Did anyone see the news?

;kysiesmum · Post by **;kysiesmum** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:04 pm

I also live in east Kent, and within the catchment area for the Harvey grammar and although my ds doesn't want to go there I don't know of one child who has put it on their CAF or who already attends who hasn't earnt his place there.I agree that we probably have a more laid-back approach to the 11+ around this area and that most children around here get into gs without months of intensive tutoring.I am not getting at anyone whose dc was tutored just saying that I am pleased that in this area the competition isn't so fierce for places that we have to go down that route.

Just1-2go · Post by **Just1-2go** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:14 pm

;kysiesmum wrote:I am not getting at anyone whose dc was tutored just saying that I am pleased that in this area the competition isn't so fierce for places that we have to go down that route.

It would be great if the situation in West Kent were the same and if, as mentioned in this weeks Courier, they increase Grammar school places here perhaps things will get less pressurised in the future. (Is that a pig I see flying by?

)

Just1-2go · Post by **Just1-2go** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:27 pm

Very interesting article about the subject in this thread linked from the news section of "he who must not be named"'s website.

U400JB9 · Post by **U400JB9** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:14 pm

I live in east Kent too, Canterbury to be precise...and last year there were children here who passed and did not get places at Grammar, so although its not on such a grand scale, there is a problem here.

I`d like to know where all these unfilled spaces are....cos as a borderline fail ( two points) we`d like one for our daughter please.

I agree the attutude to the Kent test here is more laid back......and I think we have more schools here, two in Ramsgate, two in Dover, 3 in Canterbury. Maybe thats the diference. Oh and its far more sparsely populated over here

But its nice to be made to feel that our kids are thicker over here by the powers that be

dadofkent · Post by **dadofkent** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:50 pm

U400JB9 wrote: Maybe thats the diference. Oh and its far more sparsely populated over here

As has been pointed out before, half the catchment area only includes fish.

Tolstoy · Post by **Tolstoy** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:02 pm

I am not from Kent so don't know the history behind the lack of children with the ability to score high enough to be deemed selective in East Kent but to me it seems very odd. All that fish and freshh air what is going on

So could it be that all the tutoring going on in west Kent plus the additional OOC children who by dint of opting in will be on the upper scales of raw scores is affecting the level of raw score neede to hit the standardised pass mark.

If standardisation is set on the Kent average rather than east v west then an artifically high score will affect the lay backed east more significantly i.e borderline children will be more likely to fail with the artifically inflated higher raw score needed.

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:22 pm

to be fair they're not all fish. We also have the odd dolphin.....

kentsussexborder · Post by **kentsussexborder** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 pm

And to be fair, apparently the benefits of Omega3 in fish oil is all a load of pollocks anyway... (read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, which has some interesting view points on this!)