City boys 10+/11+

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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southbucks3
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by southbucks3 »

mystery wrote:Interesting question. I find it very dispiriting that a child could be stellar at maths or English and not get in to a state selective. It is very shortsighted, but to the advantage of the local comprehensive I suppose ( or the private school with a less blinkered approach to admissions ).

We have a local boy who just left our upper to go to Oxford and study maths, he had exemption from school maths lessons as he is so brilliant, he had a special tutor instead who set him his own work. He failed his 11+ but declared from an early age he did not want to go to grammar, he wanted to go to the upper with his friends. Thankfully Oxford know a maths genius when they see one, as his o levels were a mixed bag.

Good on the private schools I say...for recognising that brilliant brains come in all guises.
Finchley mum
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by Finchley mum »

Its a good point that selective state schools do not necessarily get the best students in a particular subject area but the best all rounders because of the way they select (ie because they have to average the score). But I cannot see any other fair way to choose from so many candidates that apply. The private schools can be more discerning because they have fewer numbers applying.

But I take this to mean that just because a child does not get into a stellar school (because they are not an all rounder) or get stellar results, all is not lost! Mind you, I would say this - still recall having to explain why I failed 2 o levels at my Cambridge interview....
ClappedOutMum
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by ClappedOutMum »

But actually, going back a few posts, if a DS ranked 2 in Maths and 200 in English. His average could well be around 101 which is well good enough to be interviewed out of 541 candidates. In fact, I'd guess they interview around 200 boys for the 60 or 70 offers. So not really anything particularly discerning.
Daogroupie
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by Daogroupie »

Sadly, it is not that the state schools are being shortsighted because that could easily be fixed; it is because the government regulations preclude them from offering academic places in anything other than rank order. So the student who gets 100% in Maths but only 40% in English cannot be given a place ahead of the student who gets 75% in Maths and 75% in English because they are ranked higher because of the total of their marks. I have been studying DAO results for some years and I see the same sad stories every year. This year I know two students who got 90% in the English paper but only a mark in the 60's in the Maths paper so both failed to win a place. I also know a student who achieved the highest mark awarded this year for the Creative Writing who also failed to win a place because of a low maths mark and another one who was one mark off the highest mark and also had 100% in the VR paper but also failed to win a place because of a lower maths mark. All these students have been offered interviews at every private school they applied for as you might expect because the private schools have free rein to offer a place to a student who has a ranking total lower than other students who are not offered a place. I am sure that DAO would have loved to have been able to offer these students a place and the English department would have been delighted to have them but their hands are tied by the ranking critieria. HBS and QE and St M's are in the same boat but at QE you need high marks in both papers to get anywhere near a place so the same issues do not apply.

With reference to the mark of 78 in the City exam, this was a percentage mark worked out by the parents from the mark given and the total mark given. They were surprised that you could get 78% in the exams and not even get to interview. I am sure at Habs and St Albans and MTS that mark would get you to interview? DG
Finchley mum
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by Finchley mum »

re "But actually, going back a few posts, if a DS ranked 2 in Maths and 200 in English. His average could well be around 101 which is well good enough to be interviewed out of 541 candidates. In fact, I'd guess they interview around 200 boys for the 60 or 70 offers. So not really anything particularly discerning."

The discerning bit here I suppose is that child not only got an interview but also an academic scholarship despite an average ranking of 100.
fairyelephant
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by fairyelephant »

Maybe the people who fund the scholarship set it up as a scholarship for excellence in maths and he got the top or second top maths mark? They would check out his general literacy level at interview and by school report to make sure he would cope and there you are...... There are no legal requirements, so the schools can do as they/donors wish. I suspect that any child who gets to interview is bright enough to cope at the school, it's up to them who they offer to (won't always be the top scores, or else why interview) and what criteria they set for scholarship. It's never going to be as transparent as state funded schools have to be.

If only we knew what the decisions were! The wait is killing me!!!
fairyelephant
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by fairyelephant »

Daogroupie wrote:With reference to the mark of 78 in the City exam, this was a percentage mark worked out by the parents from the mark given and the total mark given. They were surprised that you could get 78% in the exams and not even get to interview. I am sure at Habs and St Albans and MTS that mark would get you to interview? DG
DG did they request the marks? The standard letter gave your child's ranking in each of three papers and the total number of boys that sat the papers (541) saying that they often get a lot of calls asking for feedback so had decided to include this in the letter. A couple of DS's rankings were = (in other words there will be several boys on the same rank) so no way you could work out score or even how many boys are before or after you, from that.
ClappedOutMum
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by ClappedOutMum »

fairyelephant wrote:
Daogroupie wrote:With reference to the mark of 78 in the City exam, this was a percentage mark worked out by the parents from the mark given and the total mark given. They were surprised that you could get 78% in the exams and not even get to interview. I am sure at Habs and St Albans and MTS that mark would get you to interview? DG
DG did they request the marks? The standard letter gave your child's ranking in each of three papers and the total number of boys that sat the papers (541) saying that they often get a lot of calls asking for feedback so had decided to include this in the letter. A couple of DS's rankings were = (in other words there will be several boys on the same rank) so no way you could work out score or even how many boys are before or after you, from that.
But you can work out how many were before you. If DS was, say, 300=, surely that means there were 299 ahead (but you don't know how many were at the same mark so you are right you do not know how many after). Agree though that we didn't get marks and can't work them out!
Zoe22
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by Zoe22 »

Had to delete this post.
Last edited by Zoe22 on Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Daogroupie
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Re: City boys 10+/11+

Post by Daogroupie »

So no current affairs or general knowledge questions? What was the compehension? did he recognise it at all? How did it compare with a Y5 Sats paper?
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