11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi, I am new to this post but everyone seems so kind and I would be really grateful if you could give me any advice. My son passed his exam to St Ambrose with flying colours but we are not Catholic. We live close to the school and we had a letter from our church confirming we attend regularly and play an active part in church life. We presumed we would get in without a problem as previously all the Christian boys from my son's school had always been accepted at St Ambrose with or without a letter from the church as long as they had passed.
So you can imagine all are devastation this time to find out that my son hasn't been offered a place. In fact none of the boys who are not Catholic have been offered a place. The school we have been offered is not good.
We have heard that the school is only really going to be open to catholics now and I wondered if there was anyone else in the same position and does anyone know much about appealling or wherther it's worth appealling.
So sorry to go on but my son is devastated, (so are we and we can't afford independent school). Thank you for any advice!

Hi! So sorry to hear about your boy not gaining a place despite passing the exam. But I am a bit surprised about all the non-catholic boys from your school gaining places in the past too. I asked the admissions officer about our chances before the entrance exams and she told me that about 7 non catholic boys in total were admitted in the past 5 years, so the chances are very slim. In fact I've heard that even catholics out of area will struggle to get in this year, but not sure if it is just a rumour.

I think it is because our primary is so close to St Ambrose but there has always been 2 or 3 from each year before.

Sorry to hear of your disappointment. I also have friends in a similar situation and I know that boys from all faiths have received places at St Ambrose in previous years. I'm not sure whether it's just a rumour, but I had thought that faith schools had to give a certain number of places to pupils from a different religious backgrounds- but I may well be mistaken about this?

In the meantime, I have included the appeal link that was in a reply from one of the other posts:

http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/Resources/ACE/ ... eb2012.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope your appeal is successful.

Loreto are now an Academy and can set their own rules regarding admissions. Where in the past they did have to allow a certain percentage of non Catholics in, now they don't have to, and they don't!

I don't know if the same applies to St Ambrose.

St. Ambrose is an Academy too!

That answers that then. No more non-Catholics allowed into Loreto and St. Ambrose. To make it an even playing field they shouldn't allow Catholics into AGGS or ABGS.

Its not as black and white as that though is it.

Both schools have admitted non RC children in the past but there have been years when not even all RC Children have been allocated a space because they have run out of places before children. So they aren't excluding Non Catholics altogther.This is simply allocating spaces based on the published admission criteria, same as AGSB or AGGS, its just a different criteria.

It may be that next year the schools have places and can admit lower down the criteria, just not this year.

I agree with Halemum! However having been to a catholic school as a non catholic I don't believe we should have faith schools. We all want the best for our children and if any of these schools were struggling in league tables then I think the majority wouldn't be bothered. All schools try to instill good morales and that's what is important.

Sorry but deeply offended by that remark that catholics wouldn't bother to go to a faith school if it wasn't in the league table and nobody should really tell people when it comes to religion as whether or not to opt for a faith school.My son had a really great score in all the GS in Trafford and did have a good chance of securing a place with schools higher in ranking than St.Ambrose. I certainly didn't choose based just on league table.So please do not generalise.It really is upto individuals to choose the right school for their children as even the top school in the league could be the wrong choice if your child is not happy there.In my humble opinion whether or not some people think there should or should not be a faith school is a personal opinion and should be kept private as a lot of people like me with deep religious faith will be offended.I can understand that at times we all get frustrated but not all the other oversubscription criteria has been fair as well which was clearly mentioned by MAZER66 in his reply. It is a public forum where people need to be careful aabout what they say as it really hurt my feelings.