11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi I'm trying to understand how DGS operate their admission.

I understand that 25% of places go to top scorers irrespective of distance. So these are probably your 420-423's.

Then I get stuck. If a child achieved a score of 415 for example and lived on Bexley/Greenwich borders - wld they stand any chance?

After top 25%, do they just offer places to Zone A? Or do they look at 419 and offer to all 419's (zone A being first and then outside). Or do they look at 418 in zone A before looking at 419 outside zone A?

Does this make sense to anyone?? I'm so confused!

I think when they refer to the top 25% -they mean the top 25% of the population who took the test, so to get a place you would have to be in the top 25%.

It looks like they offer places to those in Area A first presumably down to the pass mark then to the area outside in rank order.

I have hunted through the old posts and found one which indicated (a few years ago at least) that Area A did not account for all the admissions.

will try to hunt for some more info ... or someone else may know the answer

ETA: useful info here: http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... rd#p407691" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bexleymum101 wrote:Hi I'm trying to understand how DGS operate their admission.

I understand that 25% of places go to top scorers irrespective of distance. So these are probably your 420-423's.

Then I get stuck. If a child achieved a score of 415 for example and lived on Bexley/Greenwich borders - wld they stand any chance?

After top 25%, do they just offer places to Zone A? Or do they look at 419 and offer to all 419's (zone A being first and then outside). Or do they look at 418 in zone A before looking at 419 outside zone A?


Does this make sense to anyone?? I'm so confused!

Only 10% gets 423 and 3% gets 420-422. I did the maths/statistics based on my calculations .
25 % does not get 423!

DGS offer to boys in the Dartford parishes who have passed Kent (score doesn't matter) then offer on score regardless of distance. There was a post recently saying scores in previous years for "Out of Dartford" boys.

What happens if they fill all 150 spots with parish boys.

Their teaching must be quite exceptional for them to do so well in the league tables?

I have a son in Y10 and my understanding is that everyone who passes the Kent test and lives in their designated catchment area A will get a place if they apply (and they're a boy, of course)
You can double-check the area covered on their website

After that, as Bondgirl says, they work on score going down (presumably from 423), and where there is a bunch of applicants on the same score, on distance. So there is going to be a point at which some boys living nearby on the lowest score for that year get in, and boys living further away with the same score, start filling up the waiting list.

I don't see anything in DGS' admission criteria operating a top 25% guaranteed place, like hermanmunster I think that figure must arise from the estimate that children in the top 25% ability band nationally might be expected to pass the Kent test.

It is an exceptional school, and I'd say that in ds' year, about 20% are not from Dartford. Ds was a successful OOC candidate and he has classmates who commute in from Mottingham, Chislehurst, Greenwich and even Beckton . But most of them are from Dartford, Greenhithe, Crayford etc.

from the school website;

The school will admit 150 boys in September 2014, using the Kent Age 11 Assessment Process to identify applicants in the top 25% of the ability range in relation to national norms.

I heard that about 70 of the places each year (on average) go to boys who live in the local area who have passed their 11+. I'm sure if you phoned the school they could confirm this figure for last year.
This leaves at least half of the places for those not in this area who get a place based on their score.

They said tonight that after the boys who live in Parish it went by score. Last year it went down to 394, the year before it was 414. So they is huge variability!

Bobmumof3 wrote:They said tonight that after the boys who live in Parish it went by score. Last year it went down to 394, the year before it was 414. So they is huge variability!

In 2010, ds got in with what I believed to be a potentially dodgy OOC score of under 400. So that was a "low" year too, possibly!