My DS scored 378 in this years Abgs exam- and hoping this will be enough to get in as we are OOC .. is there a decent chance of him getting in ? I understand things have got tougher since the broadening of catchment area ?
Thanks

I too would like to know the same thing. Our eldest son is already at the school and the change in the catchment area has made it much harder for his brother who sat this year (you would think). But at the information eve someone did ask the question and the reply from the school was that the change in catchment had made no difference and 20% of places still went to OOC children last year which was the first year with the new admission policy.
It’s is very odd that the cut off mark in the last 5 years has usually been in the 340’s and yet last year was 368. Don’t have an explanation for that if they still offered the same number of OOC places.

Anyway best of luck.
We have our fingers crossed in this house with a score of 370 but I am just delighted for my son that he has done well. At least he knows if he doesn’t get a place it is luck of the drawer and he won’t feel inadequate compared to his brother. If I had realised the stress it would place on our family 4 years ago when our eldest sat the exam I’m not sure I would have embarked on it. Terrible pressure on child number 2

With a score over 370 your son will do well wherever he goes, so be proud!

Hi

See my reply in the other thread about OOC pass marks.

Thanks for your replies. Yes it has been hard for all of them and it is such a lot of pressure at such a young age.. They should all be very proud for having done their very best.
Good luck to you too .. I think I now need to pack it away in a box somewhere to be looked at again in March !!

Hi my son didn’t get a place with his score of 370 . I would advise OOC parents to not put their son through this process unless they have a genius. Would never have gone down this route 3 years ago with our elder son had we known this would happen to our more academic younger child. He is heartbroken that his brother is there and he isn’t

Yes - agree it’s just not worth the bother frankly . My son put in months of effort to get 380 and even the school admissions officer (when I called her soon after the results came out)- said she hadn’t heard of anyone not getting in with that score - for the 10 years since she’d been working there ..
The school is obviously making a conscious decision to barely take any OOC admissions probably enticed by the share of the £20 million they’re getting from the govt .
As far as I’m concerned it’s the schools loss ( and luckily he’s got a place in a very good school) but just pissed off that they weren’t honest with OOC parents and even the head on the open evening said that they would be expecting to keep roughly the same no of OOC places this year ( but in the end took only 9 students ).. Things make change next year as they may add an extra class on - but I request the school to pls be honest with OOC parents .

We have submitted an appeal as need to feel we have done everything we can but don’t hold out much hope as the school have already accepted over their PAN. Once this is all
Over we will be writing to the head master to make special request that they ensure total honesty at their future information evenings. At the evening I went to they still put up the slide in their presentation which states 20% of places go to OOC boys. Had they been honest we wouldn’t have set our son up to fail. It’s so wrong. 750 OOC boys went through that exam and they have offered 14 places. No one in their right mind would knowingly put their child through that with those odds unless they were truly gifted. Good luck to your son at his new school. As you say with a score of 380 it is their loss. Not much consolation to our son when his older brother is there but we are trying to be positive about his allocated school.

That sounds really tough. We are also appealing with a high score OOC so maybe we'll bump into each other on Hearing day. Maybe our respective questioning of the school's case will tip the balance so we can both get them in.

Like you we have been unendingly positive about the allocated school with DS so fingers crossed they will both be happy whatever the outcome.