11 Plus Exams Forum

Compare to last two years, this year lots of pupils have qualified for grammar school, especially out of the county. Perhaps the exam was easy?

I guess many children would have passed in Bucks county too?

ISE -DIY wrote:Compare to last two years, this year lots of pupils have qualified for grammar school, especially out of the county. Perhaps the exam was easy?

I guess many children would have passed in Bucks county too?

We have no idea yet how many children qualified in vs. out of county, and won't have for some while to come, so I'm not sure what the purpose of your post is?

The qualification rate was higher (at 34%) than it has been before (the previous high was 32%), but I don't think the exam was "easier".

The cohort was around 500 larger than last year, and those additional pupils will almost certainly have been OoC, so they were "opt in" and will have had a high rate of qualification, as always.

Can I please add that out of county does not automatically equate to out of catchment and not all of out of county candidates are "educational tourists".

justanothermother wrote:Can I please add that out of county does not automatically equate to out of catchment and not all of out of county candidates are "educational tourists".

Did anyone say they were?

There have always been candidates from Berks, Oxon, MK, Herts, etc, etc, taking the test, and some of them are in Bucks catchment.

The increase in the cohort is almost certainly going to emerge as being pupils resident in other areas, nowhere near Bucks.

Sally-Anne wrote:

justanothermother wrote:Can I please add that out of county does not automatically equate to out of catchment and not all of out of county candidates are "educational tourists".

Did anyone say they were?

Absolutely no one, apologies if I am trying to read too much between the lines.

Why would the pass rate be higher this year as I thought that the scores were standardised to ensure that only 30% achieved 121 or more?

Surely by increasing the percentage passing, they are giving children a 2% greater chance of passing (ie another 50 children passing if cohort is 2500) which in effect, is making it easier to pass.

I'm interested that this has been raised. At my DCs school more children have passed this year than in any of the last 3 years (and significantly more than last year) and it's the same story at the nearest primary to us. It's probably just natural differences between cohorts in different years but it's already led to a lot of speculation

Some DP are already querying whether their DC will get into their chosen catchment GS (which has never been an issue in the past) due to the apparent increased number of passes locally

fadinghopes wrote:Why would the pass rate be higher this year as I thought that the scores were standardised to ensure that only 30% achieved 121 or more?

No idea, and my grip on standardisation has always been distinctly on the weak and feeble side.

The qualification rate has varied a fair bit over the years though - the lowest was 29.4% (2006 admission) and the highest until this year was 32.5% (2015 admission).

It's probably just natural differences between cohorts in different years but it's already led to a lot of speculation

Some DP are already querying whether their DC will get into their chosen catchment GS (which has never been an issue in the past) due to the apparent increased number of passes locally

Nothing like a good bit of speculation at the school gates, is there?

Apart from the two Challoners schools, which are always a bit tight for allocations, I don't imagine that there will be the slightest problem with any children resident in catchment obtaining places. All the other schools usually allocate to a long way out of catchment each year.

As a point of reference, last year there were 5446 pupils in Y6 at Bucks state schools, and this year there were 5675, an increase of 229 pupils.

Around 15% of the cohort opts out each year, so roughly 190 additional state school pupils will have taken the test. If the usual qualification rate for Bucks state school pupils is repeated (around 24%), there would be something like 50 additional qualifiers within the county.

Spread those around the 13 GS, and each one needs to find room for 4 more catchment children. (Give or take a bit, because that's all the room there is on the back of my envelope right now!)

Just my two penny worth but for my children's school the number of qualifiers has been pretty constant for the past 4 or 5 years and is no different this year.

Our local primary has had its lowest pass rate for years, but the class this year is simply made up of lots more children that shine in other ways than academics. sometimes that happens.