Oversubscription- Applications from North wales/chester

[postman]

We have applied for a Year 7 grammar school place for our son(Calday Grammar is our first preference because we live in North Wales -Rhuddlan and Calday operates a bus service up to St-Asaph so it is just few minutes’ drive from our home to St Asaph)

I have noticed someone posted in another post that more number of students have passed in the Wirral 11+ test this year so bit afraid what if the rule oversubscription criteria applies..

The following is mentioned in the Calday website that the school would use the following criteria to find the distance from school to the home if the school is over subscribed.

>>>>
4. By reference to geographical factors, preference will be given to children with the shortest distance to
the school as measured by the Local Authority computer mapping system.
<<<<<

Not sure how this distance is measured, does this a straigt line between the home address and the school or the distance by road or walking distance. But if the distance is measured by road or walking distance then the applications from North Wales and chester has only a very little chance of getting a place..

I remember from the open evening meeting(September 26th 2013) ,the Head teacher has said the students from North Wales and Chester has almost got a place in the Calday if they passed the 11+ test just because of number of applications from that region. Please correct me If I have misunderstood what the Head teacher said! If I am correct then I assume the above rule applies different to North Wales and Chester students than it applies to the Wirral LA applications!!!..

If anyone has any detail/experience from North Wales/Chester on previous year admissions and could share their experience would be greatly helpful.

Thanks.

[hermanmunster]

Have just been looking at the policies for Wirral Schools and it appears that there are a range of ways in which distance is measured - some are walking, some just "distance" (which may be straight line) .

Only way is to ring and ask how they do this for Calday.

[postman]

Thanks.

I have actually contacted the school first and been directed to contact the Wirral LA which I did as well but waiting for a reply still hence posted this question here in the forum.

[mjames]

One of my North Wales pals' daughter has qualified this time with 97% for Wirral LEA exam and 92% for Upton. They inquired at LEA whether the high score would give any leverage, as they are also worried about the distance.
LEA replied that once they qualify, the score is immaterial.The inclusion/exclusion depends on individual school's criteria eg: Distance for Wirral Girls;Catholics for Upton;siblings at school;teacher's offspring etc.
However, as said in another post,too many girls have qualified this year--394 for 338 non-catholic school places.What exclusion criteria would they use for those 56?Wouldn't they have to use the scores?
Their child would not fall in any of the above "inclusion" criteria

[postman]

Thanks mjames for your reply.

I agree. can someone confirm the post about the number of qualified pupils is actually the correct figures? is it possible to get this information from LA?

I can see from the booklet given in the open evening that number of students from North Wales/chester in the current year 7 at calday is about 15 but anyway I can see last year there was no oversubscription rule applied...

[debs2028]

While no one can predict what schools people will put down which may make a school oversubscribed, there are more places available than the reported pass rates
There are 490 boys places and 478 girls , most children that sit the catholic school exams also sit the wirral exam so would also be included in the non catholic passes , but will choose to attend the catholic schools. therefore I would not worry to much about oversubscription for calday/west kirkby , having said that wirral boys and girls have had to apply oversubscription criteria in several school year groups

[debs2028]

One of my North Wales pals' DS has qualified this time with 97% for Wirral LEA exam and 92% for Upton. They inquired at LEA whether the high score would give any leverage, as they are also worried about the distance.
LEA replied that once they qualify, the score is immaterial.The inclusion/exclusion depends on individual school's criteria eg: Distance for Wirral Girls;Catholics for Upton;siblings at school;teacher's offspring etc.
However, as said in another post,too many girls have qualified this year--394 for 338 non-catholic school places.What exclusion criteria would they use for those 56?Wouldn't they have to use the scores?
Their child would not fall in any of the above "inclusion" criteria

Upton uses the child's score when all the above qualifications have been met
Wirral non catholic schools use the distance criteria and not score

[mjames]

Upton uses the child's score when all the above qualifications have been met
Wirral non catholic schools use the distance criteria and not score

Thanks for the info, debs2028
Do you know the pecking order for these criteria(sibling;offspring;distance etc), in the non-catholic schools??
From what I understood from their website,Upton uses score as the first criteria and Catholics as the last, when there is a tie.
It all become more complicated as Upton conducts a separate exam, but Wirral LEA mixes that in the common pool and oversees the whole admission process.

[debs2028]

Upton .....if all 140 places are taken by girls that have passed and are catholic ( so catholic is the first criteria ) , then those with the highest scores ( baptised Catholics) will receive the places , if there was a tie for the last place then the child who lives closest to the school would get the place
If say 130 catholic girls put upton on preference form , then the final 10 places would go to non catholic girls with the highest score regardless of distance
It does say that all girls who put upton as first choice and passed got place last year , a girl from my sons school( non catholic), we live in chester is in current year 7


Wirral, score is irrelevant once pass mark achieved . Having a sibling at the school gives preference over distance and then distance from school ( I am not sure how this is measured)
In the event of oversubscription I would imagine that a good score would help in the appeals process , but lots of things would be taken into account
Interestingly the cleverest boy in my ds class at calday ( according to my son) failed the eleven plus and got in on appeal

Hope info helps
Debs

[mjames]

Thanks debs2028.Well explained.