11 Plus Exams Forum

Anyone seen the article in the Lincolnshire Echo today?

Basically, some 12 secondary school heads are claiming that some grammars are approaching those who failed 11 plus and offering them places, in order to fill up their falling rolls. County Council have dismissed the claims as "rubbish". These heads are also "requesting an end to what they say is a cloud of secrecy surrounding the 11-plus".

Anyone any direct experience of this???

This is the article in question for anyone who is interested

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/dis ... eId=156139

Thank you SJ - I didn't know how to post the link!!!

I have just submitted the following comment to the Lincs Echo on the story posted.

"Please do not publish my e-mail address.
I have a son who has this year qualified for a place at Kings in Grantham. While deciding on which school to select for our son we attended several open evenings for schools in the area. We found that many of the headteachers, spent a good percentage of the time allocated to speaking to parents about their school, was given instead to preaching about the unfair 11+ selection process. The underlying message was definatly one of 'shame on any parent putting their child up for this'. In fact one headteacher took great pride in showing us a graph of the perfectly comprehensive intake his school had managed to achieve over the past few years despite the'creaming off' by local grammars. This is achieved however by approaching primary schools and requesting projected SAT's levels of pupils who have applied for the school. In my mind they are just as guilty of selection as any grammar, but using an underhanded method rather than a completely OPTIONAL test which no one is forced to sit!
Although my son did pass and gained a place, some of his friends did not, most by a very slim margin. None of these boys to my knowledge have been approached with an offer of a place. The appeal process is also still ongoing and I therefore do not understand why places would be offered to children when places will be needed for any child who's appeal is upheld.
If these schools have evidence of this happening, they should make it available as it may be of great value to those currently involved in the extreamly stressful appeal process."

angelz

Hi Angelz,

One wonders who these 12 school heads are and what political agenda is afoot!! I note that the quoted head is Ian Wright, head of William Robertson School in Welbourn. This is a very popular school and is full; no problem there of filling its places (incidentally, I have a great deal of respect for Mr Wright - I think he is a brilliant head and has done wonders with his school). I guess that some children who might choose that school are also in the area for the 2 Grantham Grammars and the 2 Sleaford Grammars, but the girls' schools are both full and I have yet to hear of anyone being approached by either of the boys' schools. The only other Grammars not full at allocation time were in Boston - masses of places so they could not possibly hope to fill them with near misses and the schools are due to amalgamate, and Skegness. Just whose pupils are they supposedly poaching? All the non-selective Boston schools are full; the comp in Sleaford is always oversubscribed; the other non-selective schools are mainly those who have had problems filling their places for some time because they are "schools causing concern" or have particularly low success rates at GCSE.