Ranking

[warden]

Must say I'm very suspicious about the whole process when individual schools are able to adjust scores as they see fit. Seems wide open to abuse, and some of the relative rankings quoted here, if accurate, seem very strange. Ranked 34th at Ribston and nowhere on the Pates scale is particularly baffling.

[ToadMum]

Must say I'm very suspicious about the whole process when individual schools are able to adjust scores as they see fit. Seems wide open to abuse, and some of the relative rankings quoted here, if accurate, seem very strange. Ranked 34th at Ribston and nowhere on the Pates scale is particularly baffling.

My assumption would be the the 'stats' work would be done by CEM, producing ranked standardised scores for each school's cohort according to the children registered to have their raw scores included in that cohort?

One possible explanation for a relatively high ranking for a girls' school but a 'not in the top xfor a mixed school is that there were significantly more boys with higher scores who had opted to have their scores standardised with the Pates cohort, assuming that there is just one list for girls and boys. I don't know many places below the top 150 constitute the waiting list - ? - but it is theoretically possible that the gap between the girl ranked in the 30s for a girls' school who was in the top 150 for Pates and the fairly near ranked girl not on the Pates list in terms of scores is big enough to account for one being ranked for Pates and the other not, if the first one was near the '150' mark. Without a comparison between ranking and score, it is hard to tell.

(Just as an aside, here, the system is that you only get one 'consortium' score, which is valid for applying to all the schools. When we only found out the scores along with our school allocation in March, we would get an email telling us our child's raw and standardised scores, along with their ranking for each of the consortium schools for which we had applied. I can't help thinking that if most taking the Gloucestershire exam opt to share with all the schools of the relevant gender, it might be an idea to set up a central office to disseminate your results in the same way?).

[puzzled.com]

just to help those who are wondering about querying their Pates results. My friend'dd was ranked 32 for Ribson and is in the top 150 for Pates. (and in top 150 etc for the other girls schools)
She is an August birthday.

Hi I'm new to the forum, just confused by this.
My DD was ranked 28 for Ribston and in top 150 for all other girls schools, and she's August born, but not in Pates list.
Just seen another girl who was 32 for Ribston in top 150 Pates, confused me. Does antone know whether we can question schools about their ranking system?

[Cup of tea]

Must say I'm very suspicious about the whole process when individual schools are able to adjust scores as they see fit. Seems wide open to abuse, and some of the relative rankings quoted here, if accurate, seem very strange. Ranked 34th at Ribston and nowhere on the Pates scale is particularly baffling.

I think the difference maybe caused because Ribston is an all girls school?
Look at Pates intake for the past two years: 80/40 in 2015 and 90/60 (boys/girls) in 2016. There is a clear imbalance between boys and girls. (And my own daughter reports of quite low English skills in her class particularly SPAG).
If Pates want to a) improve their English base entry and b) address the imbalance then they are completely within their right to give more weight to the English sections of the paper. This could be why a girl gets a high score for Ribston but misses Pates if the English sections were their weakest part of the paper?
I don't know if this is why these anomalies have occurred, but it is definitely worth phoning the school if that is where your daughters want to go.
I've never known a gs give a ranking within the top 120 before - I don't think it's a good idea. Just 'top 120' is enough info and then rank outside to see chances of getting in.

[steppemum]

That is a really interesting post cup of tea, and makes a lot of sense.
My friend's daughter is definitely stronger in English.

Ribston gave out rankings within the top 150 last year too. I do think it is an odd thing to do.

[warden]

yes - very interesting. My DD was ranked @ 90 at Ribston last year, but totally outside the rankings at Pates. Whilst delighted with her result, I was a tad surprised at the comparative score from Pates as I thought inside the top 100 at any of the girl grammars you might just make the Pates reserve list. However, the imbalance in the intake between boys and girls possibly explains our outcome. However, I'm still very surprised that this year a girl in the top 30 (good at English or not) isn't at least on the reserve list and given a ranking.

[Cup of tea]

Yes I agree, it is strange to be high in Ribston and not be ranked at all at pates, especially when others on here have reported a lower ranking at Ribston and getting a top 150 rank in Pates, which is why I suggested the weighting idea.

Steppemum - I checked our Ribston email, as I was pretty sure we didn't get a ranking, and we had "your daughter is in the top 114" so Ribston must have changed this last year. I wonder why?

[steppemum]

but cup of tea - 'in the top 114' doesn't make sense, they have 150 places, so I would expect it to say - in the top 150 or to say they got 114.

It was definitley a rank last year, but the wording was slightly ambiguous, and I didn't realise at first that it was a rank not just 'in the top 150'

[clarcats]

for entry in 2015 Ribston were taking 114 girls- we got a 'your daughter has passed and is ranked within the 114' as below! For entry for 2016 apparently they also said what ranking you were even if in the top 120 (I think they were having 120 places this year, maybe more!)

So for entry in 2015, this is a copy of part of our email

I was delighted that your daughter took the Ribston Hall High School Entrance Test on 13th September 2014 and I am pleased to give you the results of this test prior to your submission of the Common Application Form (CAF) to the Local Authority.  There are 114 places for Year 7 in September 2015. 
 
I am pleased to inform you that your daughter, *****, has achieved the qualifying standard and is ranked within the top 114. If you place Ribston Hall High School as your first effective preference on the CAF, the Local Authority should allocate your daughter a place.
 

We opted for Stroud High anyway (she was in the 120 again no specific ranking within that number), but shared results with Ribston too - as a potential back up plan, though my daughter said she didn't want to go there as she didn't like their uniform!

[steppemum]

Oh now the 114 makes sense!

dd started (at SHS) this sept - 2016, and her email from Ribston had ranking within the top 150 (120?). So did dd's friend who has just had her results due to start 2017