Devonport High School For Girls 11+ results

[zoorooms]

The whole system is a farce. My daughter pretty much achieved what she achieved in the mock, i.e. 213 this time round as opposed to 217 in the mock. The lowest score in the mock and the actual was 138, but the highest score has moved from 243 to 263. So where does this leave us for the next 6 months?

This system of reporting is so rubbish because unless you've scored the lowest or highest score, you have no idea where you stand. In fact, those people are the only people who can actually use the suggesttion from Plymouth City Council which suggests, "This may help you to decide which school to apply for"... no it won't it is a meaningless result that tells us nothing, just confuses. I suggest as many people as possible who sat at Devonport of Plymouth High publish there results to give a flavour of where we are at and circumvent the Council useless system. Some people will know what they are doing (i.e. those with the highest and lowest marks) for the rest of us it is sheer frustration.

[Anna10]

I completely agree with zoorooms, the scores are utterly useless without further information,ie- a cut off point.

To make the most of the 3 options for secondary school selection we need this info. If I knew my daughter had not met the required score I could then put more appropriate choices for schools in place, instead of wasting 2 of the 3 in the hope she does well enough to get into either DHSG or PHSG. Surely this would also simplify the selection process for the council too?

Similarly, she has a "middle" score of 189. I would love to see more people posting scores so we can try to make sense of it all!

[hungrybear]

Chalk up another agreement! Why all the secret squirrel nonsense? Just got the letter and it is utterly meaningless. It starts off 'i am writing to tell you how your daughter performed in her 11 plus exam'. A promising start! But then just gives you three numbers without any frame of reference whatsoever. They might just as well have sent us a letter telling us what star sign the headmasters of the two schools are. Anyway, our three numbers are:

test 1 104
test 2 118
total 222

I do know that last year the 'cut off' marks were 199 for DHSG and 186 for PHSG, which is cold comfort because that exam may well have been slightly harder or easier or fewer girls may have taken it etc etc.

So, having sat three exams with no syllabus and no past papers we now have a letter which tells us nothing! Thank you PCC.

[geena71776]

Hello
Agree totally that this scoring system give no information at all. Especially as the lowest and highest scores might be particularly high or low. My d got 190, about even results on both papers. If the highest candidate got 263 does anyone know what the very highest score could have been?

[hungrybear]

i believe that the highest possible score is 282, at least it was last year.

[geena71776]

Thanks for reply on highest possible score. Practice papers seemed to be out of 50 for maths and 80 for VR. I assumed before the mock tests that scores would be out of 130 but obviously got that wrong! This way of reporting results is very disappointing. We want to move to Plymouth from Cornwall, not just for secondary school, but knowing geographically where our D would go to school was going to help focus the search for a house. We have a 3 year old and now think concentrating on the primary end is the only way to go. Ivybridge will probably be our 3rd choice, after the two grammars, but we would like to live in the city for all the conveniences of city life!

[zoorooms]

I have tweeted all contacts, with potentially 50,000 people receiving this link and have included the local labour party, the herald, and councillor Tudor Evans and others to try and point out how ridiculous this system is. The fact is that at least 2 people know whether they will receive a place or not, and that is not fair. I'm sure that is not democratic.

[hungrybear]

geena i agree that a simple score out of 130 would be good BUT they 'adjust' the results based on the actual age of the child at the time of the exam, because there can be almost a year difference in age.

- i didnt say it was fair or right!

And anyway that would be FAR too transparent.

why can't the just say 'based on this score your child came xxxth in the exam out of yyy girls that sat it'. In fact forget the score just give me the ranking. In fact forget the ranking just tell me if she was in the top 240 or not. Do they not realise that that is all we care about at this stage. Did my child score a mark in the top 240 yes or no?

And what do I tell my daughter at 3:30 when she asks how she did? Because I don't know.

[zoorooms]

Alison Hernandez (councillor Torbay) is on the case, perhaps everyone should tweet @CouncillorTudor (PCC Leader) to express your concern with the system

Alison Hernandez ‏@AlisonHernandez
@CouncillorTudor can u help? NT "11+ results out today & Plymouth CC has left parents high & dry.check out this forum http://bit.ly/T8IpEC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ”

[geena71776]

hungrybear
you are right re the results, it would tell us all where we stand, and there could always be some small print about some pupils moving out of the area or not choosing a grammar school in the end so that they could go to a secondary near home or where more friends are going. But to know that score was in top 240 or near enough would give a clearer picture. This was exactly what I expected the letter today to say.