Waiting List Lawrence Sheriff Ranking re New Catchments

[newdawn]

Dear guest201

"Does anyone have any idea of how much movement there is on the waiting list each year? Are we talking one or two who get in from the waiting list or 15 or 20, if the later is true I have to agree with NXT that it does seem to make a mockery of the whole system, as obviously it will be out of county children who are in the top spots on the waiting list."

But the out of county childre have already lost out on 50% of the schools places already, even thou some with have scored higher marks!!

[Charlotte67]

In my daughter's class (2008 entry) there are several children who live beyond the 10 mile radius. I can't remember the exact number - I did post the details about a year ago and have spent half an hour searching for the post to no avail - but it is a substantial minority (7-10 I vaguely recall). A class maths lesson was handily based around where people live.

There seems to be a lot of movement on the waiting list; my daighter's class is only 1 of the 7 grammar classes allocated in Rugby. None of these girls would have been allocated a place in the first round so must have come from the waiting list.

I don't know whether this is typical of all classes/years but I do know of several children who will be declining their places this year. The places that become available will (according to WCC) be offered to children in score order, regardless of where they live.

[guest201]

Dear guest201

"Does anyone have any idea of how much movement there is on the waiting list each year? Are we talking one or two who get in from the waiting list or 15 or 20, if the later is true I have to agree with NXT that it does seem to make a mockery of the whole system, as obviously it will be out of county children who are in the top spots on the waiting list."

But the out of county childre have already lost out on 50% of the schools places already, even thou some with have scored higher marks!!

As we all know and have "debated" for some time in the past, the new system is designed to "favour" the Warwickshire children whether that is fair or not is another matter. I believe the point here is whether something that has been given to Warks kids with one hand (ie slightly more places) is being taken away with the other (less places on the waiting list)

[Bad Dad]

Last year we had a letter stating the standardised scores required for all the schools (South and East), including the straight pass score and the waiting list cut off. Were these provided this year? If someone is able to post these, I would be interested to see them.
Also, it seemed the score wasn't the only factor in getting accepted from the waiting list. Our letter last year said "borderline ranking of children is set by an invited group of teachers and head-teachers, taking into account scores, reports from schools and information submitted by parents."
My anecdotal evidence to add to the pot is that our school did go a fair way down the waiting list. The straight pass score was 325 and the waiting list cut off was 317. I know one child who got in with a score of 320 (and there could be others as I don't know many people), although as far as I remember, it took a month or two after March 1st before the place was offered.

[Charlotte67]

Hi Bad Dad,

I'm not sure how useful this info is really as it is a product of the number of applications and number of places. It doesn't tell us much about how well you have to do in the test - just how well in comparison to others. If you get my drift.

King Edward VI Automatic - Qualifying, 337 - waiting list, 323+
Stratford Grammar - 324, 314+
Alcester Grammar - 329, 321+

Lawrence Sheriff - 302, 295+
Rugby High - 302, 293+
Ashlawn Selective - 296, 289+

I do know of one in-area girl, on the waiting list, who was offered a place at Rugby High in the last week of the Summer holiday. Unfortunately I don't know how far off her score was.

What I don't understand is how the new Eastern system works. How can there be an 'Automatic Qualfying Score' that doesn't give you automatic qualification? What score was needed by those in area 2?

I have heard of a score of 307 (in areas 1 & 2) which equated to a ranking of 272. Bearing in mind that these scores are likely to be reasonably populated, I imagine that ranking on 302 is likely to be about 300. For 218 places... Does this mean that there are huge numbers of area 2 children and OOC children who will now take up all of the waiting list places? If this is likely (and I can think of no other reason), why are they quoting waiting list scores at all? Is this just giving false hope?

[Charlotte67]

Me again,

Have looked at last year's qualifying scores:

The qualifying scores for all schools were (waiting list cut off in brackets):
KES 329 (322)
Stratford Girls 329 (318)
Alcester 325 (317)

LSS 320 (310)
RHS 320 (296)
Ashlawn 320 (292)

I notice that the Southern area numbers are similar to last year's, but that those for Eastern are different. Is this because there were fewer/more children sitting the tests? Or is it a result of the changes to admission procedures?

[saram]

I asked yesterday how many children sat the 11+ in the Eastern area and was told ~800. The scores for the Eastern area will be lower because of the 50% rule. It does seem a little odd that the waiting list is set ot 295+ when there will be a considerable number of children outside Area 2 (inside area 1) who have scored well above 302.
Does anyone know what the score cut off for area 1 was?

[Bad Dad]

I'm not sure how useful this info is...

Thanks for posting it anyway. It is useful to know the relative scores for the different schools. If you have copied them right, then KES required the highest score as usual, but Stratford Girls and AGS have swapped places, which means it is worth putting Stratford second after AGS on my daughter's CAF. Last year I put AGS first and KES second for my son, which was a complete waste as the waiting list score required for KES was higher than AGS.
I take your and Saram's point about the waiting list cut off scores for Eastern area. It doesn't seem to make sense.
Did the letter also confirm the total numbers who applied in East and South? If so, please can you also post those? Thanks!

[Warks]

There were a total of 1732 pupils who sat the 11+ across East and South, so if approx 800 sat it in East, I guess that means 930 approx sat it in the South

[Bad Dad]

Thanks Warks. I think it must be a "bloke" thing, but I feel if I can describe the situation in terms of a list of statistics, I can somehow kid myself that I am in control (instead of facing the scary reality that everything is pretty much out of my hands!)