Colchester County High and Chemsford County High for Girls
Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators
-
Essex Girl
Colchester and Chelmsford Grammar Schools
Wanted to make an addition to my last post.
You say that the school your daughter is at will not assist with the 11+. That is true of many schools but you can bet your bottom dollar that there are teachers there who will be raking in 15-25 pounds per hour tutoring outside school (rather against the moral ethos of a state primary I believe but nevertheless I know it is done)
You say that the school your daughter is at will not assist with the 11+. That is true of many schools but you can bet your bottom dollar that there are teachers there who will be raking in 15-25 pounds per hour tutoring outside school (rather against the moral ethos of a state primary I believe but nevertheless I know it is done)
-
Guest
I just wanted to say, although I do not have any experience of the system where you live, that I do not believe that all of the children who sit the test are fabulously prepared. Some parents have the 'we will sit them for the test and see what happens' attitude. Friends of mine just send their child to a tutoring club in the belief that if they pay it must be good. This is clearly often not the case, so if you are working closely with your child, it could give them an advantage over others, as one to one work can be the key to success.
If your child is top of the class and able to get a very high mark on practise test papers, then they should get in. Of course, there are no guarantees, but not sitting the test means that they definitely won't get in.
If your child is top of the class and able to get a very high mark on practise test papers, then they should get in. Of course, there are no guarantees, but not sitting the test means that they definitely won't get in.
-
Guest666
Re: Colchester and Chelmsford Grammar Schools
Thanks Essex Girl, that's most helpful. Have I misunderstood though? Is it just the VR paper that isn't adjusted for age? That's what you seem to be saying. Are Maths and English scores standarised then? The VR is her best paper - it's Maths that's the problemEssex girl wrote:Apparently, at some point in the past the CSSE did some "research" which suggested that age did not matter when it came to the marking of verbal reasoning papers.
However, the Foundation for Educational Research always take age into consideration when marking their own tests and IQ (which, afterall is supposed to be partially assessed by the VR test, is always age related).
I do not know why the Consortium for Selective Schools in Essex disagreee with the primary education research body in the UK but there you go!!...
The situation regarding not taking age into account when marking the VR applies to the Essex 11+ and is the decision of the Consortium for Selective Schools (ie, it is not just one or two schools).
As you rightly say, not all children start school at the same time and, at the end of the day, if we were all to start preparing children for the 11+ on their 10th birthday then some would have had more preparation than others by the time they sit the exam.
-
Guest666
Thanks for your comments, Guest. You've cheered me up a bit! My daughter has worked extemely hard (her decision) over the last few months and to hear three weeks before the exam the age won't be taken into consideration is soul destroying when we've told her it will be.Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say, although I do not have any experience of the system where you live, that I do not believe that all of the children who sit the test are fabulously prepared. Some parents have the 'we will sit them for the test and see what happens' attitude. Friends of mine just send their child to a tutoring club in the belief that if they pay it must be good. This is clearly often not the case, so if you are working closely with your child, it could give them an advantage over others, as one to one work can be the key to success.
If your child is top of the class and able to get a very high mark on practise test papers, then they should get in. Of course, there are no guarantees, but not sitting the test means that they definitely won't get in.
-
Essex Girl
Colchester and Chelmsford Grammar Schools
Hi,
No, none of the tests take age into consideration. VR would normally be the only one that does in any area because of its relation to IQ.
The maths is an interesting one. I remember one particular year when the test was said to be excessively difficult and even "the mathematicians" found it difficult. Obviously, this had the effect of lowering the mark required to score "enough" on the maths paper.
What you might not know and/or understand is the weighting system.
The VR carries 50% of the marks and the maths and English 25% each. As you will realise, with the number of candidates sitting there are going to be many cases of candidates obtaining the same mark.
The position of the candidate in relation to others sitting is worked out via a weighting system. This is a very complex system which mathematicians employ to "weight" questions against each other. For example.....
Girl A scores 20/50 for English and 30/40 for maths and so does Girl B.
However, Girl A has answered a question on the English paper which is considered more difficult to answer than one of the questions which Girl B has answered. Therefore, Girl A has more "weighting" on this paper.
Obviously, this process is very time consuming and complex when dealing with the number of candidates but you can see how it works.
If, therefore, the English paper is particularly difficult and your daughter iis very good at English, being able to answer the more difficult questions may "weigh" in her favour and offset the questions she found more difficult in the maths paper, etc, etc.
