11 Plus Exams Forum

I got a call from a school secretary where my DC will be sitting 11+ test in the new year, he wanted to confirm my DC date of birth as i had filled the wrong one on the school form and a different one on the CAF form. Do schools have visibility of the CAF forms then , so now theywill know we have not put them as 1st choice, someone please tell me schools do not see the CAF forms. This goes to show schools do see the CAF forms.

They don't see the CAF. What they will probably have is some sort of print out from the LA Admissions team showing the names and details of pupils applying for testing/places.

That will have been cross-checked and the discrepancy will have been spotted at that stage.

wow, what a relief

Sally-Anne wrote:They don't see the CAF. What they will probably have is some sort of print out from the LA Admissions team showing the names and details of pupils applying for testing/places.

That will have been cross-checked and the discrepancy will have been spotted at that stage.

Do the LEAs use this as some sort of revenue generating like the DVLA when they sell people's details to private parking enforcement companies?

Hope I do not start receiving junk mail from this?

No - they already could do this with the electoral roll anyway.

True and there is a great junk mail preference service that gladly collects compensation for it.

By CAF, do you mean the children's application form?

Hi nicemum,

So did you get a call from an indie that made it clear they were made aware of the details you had submitted to the LEA (for the coordinated arrangement they run for the maintained schools)?

Just that I had assumed the two systems were independent in terms of information sharing, except for the usual crime and child protection type of situations.

If some indies get the details (and which ones, I wonder), then they would have some advantage and would probably be paying for it?

hi all , the call was not from an indie - but from a selective school

ah, ok. I read a bit into the fact the test was after the new year!

Allow me to offer some reassurance from the sharp end........

As the Registrar at Sutton Grammar, I have access to a secure website called SAM (schools admissions module). I have my own username and password, and this gives me access to ONLY the details of those families who have listed us SOMEWHERE on the CAF.

I download this list for cross-checking; this is a serious and vital task. Each applicant is given a unique identifier by his LA, quite distinct from the candidate number I issue for exam purposes. Having done the cross-checking, I upload the LA identifier onto my system. Later in the year I will rank our applicants, and upload the ranked list onto SAM, so that the LA's can go through their iterations and make you the best school offer possible. I will upload only the LA identifier and rank, so you can see how important it is, and why my counterparts in other schools are making phone calls if there appear to be discrepancies.

You may be interested to know that I write to everyone who has sat the test but has not listed us on the CAF, and everyone who has listed us on the CAF but not taken the test, so that they can set matters straight if possible and if they wish.