Trafford entrance exams
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Trafford entrance exams
Does anybody know why Trafford Grammar schools all have their own entrance exams rather than the 11+.
Re: Trafford entrance exams
Every school or LEA sets their own admissions tests. "11+" is simply used as an umbrella term which covers these tests.
Re: Trafford entrance exams
I appreciate the answer but what I'm trying to get at is that there used to be one 11+ exam in Trafford set by the LEA, but now each school sets it own exam. Therefore children wanting to go to grammar schools in Trafford have to sit a different exam for each school choice. I know this has happend over the last 4-5 years and was wondering if there was a particular problem with the Trafford set 11+.
Re: Trafford entrance exams
I believe that the Sale Grammar exam was the closest to the 11 plus. Thats what I have been told anyway. I think that a lot of the Trafford schools are foundation schools and set their own exam. All of them do VR , only some do NVR. Some have comprehension type papers, some only use English written piece as a tie breaker.
Some exams are known to be tougher than others.
They all have very different oversubs criteria and catchment as well. As someone quite correctly pointed out on here, you can be in the priority catchment for Altrincham Girls Grammar but not for the boys, whilst living at the same address.
As you point out Alex, children can sit anything up to 5 exams , which is excessive as they are more or less week after week.
We only did two one week after the next and that was more than sufficient, believe me!!!
Some exams are known to be tougher than others.
They all have very different oversubs criteria and catchment as well. As someone quite correctly pointed out on here, you can be in the priority catchment for Altrincham Girls Grammar but not for the boys, whilst living at the same address.
As you point out Alex, children can sit anything up to 5 exams , which is excessive as they are more or less week after week.
We only did two one week after the next and that was more than sufficient, believe me!!!
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TraffordMum
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Re: Trafford entrance exams
The easiest answer to the question is that each school has its own type of pupil it wants to attract and it pitches its exam to catch as many of those as possible.
In practice it means that there is an unofficial tiering system with certain grammars being harder to get into than others. All, though, are excellent.
I'd also comment that parents generally don't enter their child for all the exams. I'm in the south of the borough and here parents usually go for the relevant Alty Grammar and Sale, and maybe the relevant Catholic grammar, if applicable. They don't normally go for Urmston and Stretford, although last year threw up an anomaly in that Urmston decided to hold its exam the week before the Alty Grammars' exams and so many parents decided to use Urmston as a test drive, so to speak. I can't speak for parents in the north of Trafford.
The advice about different entry criteria is important to note, as is the point that the different schools test different subjects. Don't assume that because one tests VR, NVR and Maths that they all do.
If you have any more specific questions, please do ask!
In practice it means that there is an unofficial tiering system with certain grammars being harder to get into than others. All, though, are excellent.
I'd also comment that parents generally don't enter their child for all the exams. I'm in the south of the borough and here parents usually go for the relevant Alty Grammar and Sale, and maybe the relevant Catholic grammar, if applicable. They don't normally go for Urmston and Stretford, although last year threw up an anomaly in that Urmston decided to hold its exam the week before the Alty Grammars' exams and so many parents decided to use Urmston as a test drive, so to speak. I can't speak for parents in the north of Trafford.
The advice about different entry criteria is important to note, as is the point that the different schools test different subjects. Don't assume that because one tests VR, NVR and Maths that they all do.
If you have any more specific questions, please do ask!