I hope this helps?
No, none of the tests take age into consideration. VR would normally be the only one that does in any area because of its relation to IQ.
The maths is an interesting one. I remember one particular year when the test was said to be excessively difficult and even "the mathematicians" found it difficult. Obviously, this had the effect of lowering the mark required to score "enough" on the maths paper.
What you might not know and/or understand is the weighting system.
The VR carries 50% of the marks and the maths and English 25% each. As you will realise, with the number of candidates sitting there are going to be many cases of candidates obtaining the same mark.
The position of the candidate in relation to others sitting is worked out via a weighting system. This is a very complex system which mathematicians employ to "weight" questions against each other. For example.....
Girl A scores 20/50 for English and 30/40 for maths and so does Girl B.
However, Girl A has answered a question on the English paper which is considered more difficult to answer than one of the questions which Girl B has answered. Therefore, Girl A has more "weighting" on this paper.
Obviously, this process is very time consuming and complex when dealing with the number of candidates but you can see how it works.
If, therefore, the English paper is particularly difficult and your daughter iis very good at English, being able to answer the more difficult questions may "weigh" in her favour and offset the questions she found more difficult in the maths paper, etc, etc.
I hope this helps?
-
Guest666
Re: Colchester and Chelmsford Grammar Schools
It helps enormously, if only to indicate what a farce the whole system isEssex Girl wrote:Hi,
Girl A scores 20/50 for English and 30/40 for maths and so does Girl B.
However, Girl A has answered a question on the English paper which is considered more difficult to answer than one of the questions which Girl B has answered. Therefore, Girl A has more "weighting" on this paper.
Obviously, this process is very time consuming and complex when dealing with the number of candidates but you can see how it works.
If, therefore, the English paper is particularly difficult and your daughter iis very good at English, being able to answer the more difficult questions may "weigh" in her favour and offset the questions she found more difficult in the maths paper, etc, etc.
I hope this helps?
No wonder it takes four months to receive the results. Wish we'd never started the process now. Your help has been much appreciated though Essex Girl.-
rr504
Hi, Essex Girl, you are absolutely right of my intention – yes, we are going to move to Essex if my daughter gets in one of the two schools, if she doesn’t we will stay where we are.
Any ideas of Language School, Science School and Technology School? I guess the school gets extra money to spend on the specified area, not just spend more money in certain area and less money in other areas. Interestingly, the Chelmsford CHSG’s Ofsted report states that the school needs to improve its IT teaching and facilities. It’s a little bit unbelievable that a Technology School hasn’t got the best IT teaching resources.
Looking at CSSE’s past pappers, there were no essay writings in 2004 and 2005 English tests. Is this always the case? We started to prepare the exam very late ( during summer holidays), we didn’t spend much time on English as I thought English was difficult to improve in short time. Luckily my daughter likes reading and read a lot of books. Her reading comprehension ability is well above the average – her teacher told me. You said ‘English is the killer’, which aspects do you think are the most difficult for children? Any good tips for sitting the English test?
Sometimes I think parents and children in Essex or other counties where there are grammar schools are lucky because at least they were given the choice to have free decent education if they don’t have big bucks of money. People in my area have to pay for better education if they have the money, although it’s easier to pass the exam.
Any ideas of Language School, Science School and Technology School? I guess the school gets extra money to spend on the specified area, not just spend more money in certain area and less money in other areas. Interestingly, the Chelmsford CHSG’s Ofsted report states that the school needs to improve its IT teaching and facilities. It’s a little bit unbelievable that a Technology School hasn’t got the best IT teaching resources.
Looking at CSSE’s past pappers, there were no essay writings in 2004 and 2005 English tests. Is this always the case? We started to prepare the exam very late ( during summer holidays), we didn’t spend much time on English as I thought English was difficult to improve in short time. Luckily my daughter likes reading and read a lot of books. Her reading comprehension ability is well above the average – her teacher told me. You said ‘English is the killer’, which aspects do you think are the most difficult for children? Any good tips for sitting the English test?
Sometimes I think parents and children in Essex or other counties where there are grammar schools are lucky because at least they were given the choice to have free decent education if they don’t have big bucks of money. People in my area have to pay for better education if they have the money, although it’s easier to pass the exam.
