11 Plus Exams Forum

Has anyone seen this? http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... ance-exams" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How are they actually going to implement it? Can such a policy really encourage or even things out for kids from lower income households?

Reading school have it as one of their admission criteria. I was surprised Kendrick didn't follow suit.

Not sure how much difference it will make.

There's a discussion on this on the Birmingham forum already. http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 11&t=37249

For info, the number of children who have been eligible for FSM at some point within the last 6 years is given in the DFE school performance tables, and for grammar schhools is typically around 3 times higher than the number currently eligible: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

Here's a maths question!

In 2011, around 21,900 children were admitted to year 7 in grammar schools. Of those, around 2.7% were entitled to free school meals. In selective Local Authorities, high achieving (KS2 level 5) children who are not eligible for FSM have a two-thirds chance of attending a grammar school, compared with only 40% for equally high achieving children who are eligible for FSM. These gaps are equally dramatic for other local authority types, though lower in absolute terms as fewer pupils attend grammar schools in these areas.

So: How many extra children entitled to FSM would grammar schools need to admit to close the admissions gap?

Well, I think it will be very difficult to calculate given the number of parents who will be "separating" in year 5.
So sad and so useful for the mother to qualify for FSM. If you think it won't happen you should live round here when it comes to bursary allocations!

magwich2 wrote:Well, I think it will be very difficult to calculate given the number of parents who will be "separating" in year 5.
So sad and so useful for the mother to qualify for FSM. If you think it won't happen you should live round here when it comes to bursary allocations!

How does that work then, if my hubby and I separated (if he patronises me once more today, a very real possibility ) we would still not qualify for fsm? In fact tax allowance and child benefit would rise a bit giving us more cash than before! Granted there would be another set of bills, but that would not get us fsm.

The 26% difference between non fsm and fsm children that are both high achieving, when it cones to securing grammar school places, if this is a fact, is awful and should absolutely be closed up, one way or another. The tests are failing these bright children, particularly in areas that have a two tier system. I hope whatever they finally decide to do goes a long way to helping.

I should have said "From the information given above.. " (which comes from the Sutton Trust report). No need to worry about who will be "separating"!

...Anyway, going back to the question: 2.7% of 21,900 is around 600. So around 600 children on FSM got into grammar schools in 2011. For the number to be equivalent to other children with similar attainment you'd need to multiply 600 by 67/40, which is around 1000. So an extra 400 children would need to be admitted to close the gap? (And anyway the gap is growing, and KS2 tests disadvantage FSM applicants as they reflect the quality of the primary school experience more than the potential of a child).

Not according to this (http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/ ... ar-schools):

Grammar School Heads Association wrote:Of those who do achieve level 5, about 40% gain a grammar school place compared with 67% for other children with similar attainment. The Grammar School Heads' Association has been working with DfE on this issue. It would take just one more FSM child in each year 7 group entering each of the 164 grammar schools to close the access gap between FSM children and other level 5 children.

Can anyone explain where their figure of 164 comes from?