LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

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federusa
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:54 pm

LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by federusa »

If you are going to open day for Lawrence Sheriff School or Rugby High School and you live in priority area, please defend your right and start asking

1. Why this 2 schools have such greater intake of applicants from outside priority area (20%) against less than 5% in the Southern Area school and 0%! in Ashlawn?

2. How is it possible not to fill more closely to the 55 number the category 4 when the AQS (pass mark) is calculated using the test of the pupils living in the priority areas and on time? (see in WCC web site the 2018 admission letter)

3. If cat 3 and 4 has a upper limit of 55, why not add a upper limit of say 12 to category 5? That will ensure that no more than 10% of the intake at all times came from applicants from outside area. This is still possible to do through a in year change that they apply to OSA.

In between the 2 schools we are loosing each year 40 to 50 places for our local kids. At the same time WCC said in their sufficient policy that 2019 the Eastern School will be overcapacity. We need as many places as possible.

Ask and you will get.
Moguie
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:15 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by Moguie »

federusa wrote:If you are going to open day for Lawrence Sheriff School or Rugby High School and you live in priority area, please defend your right and start asking

1. Why this 2 schools have such greater intake of applicants from outside priority area (20%) against less than 5% in the Southern Area school and 0%! in Ashlawn?

2. How is it possible not to fill more closely to the 55 number the category 4 when the AQS (pass mark) is calculated using the test of the pupils living in the priority areas and on time? (see in WCC web site the 2018 admission letter)

3. If cat 3 and 4 has a upper limit of 55, why not add a upper limit of say 12 to category 5? That will ensure that no more than 10% of the intake at all times came from applicants from outside area. This is still possible to do through a in year change that they apply to OSA.

In between the 2 schools we are loosing each year 40 to 50 places for our local kids. At the same time WCC said in their sufficient policy that 2019 the Eastern School will be overcapacity. We need as many places as possible.

Ask and you will get.
Not sure I get what you are try to get at.

The inner priority circle is a lower AQS than the outer.
The outer priority circle is lower than the out of catchment AQS

If the applicant does not get the required AQS for their area then surely they just don't.

If you look at the southern circle AQS they are at a significantly higher Aqs number than Rugby schools. The overall catchment area is also a larger one where density is concerned. Also the competition is greater in South and the use of coaches for the exam is greater. If we had been in catchment for South circle we would not have stood a cat in hells chance of getting in with our son unless he was coached for it is my opinion and take on it all.
federusa
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:54 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by federusa »

Firstly the school define a AQS which is a pass test mark of the 11+ test and then calculate as a admission mark. For that, they look at all the test and decide to choose a number for the AQS that allow them to take the best candidates possible of all the test involved with some consideration to the local applicants. But all this is not clear and sure is not published, so it violate the admission code. But doing this they violate their own definition of AQS that is the top test of the priority areas applicants in descendent order as close as possible to the PAN of the schools (all of them=271) Second paragraph of the Admission Policy chapter "Automatic Qualifying Score". This is set in black and white in the policy.

I am not saying that outside priority areas applicants should not accepted at all, please. What I am saying is that cat 3 and 4 should be filled as much as possible with this 271 students from priority area, before moving to start accepting the out of area applicants.(Due to categories taken priority).

For 2018, the AQS calculated using the paragraph 2 was 206. You can see that in the FOI in Warwickshire website and calculate it yourself. Because the school "move" the AQS to 210 (somewhat taken account of out of area applicants), they give preference to out of area applicants in cat 5 (that of course they score well above 210) against the rightful local area residents that pass the these with scores 206-210.

Can the School do this? According to the Admission Code it is possible, but still the School has to write this clearly in their admission policy to make it clear for parents (of either area by the way) with only looking to the arrangements. This is not the case for this school. They haven't clearly stipulate the powers of the Committee to go beyond paragraph 2 and therefore they can not do it. Believe me soon you will have a firm "sentence" on this point.

Neither can the Committee choose the AQS as they want to. The Committee is a public body and when decided they should be doing it in a reasonable way. That means to weight the pros and cons of setting the AQS at different values hat the one set in paragraph 2.
What is reasonable? This will open so many challenges in the future. The way the weighting of the scores and numbers of test, etc shall be done and written in the admission policy itself and clearly.

Of course I understand parents from out of area applicants will dissent. I am from within priority area and I defend the right of my place of living.

50 places each year are lost to out of area applicant and that is a huge amount considering that the local schools are overstretched.

So local comprehensive schools in eastern are will be oversubscribed just because this school are preferring out of area applicants with a few extra scores than the local ones. They don't do this based in a theoric academic threshold, but just because they can. At the same time they are "poaching" good students from outside priority area against the right of the neighborough county councils running their all comprehensive system. This has been debated 10 years ago by the OSA and the decision at that time was to set an admission system that minimize affecting those areas. It was at that time decided legally ok that the Eastern Area Grammar School will take their intake 50% and 50% between their priority areas.

From that time to now, several changes have been made to AP that means thee school are again "poaching" applicants from outside the PA. This is not the case of Ashlawn that kept their 50% and 50% rule since 2009 and in the last 4 years has not taken any single applicant from outside area (well done!)

Finally the Southern Area Grammar have a full admission policy for priority area applicants before moving to out of area applicants. That creates an imbalance since people living there will have more chances to enter in Eastern Area Schools but not the opposite (and this just considering the letter of the law and not the added fact that the scores are much higher in the Southern Area than in the Eastern Area.

For example, applicants in Southern Area that score in the threshold of the Southern Area Schools, can apply and have a place in the Eastern Area even without need to move address. If you are in the Eastern Area and score high, if you want to ensure your kids enter in any of the southern area schools you have to move address.

I don't thing this is a fair system, do you?
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Personally, I would suggest if you are going to the Open Day, that you look at the school and what it offers and whether it would fit your child and your child it. If you are concerned about policy, the staff are unlikely to have time on an open day to give any meaningful discussion, nor in the main would they be the right people to have a go at.
Moguie
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:15 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by Moguie »

kenyancowgirl wrote:Personally, I would suggest if you are going to the Open Day, that you look at the school and what it offers and whether it would fit your child and your child it. If you are concerned about policy, the staff are unlikely to have time on an open day to give any meaningful discussion, nor in the main would they be the right people to have a go at.
Exactly!
guest201
Posts: 484
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:04 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by guest201 »

LSS are consulting at the moment to increase intake by 30 which may ease you worries a bit Federusa.
I agree with KCG and Moguie, open evening is not the time to be discussing this.
sportsforall
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:02 am

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by sportsforall »

RHS open evening was last week so too late. Perhaps you would be better off enlisting the help of your MP?
Moguie
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:15 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by Moguie »

guest201 wrote:LSS are consulting at the moment to increase intake by 30 which may ease you worries a bit Federusa.
I agree with KCG and Moguie, open evening is not the time to be discussing this.
Increasing by 30? Not sure how that will work. They have problems getting the numbers with a reasonably low AQS from local/priority area as it is?
guest201
Posts: 484
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:04 pm

Re: LSS & RHS Open Day-pupils from Priority Areas

Post by guest201 »

Moguie wrote:
guest201 wrote:LSS are consulting at the moment to increase intake by 30 which may ease you worries a bit Federusa.
I agree with KCG and Moguie, open evening is not the time to be discussing this.
Increasing by 30? Not sure how that will work. They have problems getting the numbers with a reasonably low AQS from local/priority area as it is?
Don't tell Federusa, but maybe they are planning to get them from out of catchment :shock:
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