-
Guest
Ofsted often says that IT could be improved, mainly because it is an easy target for criticism as which school is able to constantly update its IT equipment? Ofsted also believe that IT should be used in every lesson, not just the ICT lessons, and often teachers are not experts in ICT which can lead to problems.
I would say, don't worry about IT comments on Ofsted, it is the quality of teaching and behaviour that are the prime concerns. Constant low level disruption is extremely common in secondary schools and is one of the reasons for poor progress in some cases. It is hard to teach well if a teacher is having to reprimand other pupils. I know, I am a teacher myself.
I would say, don't worry about IT comments on Ofsted, it is the quality of teaching and behaviour that are the prime concerns. Constant low level disruption is extremely common in secondary schools and is one of the reasons for poor progress in some cases. It is hard to teach well if a teacher is having to reprimand other pupils. I know, I am a teacher myself.
-
Essex Girl
Chelmsford and Colchester Girls, etc
Guest is absolutely right about the IT situation. Osted try desparately to find something to complain about when they inspect.
The English exam in Essex is purely comprehension. The papers you have obtained from the CSSE are complete. There used to be sections for grammar, spelling, etc but no longer.
The English paper has, for the past few years, followed the same format, I believe. However, you never know when this may change.
As it stands the questions tend to be of similar types and there is always the section true/false, some punctuation and the "Which word in the piece could be replaced with the word on the left section. The true/false is, I think, the most difficult because it often needs some reading between the lines to ascertain the correct answer. As they can take some time to work out, I suggest that they are done last. The punctuation falls into two types. Firstly, there is the "right out the following lines from the piece with the correct punctuation" type. The marks for each question in the paper can be seen on the right hand side and one of the best (but perhaps most forgotten tips) is to remind your daughter than if there are 12 marks for punctuation, then there are 12 pieces of punctuation. So far, I have never seen a requirement for colons, semi-colons or dashes and make sure your daughter is not taught to use dashes instead of commas.
The other type of punctuation is usually where you are given a sentence such as "John told Elizabeth that his car had broken down and that he would need to buy a new car" and asked to write it as though John were actually saying it or as Elizabeth would have reported him saying it.... if you get my drift.
The "word replacements, as you will have seen, always give the lines where the word can be found and the best advice I can give here is to ensure your daughter realises that the structure of the sentence must make sense, ie, if the word given as a replacement is "sheltered" and the sentence reads "the children were covered by the overhanging branches" then it will be obvious to most children, who have an understanding of the word "sheltered" that the word sheltered does not replace overhanging. Having said all this, it is not always easy because children do not always have any idea what the replacement word means. It may sound simple but it really is worth going through this idea with your daughter so that she gets better at picking out the obvious. One idea is to take a book of classic literature and ask her to pick out a word in any paragraph that can be replaced by the word ????? (Whatever you can think of that is suitable).
I think the "replacement" questions should be done first, if possible, because there are usually at least ten of them and if your child is good at these, it will give them ten relatively quick marks.
As for the other types of schools you mention, I would say the following:
Southend High School for Girls (grammar) is a language college. It is compulsary to take 1 language to take GCSE but many girls choose two. Excellent school.
Westcliff High School for Girls (grammar) is a science and engineering college) with an excellent academic reputation but is said to be less "friendly" than the above.
Anglo European School in Ingatestone is also a language college with a good reputation. They offer the Baccalauriate (doubt I've spelt that right) as well as A levels but 2 GCSE's in languages are, I believe, compulsary which may not be a good thing if your child turns out to be a science, arts or humanities person. Impossible to get into if you do not live in the catchment area or have spent several years living abroad or the child has a European parent, etc.
St. Martin's School is in Hutton and is a specialist in Technology. They are now applying for specialist status in humanities as well. Excellent discipline and leadership, very good on morals, behaviour and uniform. Good results and as from September 2006 there should be a maximum of 24 children in a class. Their last Ofsted was not brillient but I would thoroughly recommend it. St. Martins has a technology entrance exam. Tests are taken in Non verbal reasoning and maths. They offer 28 places to students outside their catchment areas with the highest scores in these tests. You need to complete a supplimentary entry form for this school.
Mayflower in Billericay is also a science college. Excellent science facilities but not so hot on uniform. Very nice school, generally and well laid out. However, despite being a science college, the uptake of girls into 'A' level sciences is still rather weak, in my view. Last year the results show no physics girls for A level and only one boy and, if I remember correctly, only one girl took chemestry. (A few did biology though).
