Out of county applicants for 2019 test

[Deb70]

Is that likely to happen though?
It's such a cruel process. I really feel for the children who just miss out. This year that has happened to us, and hearing some parents talking about the five tests that their kids have passed is just so aggravating.

[anotherdad]

At the moment, the near-misses are going for reviews in large and growing numbers and among them are undoubtedly many displaced local children. If the calculation was accurate, the children genuinely judged to be suitable for grammar school by their schools would be more likely to qualify. The problem would be that there would still be a whole bunch of children on scores of 115-121 and I'm sure many of those would go for reviews as people with those scores do now, the only difference being that there would be far fewer expected vacancies so the review process would have to become much stricter. If the HT judgements are correct, though, many of them should have HT reservations.

The other tweak I'd like to see is the abolition of published scores of 121 and over. The results should state something like "Child X has achieved a qualifying score of at least 121" or "Child X scored [actual score of 120.99 or below]". There is no need for qualifying children's parents to know their actual score but non-qualifiers should know how close/far away from the qualifying score they are. At a stroke you remove the bragging element but also stop the misinformed/ignorant tourists speculating about the value of the score when it comes to allocations or comparisons with other test results.

[anotherdad]

Is that likely to happen though?
It's such a cruel process. I really feel for the children who just miss out. This year that has happened to us, and hearing some parents talking about the five tests that their kids have passed is just so aggravating.

It might happen if enough people respond to any consultations that go out or simply write to the grammar schools to suggest it. I think there's a case for choosing one's battles wisely. I am anti-selection (I never used to be, but much better-informed people than me such as anothermum and Amber have consistently provided evidence that I was wrong) and whilst it's tempting to join the various anti-grammar lobbies (such as Local Equal Excellent in Bucks), I can't help feeling that their approach is too binary and simply puts the grammar schools and BCC into defensive mode. I accept that it is extremely unlikely that selection in Bucks will be abolished, so rather than campaigning for it to be so, it seems far better to subtly and continually undermine academic selection with proper evidence whilst simultaneously trying to persuade the schools to adjust their testing and admissions processes to make them more equitable.

[Sally-Anne]

The other tweak I'd like to see is the abolition of published scores of 121 and over. The results should state something like "Child X has achieved a qualifying score of at least 121"

Amen to that!!

If parents were advised that they will not be told their child's score if is 121 or more, it would very soon give the tourists the message that score doesn't matter. That might in turn lead them to think (if they are capable of such a thing) that maybe, just maybe, Bucks places are allocated in some other way ...

[Tinkers]

The other tweak I'd like to see is the abolition of published scores of 121 and over. The results should state something like "Child X has achieved a qualifying score of at least 121"

Amen to that!!

If parents were advised that they will not be told their child's score if is 121 or more, it would very soon give the tourists the message that score doesn't matter. That might in turn lead them to think (if they are capable of such a thing) that maybe, just maybe, Bucks places are allocated in some other way ...

I know other schools that don’t tell scores. The GS my sister teaches at does not give out scores for IC children, just that the DC has passed. She didn’t even get to know my niece’s score even though she works there.

[Guest55]

I've often asked why scores of 121 and over are published and I've never had a satisfactory answer ... It would save our moderators a lot of time

Perhaps parents could ask the current chair of Bucks GS?

Contact details here: https://www.thebucksgrammarschools.org/contact-us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Aqua]

Due to increase in out of catchment children - actual gainer are out of county children.

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

[anotherdad]

Due to increase in out of catchment children - actual gainer are out of county children.

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

You've lost me. What do you mean?

[pippi]

Some of the earlier grammar school discussions on reviews, standardisation etc were unredacted from their minutes over the summer: http://informationrights.decisions.trib ... cision.pdf. For example..

No change to 121 can be made for this year as to do so would contravene the admissions code. We should go through the selection reviews exactly as planned and see how many additional in-county qualifiers the process produces. A target figure of in-county qualifiers would then be agreed (likely to be based on the 2012-13 figure), following which an additional moderation exercise would be carried out. This process would involve looking at all SRP candidates in test score order starting with the 120s until the agreed number of in county qualifiers had been reached. [XX] agreed to work with [XX] on the timetable for this exercise and to engage the assistance of primary heads.
For 2014, it was agreed to discuss with CEM the idea of setting the qualifying standard using the ‘in-County’ cohort. Heads would need to agree the target number of in-county qualifiers, mindful of striking a sensible balance between number of qualifiers and academic standards.
 An extended moderation period and work through the SSTS in rank order 120, 119, 118, 117 so that the moderation process becomes the vehicle by which a more realistic cohort are qualified.
 Gender analysis needs to be done for this before moderation.
 60 more pupils needed for Wycombe area, 90 for Aylesbury Vale – this should be regarded as a ‘speculative’ figure
 There has been a trend of out of county qualifiers’ raising the bar’ this has been happening for some years
 Apply this criteria across the board - Primary heads must not have last years’ mind set at review panel.

Alternative Standardisations
[XX] shared some preliminary data, which showed out of County applications had significantly increased.
 At the GSHA meeting in December it was agreed in-County test results should be standardised and out of County would then be retro fitted.

Alternative Standardisations
 [XX] circulated a report on a qualified group of 1600 and the review of the impact of that change on the allocation process, the report included the methodology
 In future there will be greater issues arising from the change in admissions policies for looked after children and some other groups
 At present all Bucks children who qualify are given a Grammar school place, not necessarily at their first preference. If the Bucks cohort increases this may change
 All Heads agreed it was very important Bucks children continue to get places so therefore the standardisations must be amended to reflect this
 Children from the fringes often do not get a place as the schools in those areas are heavily over subscribed, therefore some children travel long distances to get to a Grammar school. The cost of transport is the responsibility of the parents and not the Local Authority
 All Heads agreed the standardisation of 2700 (an increase of 202)

As they said, if the # of Bucks qualifiers is significantly increased, then it might be that not all in-County qualifiers are given a grammar school place. I'm not sure this is really a result of "test tourism". Rather, the combination of a single qualification mark ("121") for all the grammar schools and the large variations in affluence, and therefore qualification rates, within Bucks and the catchment areas.

[pippi]

According to the BCC website, the number of in-County automatic qualifiers (initial release figures) over the last few years are: 1344 (2015), 1430 (2016), 1387 (2017), 1457 (2018), 1425 (2019).

Over that period, the number of out-of-County test "tourists" has gone up by around 1,250.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but doesn’t that just show that the grammar schools are doing exactly what they said in their minutes – ie setting the qualification bar by reference to the in-County cohort?

but there are also hundreds (and it is hundreds) from the west London boroughs who enter the test

That must be good for business for any 11+ tuition centres offering Bucks mocks and coaching etc in, say, Harrow! (https://mocks.elevenplusexams.co.uk/book-exams/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)