QE Prep 2018

[loobylou]

I don't think there's any call for anyone to be rude.
(The postings the above sentence refers to have been removed by a moderator.)
But the QE system is on this forum about 100 times and very clear on their website so it is odd that it should be queried again. Sometimes it feels as though someone is asking a question they know the answer to, in the hope that someone else will give a different answer...
You can live next door to the school and if 180 higher scorers than you apply you won't get in.
You can live in Aberdeen and if you're in the top 180 of applicants you will get in.
It is a peculiar system but QE appear to like it - presumably they feel they are unlikely to keep their League table position of having GCSEs results that are a few percentage decimal points more than their closest rivals unless they keep this system.

[Daogroupie]

It is a very simple concept.

First past the post. The ds that gets the highest score is ranked the highest and every rank goes down from this highest score.

The confusion comes from parents who think that because their ds got a good score he has to go there, no matter how terrible the commute to the school would be or how traumatic a move to closer to the school would be to the whole family.

Any Y6 ds in the country can sit for QE but even if they get a high enough score they don't actually have to go there.

The most recent example is the ds from Rickmansworth who would be so much better off going to one of the SW Herts schools rather than doing some taxi, tube combination twice a day,five days a week for seven years. DG

[Amber]

I think what this thread, and one or two others, now demonstrates is that there are parents in several areas who will enter a child for a high stakes exam with little or no understanding of the process which follows to get a child into that school. Thus many children are sitting exams despite having little or no chance of actually getting a place if they pass them; or of getting a place and facing an intolerable journey which their parents have clearly not considered before.

And while indeed the forum is here to help, and most people are nice and polite, it does get exasperating when new posters clearly have not read either the admissions policy of the school in question, nor any of the previous posts on the topic. Especially when, if this is pointed out to them, they become rude and shouty. Every year there are pleas for parents not to enter their little children (10 is still little) for exams in this manner, and every year regulars on the forum are asked the same questions. Personally I find it hard to understand how parents get themselves into these situations and then, instead of going to the obvious place for information, ask on here. I think as LoobyLou says, they are hoping someone is going to give them a different answer.

Being rude and shouty is never going to win friends anywhere, I'm afraid. (Reminder - capitals indicate shouting on a forum, and shouting someone's username is really unpleasant).

[hermanmunster]

I think what this thread, and one or two others, now demonstrates is that there are parents in several areas who will enter a child for a high stakes exam with little or no understanding of the process which follows to get a child into that school. Thus many children are sitting exams despite having little or no chance of actually getting a place if they pass them; or of getting a place and facing an intolerable journey which their parents have clearly not considered before.

And while indeed the forum is here to help, and most people are nice and polite, it does get exasperating when new posters clearly have not read either the admissions policy of the school in question, nor any of the previous posts on the topic. Especially when, if this is pointed out to them, they become rude and shouty. Every year there are pleas for parents not to enter their little children (10 is still little) for exams in this manner, and every year regulars on the forum are asked the same questions. Personally I find it hard to understand how parents get themselves into these situations and then, instead of going to the obvious place for information, ask on here. I think as LoobyLou says, they are hoping someone is going to give them a different answer.

Being rude and shouty is never going to win friends anywhere, I'm afraid. (Reminder - capitals indicate shouting on a forum, and shouting someone's username is really unpleasant).

I was about to write something very similar but Amber has beaten me to it

[Amber]

I was about to write something very similar but Amber has beaten me to it

The 0705 from Aberdeen is delayed this morning Herman so while sitting with DS in the departure lounge on his way to school I checked out the forum.

[ToadMum]

Presumably, in order to register one's DS to sit the QE entrance exam, one has to have at least the facility to find this page on the school's website:
https://www.qebarnet.co.uk/admissions-information/

Below is the important information related to making an application to the School. Once you have read this guide, please click here to complete our entrance test request form and to progress your application.

Remember that you must also submit a Common Application Form to your own Local Authority, by their published deadline, if you want to apply for a place at this School.



But it would appear that having got thus far, it is perfectly possible to miss completely the link Information For Parents below it, which leads to a whole cornucopia of information ('information for parents' in fact, who'd've thunk it?):

https://www.qebarnet.co.uk/admissions-i ... n-parents/

It's Monday, it's been a very long morning already and I am quite happy to draw the ire of those who will be upset by my observation that when we were looking at schools for our DC, even though most of them for each one were the self same schools, I was all over each school's website like a rash, as they say, and I particularly can't imagine not clicking on a link calling itself 'Information for Parents' and reading, marking and inwardly digesting every blessed word of what I found there.

[Tinkers]

Without pointing fingers at anyone in particular, can I draw everyone’s attention to this thread.


https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum ... 38&t=53097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Please read and take note.

[piggys]

Presumably, in order to register one's DS to sit the QE entrance exam, one has to have at least the facility to find this page on the school's website:
https://www.qebarnet.co.uk/admissions-information/

Below is the important information related to making an application to the School. Once you have read this guide, please click here to complete our entrance test request form and to progress your application.

Remember that you must also submit a Common Application Form to your own Local Authority, by their published deadline, if you want to apply for a place at this School.



But it would appear that having got thus far, it is perfectly possible to miss completely the link Information For Parents below it, which leads to a whole cornucopia of information ('information for parents' in fact, who'd've thunk it?):

https://www.qebarnet.co.uk/admissions-i ... n-parents/

It's Monday, it's been a very long morning already and I am quite happy to draw the ire of those who will be upset by my observation that when we were looking at schools for our DC, even though most of them for each one were the self same schools, I was all over each school's website like a rash, as they say, and I particularly can't imagine not clicking on a link calling itself 'Information for Parents' and reading, marking and inwardly digesting every blessed word of what I found there.

Indeed. It's just so .....hard and challenging....to read that 'information for parents' page, sadly.

[ale21279]

Does anyone know what sort of criteria is taken into account for QE final selection once a child achieve a minimum score ? Do they offer places based on the highest score only or do they consider one point as the nearest distance from school as well ?

ally99, surely before registering for the exam you have read the "Information for Parents" on QE website as mentioned by Toadmum & piggys? It states quite clearly:

If 180 applicants or more have achieved the standard required by the Governors, places will be offered to the 180 applicants placed highest in the list obtained by ranking applicants in the order of their combined scores in the selection tests. In the event of two or more applicants scoring the same mark, the rank order for allocation of places will be determined by the distance measured in a straight line between the address point for the child’s home, supplied by Ordnance Survey, and the main School gate, with the closest given the highest rank. (The child’s home means the child’s permanent address and cannot be a childminder’s or business address. It should be the same address as would be given by the child’s primary school. When parents live separately, the application must be based on the address at which the child usually lives and from which he attends primary school. When parents live separately but the child lives equally with both parents at different addresses, the address will be taken to be the address of the main parent/carer eligible to receive Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit). Should this process leave two or more applicants still tied for the final available place, the applicant to whom the place will be offered will be determined by a random ballot, supervised by a person who is independent of the school.

[squareofthewicket]

I am surprised that a lot of the regular forum contributors even bother to reply to requests for information where such information is either available on the school/LA website, elsewhere in the forum, usually as a sticky or sometimes even in the same thread.

Just because a question is asked on the forum, it doesn't have to be answered if the answers are already available elsewhere!! ( and now waiting for members to pounce on me )