Consultation on admissions - Skipton Girls

[andy from embsay]

I think that's the case, but to be honest it'd be pretty unlikely that they'd have more girls OOC with siblings than they have places, as they usually only fill about half the 112 places from catchment anyway.

[Snowdrops]

I didn't realise SGHS was an academy (should have remembered from previous postings - sorry ).

I read the wording the same as Trafford mum re: sibs and distance.

Andy, I feel for you. The first year always seems so much a test case (so to speak). Are you looking round for a new tutor (just in case)?

[andy from embsay]

Spoke to the tutor today, and she says she's got past papers etc for maths and english, and she's tutored someone who's just got into Lancaster, so I think she'll be fine. The difficulty is when/if they stop working on non-verbal and move over to concentrating on maths and english. I think there's no doubt they'll change to the new system, but I don't think they have to actually confirm it til March.

I showed younger one the example papers on the LGGS website and she seemed to recognise what to do on all the questions, so in some ways I suspect it'll be good for her (she's pretty strong academically on all the SATS subjects) as it should just be stuff she does at school.

[andy from embsay]

Well the tutor's had a gander at the SGHS website and has had a chat with her tutory friends and has concluded that they'll be going ahead with the changes. She says she's going to stop non-verbal and add in maths and english.

Our primary head says one of the drivers of the decision is that the council will charge SGHS £100k to do their testing and admissions, so presumably they believe they can get it cheaper by entering a consortium with other Lancs schools. It'll be odd at school though when the boys are taken off to the hall to do their Ermy's 11+ but the girls have to wait a couple of weeks and go into SGHS to do it. Eldest finds the idea of her sister having to do her test on a Saturday hysterically funny.

Head also says that appeals will be "easier" (her words) as it'll be head to head rather than a panel. Not sure how that'll work, but she seemed confident it'll help the "performed badly on the day" cases.

I wonder if they'll have any practice tests like they did for the NYCC ones?

[andy from embsay]

Well people had to get their submissions in for early Feb if they wanted them considered - but not sure when they announce their decision. I am assuming (as is our daughter's tutor) that they will go with the consortium and changes to the system.

[andy from embsay]

Our headteacher's off for a meeting with SGHS early next term to hear about the new arrangements. Assuming they go ahead the exam will be 29 September - that's when Lancaster Girls' are doing theirs and as they're using the same paper I assume it'll be the same day.

[andy from embsay]

Well after all those weeks of consultation they've made a decision and amazingly they're going to do exactly what they said they'd do.

So the entry is now english, maths and VR, one paper of each, all sat on a Saturday morning in September. I know it's the same as a lot of other places, but asking 10 year olds to do 2x50min and 1x35min paper one after the other seems a bit tough.

Spoke to a friend tonight who's a governor at our (in area) primary, and she's intending to ask the head to arrange practice sessions for the girls (the boys will do the NYCC practice tests) - not hopeful!

The only slight worry about this change is the lack of transparency about what a "pass" is - with the NYCC test you knew if they were top third-ish of the in area kids they were in. Now they're saying the standard will be "similar" and they are still favouring in area girls, but no indication of what the standard will be.

[hermanmunster]

I really suspect the standard will stay much the same - unless they take 28% of the in area girls and all those out of area who reach the standard they won't actually fill the places...!

I think it will be slightly strange that the boys will carry on doing the test in school whereas the girls will be still in the classrooms at that time - on 3 occasions.

Are they setting the girls test in school? presumably they must be if it is a saturday... parking round here will be even crazier than usual

[andy from embsay]

Yep, tests in school at 9:30 on 29/9. I wonder if they've really thought the logistics through - don't they have about 350 girls entered each year? I bet they can't get anywhere near that in the hall - imagine trying to herd 350 nervous 10 year olds in and out of classrooms, toilets etc etc!

[andy from embsay]

Listened to the admissions chat at the open evening the other night - hadn't been to the original one as I've read all the stuff and couldn't see them telling us much else.

However they did give one interesting nugget away (well two, actually) - the main one was that they aren't going to give any idea of the passmark or the % of local girls they'll take, but they did say that the pass mark will be calculated using in-area scores only, and (this was the really interesting bit) they'll set the standard so that the girls they'll take will be solid L5 in SATS at the end of Y6 - which gives you something to extrapolate to.

I've also spoken to several parents who say that in conversation with the governors one of their key objectives is to maximise the number of local girls going to the school - which will be interesting as the proportion in most years seems to be hovering around 50%.