September 2013

[Nimbus]

Hi- Just wondered if any non-Catholics were going to apply to Loreto/St Ambrose this year- still undecided whether to or not?

[parthiban]

Hi Nimbus, My DS is starting St.Ambrose in September and from what I gather from replies on this forum no non-catholics have been offered a place this year ( not sure how of much this is true as I don't have any stats to back this up) but when we went to the open day we were shown around by a lovely current year 7 boy ( so last intake ) who told us he wasn't a catholic and was lucky to gain a place, so obviously they have offered places in the past and still do but how many I'm not sure. We are from a different local authority and when we decided to sit for Trafford 11+ we weren't sure if we had a chance in any schools but I for one do not like the 'what if' , so my DS sat Sale(although we knew we were nowhere in their oversubscription criteria) , AGSB, St.Ambrose and St.Joseph's. We always knew St.Ambrose is what we wanted for personal reasons but we ranked 2 other schools in the caf form as backup. In my opinion if you want to give it a go and you think you want your child to go to a faith school you should , as you never know how many catholics are going to sit the exam or pass this year. None of us can tell the future. Good luck to you and your DS.

[CarpeDiem]

If you like the school you should sit the exam for it, but maintain realistic expectations. Normally a few non catholic children get a place at both schools but each year it differs as to how many and in the case of St Ambrose this year it may possibly be none.

[Mandy21]

No-one at my children's school was offered a place this year (a Church School very close to St Ambrose) despite several passing the exam. In the past few years, there have been a handful of boys who have gone. One of the boys who passed already has a brother there and he wasn't offered a place - I think non catholic boys in catchment with a sibling rank higher than a non catholic without a sibling, so obviously they were massively over subscribed if they didn't get as far down the list as siblings. The general rumours are that because its been refurbished and has such great facilities, lots more catholic boys are sitting / applying (prepared to travel now whereas perhaps they wouldn't have been in the past) so they don't have a surplus of places anymore for non-catholic boys.

[Mollymop78]

My son comfortably passed Ambrose exam.
We are not catholic but Church of England. Son currently attends a faith based primary and we live locally. We were in cat 7.
Son was not offered a place. We decided to appeal and WON.
Son now starting there this September

[smiler10]

Same here Mollymop! our son and his best friend both passed for St Ambrose and we are local but were devastated that neither of them were offered a place on 1st March. Anyway both were offered a place on appeal and we are over the moon!
I know in the past that loads of non-Catholic boys have got places, so can only presume that due to the new building it is more popular than ever.
We are so pleased we appealed!