. Therefore you can only look to the numbers passing in the cohort to see if it is being raised.

Both Aylesbury and Wycombe had a circa 20% pupil pass rate. Maybe this has been the case for a very, very long time but I sense from the press response and the attitude to tourist sitters by people on this site who are far more knowledable on the Bucks situation than I that there has been a change. A raised pass mark won't affect the situation around Challoners and Chesham will benefit from Challoners strict criterea and it's raising status as an outstanding school. There are commuters , incomers surrounding certain schools and many if not all the children are tutored to get into the Challoners schools. We know from this site people locate here to be close to them. These are not your usual cohort.

[Sally-Anne]

Is it not the case though that the percentage of Bucks children who qualify for GS is getting lower each year?

Between 2005 and 2013, the figure for outright qualification (not including successful Reviews or Appeals) among Bucks children varied from 25% - 27%. In 2014 it dipped to 24%, but for 2015 entry it was back to 25%.

You can view the qualification rates for 2010 - 2014 here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1GEyJ ... RqNWs/edit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lillie]

Sally Anne: is it really the case that the approximate raw score for CEM in Bucks is 60%? That is what I had heard before, but never from such an authoritative source!

(Sorry can't get this to copy over your quote).

Another question: The attached data seems to show that in fact only 19.7% of the Bucks state school cohort tested in 2014 actually qualified outright with a score of 121 or above, down from 23.3% the previous year. This implies that the test did in fact prove harder for the Bucks state school kids, or have I misunderstood?

[Tolstoy]

Interesting, correct me if I am wrong but wasn't 2014 the year they introduced CEM. That year the state school percentage pass rate dipped to 19% whilst private remained at a constant 70.

Edit Sorry Lillie have repeated what you have written. Was having issues with my Ipad, often do

[jabba7]

For any parents looking at RGS I suggest you read the headmasters letter to parents for last week which may be available on the website.

It clearly states that some boys have not taken up their year 7 places as they were too far to travel and others who did take places have now moved to schools closer to home.

There are now spaces in year 7 at RGS.

Don't get carried along with the hype in that you put your son into RGS and 2 weeks later move him to a new school when you realise he can't cope with the journey

[Tolstoy]

jabba7 I agree with what you are saying but both the posters on this thread are within 10 miles of the school.

Also it isn't about milage it is about journey time and transport facilities. My DC went to a school 18 miles away and had the same journey time as local DC are taking to get to Bucks Grammars that are less than 5 miles from our doorstep.

If you live out in the sticks there is a good chance that the nearest secondary schools will be a fair old trek, not that we do now