Appeal Success Rate
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I find the whole topic of "suitable or not" quite baffling.
In the school which my son was applying for, they move the "pass" mark up and down each year depending on the level of the "field".
In other words - and to put it very bluntly - if in one year the test was entered by 300 ultra academic children - then the pass mark might be really high, with the cut off point being set by the 120th pupil taking the test.
This rather makes a mockery of the school's policy in that if in the following year 300 exceedingly non-academic children entered - the result would be a very low pass mark - allowing a whole year group of lower achieving children in.
I.E. Unless you child is ridiculously talented in passing exams and remembering "learned" skills - they may pass one year but fail the next.
It's a complete lottery in Torbay.
Only children whose parents decide to take the risk / spend wads of money on tutoring / feel total confidence in their child's ability enter for the selection procedure.
This of course excludes any child from a family with a lower income or any child whose parents are not "up to speed" with the way the system works.
It makes for a very elitist cohort.
The mathematics and English elements of the tests are not age-adjusted -so that gets rid of a few August birthday babies who are already competing in a very unlevel field and it would appear considered to be somewhat a hindrence!
In my daughter's class at the grammar school the majority of children's birthdays fall in the Autumn term. In may son's class (not at the grammar) - an astonishing 90% of the class have an August birthday.
The independent appeal panel for this school has never allowed any child in, ever - and this seems absurd when evidently from year to year children of a lower academic abilty gain admission.
In the school which my son was applying for, they move the "pass" mark up and down each year depending on the level of the "field".
In other words - and to put it very bluntly - if in one year the test was entered by 300 ultra academic children - then the pass mark might be really high, with the cut off point being set by the 120th pupil taking the test.
This rather makes a mockery of the school's policy in that if in the following year 300 exceedingly non-academic children entered - the result would be a very low pass mark - allowing a whole year group of lower achieving children in.
I.E. Unless you child is ridiculously talented in passing exams and remembering "learned" skills - they may pass one year but fail the next.
It's a complete lottery in Torbay.
Only children whose parents decide to take the risk / spend wads of money on tutoring / feel total confidence in their child's ability enter for the selection procedure.
This of course excludes any child from a family with a lower income or any child whose parents are not "up to speed" with the way the system works.
It makes for a very elitist cohort.
The mathematics and English elements of the tests are not age-adjusted -so that gets rid of a few August birthday babies who are already competing in a very unlevel field and it would appear considered to be somewhat a hindrence!
In my daughter's class at the grammar school the majority of children's birthdays fall in the Autumn term. In may son's class (not at the grammar) - an astonishing 90% of the class have an August birthday.
The independent appeal panel for this school has never allowed any child in, ever - and this seems absurd when evidently from year to year children of a lower academic abilty gain admission.
