Admissions arrangements and new Education Bill

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:39 am

Hi,

I am trying to find out what effect the new Education Bill will have on admission arrangements for Grammar schools. I understand that two of the things which will change are that we will know the results of 11 plus before choosing schools and that Grammar schools will not be able to give any priority to siblings though comps will be able to continue to use sibs as an oversubscription criterion. Does anyone know if this comes into force as of now? Also are there any other things of which we should be aware? Would be grateful if anyone more au fait with the system could enlighten me.

Sara

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:56 am

Where I live siblings don't get any priority anyway. I know a number of families who got the first one in and didn't get the second one in. Something that you need to take into account I suppose when opting for grammar school.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:47 pm

I don't think that there is a blanket decision on this. As far as I can see the new bill allows schools more freedom in selection criteria rather than being more restrictive. The two grammars we applied to are in different London Boroughs but as far as I have heard the selection criteria remain the same; one selects on rank order alone with no allowance for siblings, the other awards points to siblings within the bottom third of the cutoff/pass mark.

I also live near 2 schools that are within the top 10 oversubscribed schools (neither are grammars but both have selection tests) in the country. Haberdashers Askes Hatcham College have already instigated a sibling policy and Harris CTC are due to initiate a sibling policy. Quite obviously this will make it even harder to gain places at these schools.

IMHO the new bill will only make the scramble for state school places worse and provoke more 'educational migration' .