Wallington Girls is adding 30 places

[Giulio]

they are proposing 30 new places for girls within 6 km of a point in the middle of post code SM5, rather than from the School, and they opened a consultation with the public
see their site

[2outof3]

That's really interesting - I thought grammar schools weren't allowed to increase their numbers and Wallington are definitely proposing to go from 180 to 210 PAN. How will they get away with that under the rules and if they do, I am sure that many other grammar schools would do the same (particularly the Tiffin schools which are quite small and have 120 and 140 PAN.)

Anyone got any ideas

[kk dad]

i wonder if it is to do with pressure on the number of places available against number of children.

Possible that the number of girls coming out in the borough next year disproportionately exceeds the number of places available. Although you would expect this burden to be shared across all schools in the borough, I don't know if they are proposing to increase their intake.

[Plum]

I think they may be doing it as the 6.7km radius does go quite a long way into the LB of Croydon. This new point of measurement is by St Phil's school and the 5km radius is unlikely to go as far as the LB of Croydon or Kingston for that matter.

Stupid question now! The school website says the following:-
Up to 80 places in order of highest score to those whose permanent place of residence on the
closing date for applications within the Pan-London Co-ordinated Secondary Admissions Scheme in
the year prior to admission is within a 6.7km radius of the main entrance to the school building.
(Distances will be measured in a straight line from the child's home address using the computerised
Geographical Information System maintained by Sutton’s School Admissions team, with those living
closer to the school receiving the higher priority.

We are just inside the the 6.7 km radius. Are places in this criteria awarded on the rank scored and that those living closer given higher priority when the scores are tied?

Thanks
Plum

[Giulio]

We are just inside the the 6.7 km radius. Are places in this criteria awarded on the rank scored and that those living closer given higher priority when the scores are tied?

yes, I believe that is the case
they make a ranking by test score with only the girls leaving within 6.7 km
for the majority of the 80 places it does not matter how close you are, provided you are in the radius
for the last places (80th, 79th,... not sure how many) if there are more girls with the same mark then they go by proximity

[Giulio]

this is after they look at the ranked list for the top 100

I presume they will now have a third ranked list for the 30 new places
this must mean that girls leaving within 6km of the 30 places point have got a better chance to get a place and will need a lower mark to get in

[Plum]

Thanks Guilio, this is what I thought but just wanted to check!

DD is only year 4 so not worrying about it yet but I also know the time will fly by!

Unfortunately, we are not in the new 5km catchment but who knows, it could change again in another couple of years!