Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

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crashtestdummy
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:12 pm

Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by crashtestdummy »

I am wondering why my ds's school is so worried about SAT results but hushes up 11 plus results. How many children pass the 11 plus each year is kept a closely guarded secret but surely parents should be told? Part of the success rate must come down to school teaching, leaving the tutoring factor aside?
ginx
Posts: 2151
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by ginx »

We don't hear exactly, but we get a letter at the end of term telling us how many children are going to which school, so we can guess. Dd has told me which girls are going (but she may have left some out) and a friend has told me how many boys. This letter doesn't say who is going (also interesting) and it breaks down how many dc are going to each school. It's quite interesting.

It seems that every other year our junior school sends lots of dc to gs. I don't know why that is. Apparently this is a "bumper year" as 12 boys and 12 girls are going (approx.).

I don't know why schools don't publicise their success rates - I imagine potential dp's would be interested by results of "bumper years".
jugglermum
Posts: 111
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:45 pm

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by jugglermum »

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Last edited by jugglermum on Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Okanagan
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Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:20 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by Okanagan »

Probably because it's pretty difficult to come up with a standard definition of a "success rate". In some areas there's no such thing as a "pass" - it's a score and places go to those with the highest scores. In others pupils may take exams for more than one separate school - and a pupil who may "pass" one may not "pass" another. And of course these outcomes may not all be communicated back to the primaries.

And then you get the question that when an exam is opt-in how do you measure success rates anyway - all pupils in a school, or just those who opted to take it? And for pupils who take more than one - do they count once for each pass, or once per pupil?

Leaver destinations, however, are much clearer and that is a statistic which most primaries (at least around here) do seem to release.
wonderwoman
Posts: 511
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:07 pm

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by wonderwoman »

The GS tests here are organised and run by the grammar schools. They are nothing to do with the primaries. We are instructed not to coach for the tests and run them strictly in accordance with the guidelines given to us by the grammar schools. The test here is VR & NVR.

When parents ask about pass rate, I would explain this is impossible to answer and not in the least relevant to the teaching that goes on in school, because: not all children take the 11+; some children take and pass the 11+ then go to a non-selective school or independent; some children do not pass but are successful in an appeal; here the test is standardised so the top 25% of that cohort 'pass', so some years a primary may have quite a few children in that 25% and sometimes very few and in the last few years that top 25% has not filled the number of places at local grammars, so many children have gone to a grammar school who did not 'pass'.

The idea of publishing SAT results is that they reflect the quality of teaching.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by mystery »

In the future this may be a little different. Some areas are introducing 11 plus tests which are based around national curriculum expectations. It could then be that 11plus scores also reflect teaching in some way.
wonderwoman
Posts: 511
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:07 pm

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by wonderwoman »

:shock:

Approximately 75% (sometimes more) of our Y6 achieve level 5s in maths and English, but I wouldn't consider them all suitable for grammar school. And the grammar school is quite huffy enough about some who go already.
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by yoyo123 »

as wonderwoman says, difficult with an opt-in system like Kent
pheasantchick
Posts: 2439
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:28 pm

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by pheasantchick »

Each year our local paper posts how school have done.
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Why don't primary schools publicise 11plus success rate?

Post by Tinkers »

On the last day of the summer term, DDs school newsletter lists where all year 6 are going to for secondary. Not noticed anything else though.
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