Information on St Thomas More Please

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SpicyMum
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Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 10:23 pm

Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by SpicyMum »

My Ds hasn't scored high enough to get into GS in Southend areas. With just over 303 and being OOC area, he now wants to get to St Thomas. Do the kids who took and passed the test get grouped together in one class? And how is teaching? the last league table doesn't seem torank this school high enough. Information please.
Chai
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by Chai »

I have a few students from St Thomas More who have done very well at GCSE and are now at GS at 6th form. They are out of catchment and did not pass the 11+.
moved
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by moved »

Catholics are given priority for the grammar stream. Tommy More won't look as good in the tables as it is a comprehensive with a mixed ability intake.
SpicyMum
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by SpicyMum »

Chai wrote:I have a few students from St Thomas More who have done very well at GCSE and are now at GS at 6th form. They are out of catchment and did not pass the 11+.
moved wrote:Catholics are given priority for the grammar stream. Tommy More won't look as good in the tables as it is a comprehensive with a mixed ability intake.
Thanks Chai and Moved. Although I knew that St Thomas is not a pure GS school in the strict sense, I did not know that it is in fact categorised as a comprehensive! Big disappointment here. One wonders on the reason why they're with CSSE at all...
moved
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by moved »

It is a Catholic school, with funding from both the church and the state. It is technically a bilateral school.

Shoebury and Cecil Jones are also comprehensive schools that are partially selective. The non-selective elements of these schools are comprehensive.

I'm not sure what the designation of the school has to do with the achievement of its pupils.

If partially selective, the remaining intake must be non-selective.
ToadMum
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by ToadMum »

DD is in yr7 at Cecil Jones. This school allocates children to "populations" (streams) on the basis of their SATs. DD is in "X-Pop" - Extension Population - which seems to include about a quarter of the intake. DD says that in her Maths class the spread is from level 6 down to "a good level 4" (apparently the teacher had not been sent their levels by the first lesson, so asked them to put their hand up when she read out the appropriate one :lol: ).

Several, like DD, took the 11+ and did not achieve 303. There may well be those who would have passed the 11+ but wanted to go to CJC rather than a grammar and were in catchment so were under no pressure to test. Similarly, in the case of St Thomas More (or St Bernard's), children wanting a place and knowing that they qualify for the school under faith criteria would be under no pressure to take the 11+ to try get a semi-selective place, however academically able they might be.

In these schools, the bright kids are bright kids, however they got there :) .
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
Dazel
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by Dazel »

Does anyone know how much religious teaching there is at this school? I know it is a catholic school, but how heavy on the Catholicism is it?
ToadMum
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by ToadMum »

Dazel wrote:Does anyone know how much religious teaching there is at this school? I know it is a catholic school, but how heavy on the Catholicism is it?
Have you had a look at their prospectus? RE as an academic subject 4 periods per fortnight.

Back in the 1970s I attended a girls' indie which was officially pretty High Anglican, but I have to say that although even then a confirmed (sorry no pun intended!) atheist, to me it never felt like the impression the STM prospectus gives of the "religiousity" of the school, if you see what I mean.

The day-to-day reality may not be as heavy as it sounds, of course, but the impression the school gives is that it is definitely not a school to go for just to get a "selective" place unless you (or more importantly your DS) actually have the religious commitment to go with it.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
moved
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Re: Information on St Thomas More Please

Post by moved »

The main issue is that you have to complete a SIF for religious faith, unlike St. Bernard's.
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