Changes to RHS admissions 2014

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Janeymorris
Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 8:15 pm

Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Janeymorris »

Has anyone noticed that RHS have changed from first 50% places to 11mile radius, then next 50% to eastern area (giving eastern area a higher advantage) to the other way round ie the first 50% to eastern and then next 50% to the 11 mile radius. Not sure what overall effect it will have with the additional places and I guess depends how bright eastern area kids are that particular year, but I suspect it is good news if you are in area 2. Bad news if you are out of catchment completely as they list waiting list priority to those in catchment with waiting list scores before going to out of catchment. 1step in academy's setting their own admission criteria.
Okanagan
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Okanagan »

To clairify:
2013 admissions policy
I. Priority will be given to children in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, a local authority (under Section 22 of the Children Act 1989) or children who were looked after but have ceased to be so because they were adopted (or become subject to a residence order or a special guardianship order) who meet the qualifying standard for the school.
II. The first 50% of the remaining places will be allocated to children living in the priority circle (the centre of which is the Rugby Water Tower) who meet the qualifying standard for the school.
III. The residual 50% of places will be allocated to children living in the Eastern
Area of Warwickshire* who meet the qualifying standard for the school.


The 2014 consultation reverses points II and III -
II. The first 50% of the remaining places will be allocated to children living in the Eastern
Area of Warwickshire* who achieve the automatic qualifying score or above.
III. The residual 50% of places will be allocated to children living in the priority circle (the centre of which is the Rugby Water Tower) who achieve the automatic qualifying score or above.


As things stand children in the inner area ("the Eastern Area of Warwickshire") get two bites of the cherry - i.e. more than 50% of the total places. Any who are ranked high enough for the first 50% of places will get a place that way, and then another 50% of places on top of that.

The new proposals will mean that the inner area children get a guaranteed 50% of the places, but will only get more than that if the number from the outer area who score more highly than the inner area cutoff doesn't fill all of the remaining 50% of places.

So the probable effect is that the qualifying score from the outer area would fall, and from the inner area it would rise.

It will be interesting to see if LSS and Ashlawn follow suit.

However we've been here before - RHS proposed this in the 2012 consultation and it didn't actually happen then. The situation may be different now that the schools are acadmies, and thus their own admissions authorities, but there were objections last time on the grounds that the change wasn't consistent with the earlier adjudication regarding the impact of the Warwickshire grammars on the Northamptonshire comprehensive system (which is what led to the introduction of the inner and outer areas in the first place).
Okanagan
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Okanagan »

It looks like changes may be on the cards elsewhere too - Ashlawn have reworded their (draft) admissions policy to possibly offer extra selective places if their PAN increases (no news on that yet though).

Ashlawn's 2013 admissions policy
Admission to Year 7 in September 2013
Agreed Admission Number
5. The school will admit 256 pupils to Year 7 in 2013-2014. Of these 256 places, 30 will be allocated to selected students who have successfully completed the 11+ and 226 will be available to non 11+ selected students.


But 2014 (draft)
Admission to Year 7 in September 2014
Agreed Admission Number
5. Ashlawn School will admit its allocated Pupil Admission Number (PAN) to Year 7 in 2014-2015. Of these places, 12% will be allocated to selected students who have successfully completed the 11+ and the remaining places will be available to non 11+ selected students.
6. 10% of the non-selected places will be offered to those students who received the highest scores in Ashlawn School’s Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Aptitude Test.


Lat year's consultation document on 2013 entry (which they eventually didn't go ahead with) had stated
Agreed Admission Number
5. The school will admit 280 pupils to Year 7 in 2013-2014. Of these 280 places, 90 will be allocated to selected students who have successfully passed the 11+ and 190 will be available to non selected students.

so it looks like any plans for official expansion of the selective places has been scaled back for the forseeable future.

We'll have to wait for the PAN to be announced to see if that has any real meaning - but while the current 30 places equates to one form of 30 - 12% of 280, if they adopted last year's proposed figure would be 33 - which poses some interesting questions about how they would accomodate the extra 3.
Janeymorris
Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 8:15 pm

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Janeymorris »

It wouldn't pose a problem as they,ve always had 2 classes made up of those passing 11 plus and those in catchment with high sats.
saram
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:23 pm

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by saram »

At RHS, if my assumptions are correct, then the number of places given to girls in the outer area will rise dramatically. For the purposes of this argument, let's assume that the ratio of girls sitting the exam is 2:1 in favour of the inner area, with 120 places. At the moment, the number of girls gaining admission from the outer area (10 mile radius) is 1/3 of 60 ie: 20, with the remaining 100 places going to those in the inner area. The flipping of the criteria means that the first 60 places will go to inner area girls - but, in order for that to happen, the top 90 girls will be used up (using the 2:1 ratio). This means that of the remaining 60 places, 30 will be taken by this cohort from the outer area. The remaining 30 places will again be split 2:1 (remembering that all within the 10 mile radius are included in this group). So, this means that 80 places will go to the girls who live in the inner area and 40 to those in the outer. Is the maths right?!
This is a very interesting proposal - I wonder whether it will cause ructions just like before?
Okanagan
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Okanagan »

saram - the logic is right but there are a few unknowns to consider:
1 - you have made assumptions about the ratio of inner/outer area candidates which we don't have the data to corroborate.
2 - you have assumed that the distribution of scores in the inner and outer area is the same - given the perceived probability of gaining a place you would probably find in reality that a higher proportion of pupils from the inner area take the test (they are all going to be travelling to one of the Rugby secondary schools anyway, so there is nothing to lose) whereas those from the outer area will probably only take it if they feel that they have a realistic chance of achieving a place. So the distribution of scores for the outer area candidates may be skewed towards the top end.
3 - the news that there are probably more places available to the outer area and thus the probability of success is higher may encourage more outer area candidates.
saram
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:23 pm

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by saram »

Yes, Okanagan, you're quite right about the unknowns. I just wanted to demonstrate that there is no doubt that the outer area will have a much better chance of getting a place. I guess at the end of the day, the school just wants to attract the brightest girls wherever they live.
Okanagan
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Okanagan »

Once the offers have been made we might be able to get a figure from admissions as to how many places went to inner area candidates, and how many to outer circle candidates this year.
Okanagan
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by Okanagan »

Lawrence Sheriff's 2014 Draft Admissions Policy is also giving higher priority to the outer circle, matching the proposed change for Rugby High. Meanwhile Ashlawn's policy doesn't even mention the outer circle (although it didn't last year either).
justathought
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Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:35 pm

Re: Changes to RHS admissions 2014

Post by justathought »

In relation to the post re Ashlawn and changes for 2014, my understanding is that they have already instigated this in 2013 with 30 children being taken from the 11+ and another 30 children being selected based on the ranking they achieved in the Modern Language Test they could opt to take after the 11+, am I right?
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