DAO Consultation of Admissions Arrangements for 2020/21

[ale21279]

This will be of interest to anyone sitting DAO exam in Sep 19.

Provisional dates are included - main difference from this year is a gap (nearly 4 weeks) in the dates between CEM and Maths/English, as CEM will now be a first round - same principle as this year, but will mean that children will no longer be sitting tests that aren’t going to be marked.

http://damealiceowens.herts.sch.uk/admissions/



I am not surprised by point 5 - no point siblings taking the test as they already have a sibling place - but I am surprised by point 1 - can anyone clarify if this is standard DfE advice?

[loobylou]

I think their advice changed last year or the year before to include all previous LACs rather than just current LACs.
There has been some discussion with parents who have adopted children from overseas and the government to say that all adopted children should be considered as number 1 in most admissions criteria - I think there are some issues with regard to paperwork and proving where some children were adopted from.
But yes, I heard that the advice had changed from this year to include all adopted children, including those from overseas.

[ToadMum]

I think their advice changed last year or the year before to include all previous LACs rather than just current LACs.
There has been some discussion with parents who have adopted children from overseas and the government to say that all adopted children should be considered as number 1 in most admissions criteria - I think there are some issues with regard to paperwork and proving where some children were adopted from.
But yes, I heard that the advice had changed from this year to include all adopted children, including those from overseas.

Our local grammar schools' consultation paper has just been sent out by DS2's school and includes clarification re DC adopted from abroad.

[Daogroupie]

Moving to two rounds one month apart will be of great advantage to applicants only doing HBS and DAO.

This means they will be able to put a lot of focus on CEM and then have a whole month to focus on English and Maths as the second rounds of HBS and DAO will only be a few days apart and they are the same format.

It will also mean that DAO will not be able to be used as a mock for QE and Latymer and St MS and any other English and Maths exams that are scheduled before 28th September.

Also many who were sitting it as a mock for private schools are unlikely to have done the preparation to get into the top 325 so will not get the chance to sit the English and Maths papers on 28th September.

What it does not say is when those who are ranked 325 and above in the CEM first round will find out that they have made it to the second round.

Will it just be a week beforehand as it is for HBS or as CEM is computer marked will they get the results out in two weeks as QE do?

Hopefully this also means that DAO will be able to get their results out earlier in October instead of being one of the last as they will only be preparing letters for 325 candidates instead of 1150.

Those who have not passed the first round will know a lot earlier and can refocus on other options for their CAF form instead of waiting for results close to the CAF deadline. They will be getting first round results in time to be visiting other school open days as they will already know that DAO is no longer an option.

It also means that parents will now finally understand that there always was a first round for DAO applicants, it was just that the secpnd round was sat at the same time but disregarded for those who did not pass the first round.

This is a welcome move, the only disadvantage is that DAO applicants will now join QE and HBS applicants in having to continue to prepare for almost the whole of September instead of getting it all over and down with in the first few days of September.

It will be interesting to see what Latymer do. Will they also return to a proper first and second round as they had in the first year of their return to GL for Maths and VR and their own paper for English? DG

[ale21279]

I agree these are good changes DG, although they will have less time to mark the English & Maths papers if the exam is on 28th Sep and results are issued in Oct.

At least the kids will now know if they have passed the CEM or not and won't be waiting until end of Oct to find out, having taken the test at beginning of Sep.

[Balfron]

I always thought the SWHerts consortium shared the DAO maths paper (and therefore these changes will affect us). Is that wrong?

[Daogroupie]

No.

They share the CEM paper but DAO write their own Maths paper whereas SW Herts uses one from GL. DG