I read somewhere on this forum someone calling British children eleven plus tourists. That’s really worrying.

No one even dared challenge him/her, even more worrying.

The phrase "11+ tourist" is used on this site to refer to people who take an exam for a school that they have no chance of getting into because they live too far away to get a place or to travel to if they got a place. Eg, people who sit for the schools in Barnet and the schools in Kent, or the schools in Sutton and the schools in Bucks.

It's nothing to do with whether or not they're British.

What did you think it meant?

Did you challenge them, Eleven ? If so, what did they say? And if not - why not?

It appears as if Kent schools are determined not to allow London kids into their GS.

Do you think travelling from London to Kent is sensible for a year 7 child carrying heavy bags, five times weekly for several years?

I notice you failed to answer my question. I wonder why.

They are normally affectionately known on here as M25 tourists.

Morally, I don't believe there is anything wrong with schools making sure that the majority of their pupils are from the local area. I'm sure there are exceptions but it can't be good for a child's health and wellbeing to travel very long distances to school every day.

I don't think it's about keeping certain people out, more about the ethos of the school and how the school views its place in the local community.

eleven - the main problem with 11+ tourists is that they get their child to sit for a very large number of exams - often without reading the admission criteria and hence not realising that they have little chance of getting in even if they get a good score.

There are many who feel that they want to take all the exams and then make a mad dash move to a different area by the end of October or whenever.

Some also seem a little vague as to where they actually live anyway and forget they can actually only go to one school.

The problem with this is that it can affect the passmarks / cutoff scores for the children in the area of the school meaning that some who would reasonably be expected to pass don't get the cutoff as it is based on a percentage of the overall cohort.

We get puzzled on the forum when people are waiting on B'ham / HBS / Surrey / Kent / Essex./ Trafford all at the same time - there are also often complaints when people discover that there is an exam clash for schools at a very great distance from each other as they want to dash around taking as many exams as possible

Also worth remembering that there is a cost to the LEA / school / taxpayer for each exam attendee

I was going to ask if the number of OOC applicants could affect the pass marks.

I was looking at the spreadsheet of scores by school from 2017 that was posted the other day and a large proportion of those who scored 423 were from OOC.

If you realistically won't be taken a space in Kent (how many of the OOC passes last year got a space?) then should you be taking the test? Especially if they (which seems to be the case) are being pushed to score the very top marks and therefore skewing the results.

(I'm in county and we got a pass - so no bearing on me - just a wonderment!)

Those scoring 423 will get a place if they want one: there are places for top scorers at Judd, Dartford, TGS etc. Most Kent places are reserved for residents though so the OOC scores make no difference to them. They calibrate the pass mark/ HT appeal estimates to pass 25% of Kent resident children specifically.