Warwickshire Appeals

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Bright boys mum
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:03 pm

Warwickshire Appeals

Post by Bright boys mum »

:cry: Our Bright Boy scored 113 in VR 104 in Numeric and 101 in NVR. A total score of 318 he required 325 for our Grammar school, he is currently on the waitng list having achieved enough to be automatically placed on it.
He was ranked 1st to go through.
In warwickshire this year the papers were all new and so nobody new what to expect, the test was taken in test centres on a Saturday and all papers taken one after the other.
Can anyone give me advice that is specific to appeals in Warwickshire as this website is fantastic but the info seems to be more specific to southern regions.
Also because Boys did better than girls in order to fill the girls grammar the pass mark although in the literature was set at 329 girls with as low as 321 have been given a place but the boys grammar the pass mark was still at 329? sex descrimination? or clutching at straws?!
proud parent
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi

A few answers:-
In warwickshire this year the papers were all new and so nobody new what to expect, the test was taken in test centres on a Saturday and all papers taken one after the other.
The test was set by the Univ of Durham CEM (the same body that has been setting the B/Ham KE tests for the last few year). One of the features of the way that CEM and Warwickshire design the test is that parents are only given a broad idea of what going to be in the test. In this way CEM and Warwickshire will argue that the test is fairer in the this limits the amount of tutoring or preping that can be done.
Can anyone give me advice that is specific to appeals in Warwickshire as this website is fantastic but the info seems to be more specific to southern regions.
I'm afraid I don't have any information about this, but if you are contemplating an Appeal one of the first things you must do is find out what the Appeals statistics have been for the last few years. In particular you need tio find out the number of succesful appeals so you can judge if you are wasting your time.

B/Ham KE schools for example only have about 4 successful appeals each year and you generally have to have something very specific that would have impacted the performance in the test. However Warwickshire may be different.
Also because Boys did better than girls in order to fill the girls grammar the pass mark although in the literature was set at 329 girls with as low as 321 have been given a place but the boys grammar the pass mark was still at 329? gender descrimination? or clutching at straws?!
This is a bit of a red herring, I thought that the Warwickshire test was gender neutral. All tests have biases but if a specific bias is required then this can be designed in by CEM. However in this case I suspect that the reason for differences will probably be down to a increased number or boy applications or more girl grammar places being available.

Hope this helps

Ken
Bright boys mum
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:03 pm

Warwickshire appeal

Post by Bright boys mum »

Thanks for info. Last year there were no successful appeals so don't hold out much hope. We will continue our appeal just to show our son that we have confidence in our his abilities. With his older sister in the grammar school we know he would thrive.
With reference to the gender issue it appears that it was simply a case of not enough girls passing. There are 3 grammar schools one mixed, one girls and one boys. The single gender schools both take 75 each but in order to reach 75 girls the pass mark was lowered, however the boys pass mark remained the same. Although I understand the need to fill schools surely this means you are at a disadvantage if you are a boy.
How do the authorities get around this?
proud parent
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi
With reference to the gender issue it appears that it was simply a case of not enough girls passing. There are 3 grammar schools one mixed, one girls and one boys. The single gender schools both take 75 each but in order to reach 75 girls the pass mark was lowered, however the boys pass mark remained the same. Although I understand the need to fill schools surely this means you are at a disadvantage if you are a boy.
How do the authorities get around this?
I would be surprised if they did this retrospectively and changed the girls pass mark - there must be another explanation. Unless they stated in the admissions documentation they they may do this I would have thought this was against the Admissions Code of Practice.

B/Ham KE 5-Ways grammar is also co-ed but they do not adjust the pass marks to get equal numbers of each gender. The result is that the school is about 65% boy and 35% girls, but the reason for this is that there are more places available for girls at the girls only grammars than the boys grammars. In practice I told that the numbers passing are close to 50:50

Suggest you ask a question of the LEA out of interest although I don't think it will affect your child.

Hope this helps.

Ken
Bright boys mum
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:03 pm

Warwickshire appeal

Post by Bright boys mum »

Thank you Ken, I will ask the lea for some clarification on when the pass mark was altered.
proud parent
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