I believe the Philip Morant School in Colchester is very good but do not know very much about it. Same for Sacred Heart of St Mary in Upminster (Girls catholic though!) and Coopers Company and Coburn in Upminster (which is probably the best comp in the country).
The trouble is that all these schools are very heavily oversubscribed and if you are applying from outside you will not stand a chance at most of them.
Undoubtedly, there are others which are very good but Essex is such a big county that it is impossible to go through all possibilities.
The English exam in Essex is purely comprehension. The papers you have obtained from the CSSE are complete. There used to be sections for grammar, spelling, etc but no longer.
The English paper has, for the past few years, followed the same format, I believe. However, you never know when this may change.
As it stands the questions tend to be of similar types and there is always the section true/false, some punctuation and the "Which word in the piece could be replaced with the word on the left section. The true/false is, I think, the most difficult because it often needs some reading between the lines to ascertain the correct answer. As they can take some time to work out, I suggest that they are done last. The punctuation falls into two types. Firstly, there is the "right out the following lines from the piece with the correct punctuation" type. The marks for each question in the paper can be seen on the right hand side and one of the best (but perhaps most forgotten tips) is to remind your daughter than if there are 12 marks for punctuation, then there are 12 pieces of punctuation. So far, I have never seen a requirement for colons, semi-colons or dashes and make sure your daughter is not taught to use dashes instead of commas.
The other type of punctuation is usually where you are given a sentence such as "John told Elizabeth that his car had broken down and that he would need to buy a new car" and asked to write it as though John were actually saying it or as Elizabeth would have reported him saying it.... if you get my drift.
The "word replacements, as you will have seen, always give the lines where the word can be found and the best advice I can give here is to ensure your daughter realises that the structure of the sentence must make sense, ie, if the word given as a replacement is "sheltered" and the sentence reads "the children were covered by the overhanging branches" then it will be obvious to most children, who have an understanding of the word "sheltered" that the word sheltered does not replace overhanging. Having said all this, it is not always easy because children do not always have any idea what the replacement word means. It may sound simple but it really is worth going through this idea with your daughter so that she gets better at picking out the obvious. One idea is to take a book of classic literature and ask her to pick out a word in any paragraph that can be replaced by the word ????? (Whatever you can think of that is suitable).
I think the "replacement" questions should be done first, if possible, because there are usually at least ten of them and if your child is good at these, it will give them ten relatively quick marks.
As for the other types of schools you mention, I would say the following:
Southend High School for Girls (grammar) is a language college. It is compulsary to take 1 language to take GCSE but many girls choose two. Excellent school.
Westcliff High School for Girls (grammar) is a science and engineering college) with an excellent academic reputation but is said to be less "friendly" than the above.
Anglo European School in Ingatestone is also a language college with a good reputation. They offer the Baccalauriate (doubt I've spelt that right) as well as A levels but 2 GCSE's in languages are, I believe, compulsary which may not be a good thing if your child turns out to be a science, arts or humanities person. Impossible to get into if you do not live in the catchment area or have spent several years living abroad or the child has a European parent, etc.
St. Martin's School is in Hutton and is a specialist in Technology. They are now applying for specialist status in humanities as well. Excellent discipline and leadership, very good on morals, behaviour and uniform. Good results and as from September 2006 there should be a maximum of 24 children in a class. Their last Ofsted was not brillient but I would thoroughly recommend it. St. Martins has a technology entrance exam. Tests are taken in Non verbal reasoning and maths. They offer 28 places to students outside their catchment areas with the highest scores in these tests. You need to complete a supplimentary entry form for this school.
Mayflower in Billericay is also a science college. Excellent science facilities but not so hot on uniform. Very nice school, generally and well laid out. However, despite being a science college, the uptake of girls into 'A' level sciences is still rather weak, in my view. Last year the results show no physics girls for A level and only one boy and, if I remember correctly, only one girl took chemestry. (A few did biology though).
I believe the Philip Morant School in Colchester is very good but do not know very much about it. Same for Sacred Heart of St Mary in Upminster (Girls catholic though!) and Coopers Company and Coburn in Upminster (which is probably the best comp in the country).
The trouble is that all these schools are very heavily oversubscribed and if you are applying from outside you will not stand a chance at most of them.
Undoubtedly, there are others which are very good but Essex is such a big county that it is impossible to go through all possibilities.
-
rr504