Out of county applicants for 2019 test

[kenyancowgirl]

...Not to mention directly doubling the amount of money taken out of the educaton budget - one for processing the test paper and results of the OOC child who never intended to take the place or was not eligible to have a place and then to process the review or appeal of the child that should have had it....

11+ tourism is selfish on many levels - I have never met a child who says "ooh yes daddy, let's go and sit another test this weekend - what fun!!"

.....Asparagus quiche and couscous, anyone?......

[Anecdote]

Some out of county children are actually closer to some of the GS than in-county children due to the geography of Buckinghamshire. Sally-Anne has said that it is illegal to restrict who sits the test under the Schools Admissions Code. How would you draw a line on who is eligible and who isn't?

Having been through a selection review and an appeal, the time given to the review was explained to us as being both during the meeting and prior to the meeting when the primary and secondary headteachers review the cases. So it is probably over 'a few minutes' as some have quoted. Also, wouldn't quotas be illegal too?

When operating under a code, isn't it difficult to put restrictions in place?

[Guest55]

I'm more concerned about out of catchment children rather than out of county ...

[anotherdad]

Some out of county children are actually closer to some of the GS than in-county children due to the geography of Buckinghamshire. Sally-Anne has said that it is illegal to restrict who sits the test under the Schools Admissions Code. How would you draw a line on who is eligible and who isn't?

Having been through a selection review and an appeal, the time given to the review was explained to us as being both during the meeting and prior to the meeting when the primary and secondary headteachers review the cases. So it is probably over 'a few minutes' as some have quoted. Also, wouldn't quotas be illegal too?

When operating under a code, isn't it difficult to put restrictions in place?

As Guest55 says, there's a difference between OOC and OOC . Out Of Catchment applicants are the problem here, particularly those way out of catchment and outside normal allocation distances. There's nothing wrong with applicants from Out Of County on the borders because that's a consequence of odd boundaries and skewed school locations (with respect to the county shape).

I wouldn't draw a line on eligibility, just change the standardisation such that distant applicants don't displace those within reasonable distance.

Quotas would be illegal. Your review may have been given sufficient time but there is evidence to show that given the numbers of reviews held and the time period in which they were heard, some reviews were given little more than a few minutes on average. I don't have those statistics to hand now but I recall them being documented on here in a previous year.

[Anecdote]

Anotherdad, thank you. Does the data also count the time before the meetings when the documents are reviewed separately by the three headteachers? I suspect (and hope) they don't get the case when they arrive at the meeting and have seen them prior to the meeting?

In terms of OOC and OOC, I totally understand. How do you determine though when the distance is too far (OOC or OOC)? Surely that is a parental issue? How would a school have any control on this? The issue is the testers with no wish to apply to a Bucks school? Is that right?

From the Bucks documents there are only three small catchments that are out of county (one in the north and two in the south), the rest is all Buckinghamshire?

[Aethel]

For Bucks... I don’t understand why the 30% cohort pass can’t be applied by JUST STANDARDISING THE IN-COUNTY ( plus or minus PARTNER SCHOOL) APPLICANTS .
Then all the OOC cohort may “pass”, but they won’t skew the score..
This means that the children in-county who were pushed out by score inflation due to the OOc, will be more likely to get a pass mark and I predict the number (and cost) of selection reviews would nosedive...... surely this is simpler and cheaper all round, and means the genuinely local and non-over-tutoring family has a decent chance....

[Sally-Anne]

Having been through a selection review and an appeal, the time given to the review was explained to us as being both during the meeting and prior to the meeting when the primary and secondary headteachers review the cases. So it is probably over 'a few minutes' as some have quoted.

Although we have never doubted that the Heads are all conscientious in their preparation for Reviews, we know for a fact that in the first year, an average of 6 minutes was devoted to plenary discussion of each case.

Although the official line no doubt makes many pious mentions of how often the panels met, and for how long, and how dedicated they were, it's when you "do the maths" that the unvarnished truth emerges.

Last year will certainly not have been an improvement, with a big increase (ca. 25%) in the number of cases.

[anotherdad]

In terms of OOC and OOC, I totally understand. How do you determine though when the distance is too far (OOC or OOC)? Surely that is a parental issue? How would a school have any control on this? The issue is the testers with no wish to apply to a Bucks school? Is that right?

Partly. There are those with no intention of applying to a Bucks school, they're just using it as a mock, but there are also hundreds (and it is hundreds) from the west London boroughs who enter the test without understanding the qualification criterion (they often think places are allocated on highest scores) or the typical allocation distances or the residency rules, or all three! Recently we discovered that Harrow council were implying on their own website that living in Harrow gives access to the Bucks grammar schools. There are also tuition companies and tutors giving false hope in places like Luton. That's how ingrained the ignorance is.

[Tinkers]

I noticed the offending Harrow council web page is no longer available.
I guess they got enough complaints.

It’s not just West London though as we seem to have an increasing number of Reading/Wokingham children despite the allocations distances notvreally coming out this far in recent years.

[stroudydad]

Why not have some selection on who can apply to sit the test

It would be illegal under the School Admissions Code to do so.

Please excuse the naivety, but why is it illegal to put a catchment on an entrance test but not a catchment on the results of that test?