Faith Schools Admission

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sherry_d
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Location: Maidstone

Faith Schools Admission

Post by sherry_d »

Can you please enlighten me on how things work for faith schools.

We have to send of the supplementary form and whats next?

I am guessing for other state schools its all handled by a computer and given a yes or no kind of thing.

Do these Faith school get a list of all the people who have applied to them or do they send a list of who meets their criteria to KCC. I am wondering if admissions to Faith schools is as transparent as the other school because it seems like Faith schools call the shots? Just my paranoia kicking in.
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mystery
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Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by mystery »

It's just as mechanised. For example, read the Bennett Memorial admissions policy in great detail. When they are oversubscribed they will have to work out which category your church reference places you in, so make sure it clearly places you in the category you feel it should be.

The school should be able to tell you which categories they have admitted on 1 March in previous years. Clearly the last category they admit each year will include some people in that category who didn't get in .... read carefully for the cut-off in each category - I presume it's distance.

It is imperative with a voluntary aided school applicaton that you submit all the relevant forms in time and give the right info on the CAF. Otherwise you won't get a place.
sherry_d
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Location: Maidstone

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by sherry_d »

This is what I am trying to understand
The number admitted under category B will not exceed 75% of the planned admissions number.
Is it possible for the school to take all the remaining 25% from Category C and not even touch the other catergories d,e,f if they are enough applicants in Category C?

I am just hoping that they do take some from Category D (once a month church attendance) because if they dont, we are stuffed on distance in Category C. Reading old post here seem to suggest that Category D stand very little chance. I will try and get as much info from the school but most school arent always forthcoming to tell you the previous cut off distance.
Last edited by sherry_d on Tue Oct 26, 2010 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Villagedad
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Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:22 pm
Location: Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by Villagedad »

sherry_d wrote:This is what I am trying to understand
The number admitted under category B will not exceed 75% of the planned admissions number.
Is it possible for the school to take all the remaining 25% from Category C and not even touch the other catergories d,e,f if they are enough applicants in Category C?
I would call the school to clarify as this is key..
mystery
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Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by mystery »

I'm not wishing to depress you Sherry, but I'm pretty sure from other discussion on this website that you're unlikely to get into Bennett with once a month attendance wherever you live. But check with the school etc.

Also, I'm very much of the view that although you only have 4 spaces on the form, you still stand a chance of getting into unlikely schools if you are willing to do waiting lists and appeals for schools that you did not put on your CAF. And if you are willing to stick it out to first day of term in September, or even to moving school during year 7 or year 8, you could get a place at a school that is impossible to get into on 1 March from your address.

Children do leave schools, so you need to make sure you sit on waiting lists during Year 7 if you are still not happy at that point with what you have got. Waiting lists get stopped and started again by schools at certain points in the year so keep checking with the school that you are on their list and what their system is.

If a school has taken extra children in on appeal, they are supposed to wait until they have dropped back to standard numbers before admitting from the waiting list. In practice many schools do not do this and get away with it. So say they have admitted 5 extra on appeal, if numbers in that year drop by 1, they admit 1 from the waiting liist.

Can you get over the border into other counties from where you live?
mystery
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Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by mystery »

Sherry you asked earlier why I disliked "vertical tutoring" but I lost my reply again! I think it depends on how a school operates it, but I think that sometimes getting to know older / younger girls is done at the expense of getting to know your own year group. If child is on the shy side, and not got the communal spirit of a form of children of your own age, it's hard to make friends in lessons (after all you're supposed to be working) or at breaktime where there are over 1000 children milling around. And are these old / young friendships really going to be "cool" when hanging round with friends of one's own age at breaktime?

These are just my own personal thoughts. My preference is for child to be in a form of children of own age, have PHSE, form time, unsetted subjects etc with that form. Mixing with others in year will come through setted lessons (e.g. maths, english ). Mixing with older / younger can be done through clubs, societies, etc and peer mentoring.

Vertical tutoring seems an unnecessarily trendy idea to me. If the general principle of advancing a child into an older year group academically is frowned upon because of the possibly poor social impact on the child, I can't see why vertical tutoring (why is it called tutoring anyway?) is thought to be desirable. If any mixing of the ages were to be done at secondary school it would make more sense to do it by ability rather than age in some subjects, and leave the tutor groups or forms or whatever you like to call it, to children of similar age.
sherry_d
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Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:38 pm
Location: Maidstone

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by sherry_d »

mystery wrote:but I'm pretty sure from other discussion on this website that you're unlikely to get into Bennett with once a month attendance wherever you live.
I didnt explain myself well in my ramblings Mystery but I am in C category. The only thing that may just catch us is distance but someone send me details for number of applicants in C category in 2009 and I think we have a very good chance. I still need to get the statistics for 2010. :D
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mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by mystery »

Brilliant. You know everything I read and hear about Bennett has always made me think that even if child passed 11+, choosing between Bennett and grammar would be difficult.
Villagedad
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Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:22 pm
Location: Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by Villagedad »

mystery wrote:Brilliant. You know everything I read and hear about Bennett has always made me think that even if child passed 11+, choosing between Bennett and grammar would be difficult.
Couldn't agree more
How does it compare in size, exam results, and other indicators to TWBGS?
sherry_d
Posts: 2083
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:38 pm
Location: Maidstone

Re: Faith Schools Admission

Post by sherry_d »

Villagedad wrote:How does it compare in size, exam results, and other indicators to TWBGS?
2010 Results

GCSE Results
Bennett
% of GCSEs awarded grade A* 6.53%
% of GCSEs awarded grade A 22.33%
% of GCSEs awarded A* and A grades 28.86%
% of pupils achieving 5 or more grades A* to C including English and maths 87.56%

TWBGS
% of GCSEs awarded grade A* 10.5%
% of GCSEs awarded grade A 29.4%
% of GCSEs awarded A* and A grades 39.9%
% of pupils achieving 5 or more grades A* to C including English and maths 97.33%
% of GCSEs awarded A* and A grades 39.9%


Bennett
A Level Results
% of A-levels awarded grade A* 9.7%
% of A-levels awarded grade A 16.8%
% of A-levels awarded grade B 25.5%
% of A-levels awarded A*, A and B grades 52%

TWBGS
% of A-levels awarded grade A* 7.87%
% of A-levels awarded grade A 20.77%
% of A-levels awarded grade B 32.33%
% of A-levels awarded A*, A and B grades 60.97%
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