Age Standardisation

[ayparents]

But it is pre-mature, as we will have to wait for waiting lists.

Waiting lists details will probably be available over next few days or by 15 March (based on inputs from experts from this forum).

As for many - there are not yet clear answers to all our questions. Stress levels are high. Scrolling the forum for some kind of hope, dim light in the tunnel. No reason to get personal or nasty.

Understand that these are stressful times for you. I am hopeful that things will ease off soon and you might get a school of your choice.

I have already heard/seen posts that atleast 2 CRGS offered places are let go or will be done soon. So, for sure CRGS positions will move.

If you are looking at cutoff scores and trends posted on this thread, for CRGS, Offered Vs Not Offered is between 344.908-343.16. Your DS score is 341.241 and hopefully you will secure a place in CRGS/KEGS.

I would only request and say, hang in there.

Good luck for everything. Hope this helps to ease off some nerves.

[Janita]

Janita, try not to stress yourself. Grammar school is not the only good option and is certainly not always the best option for every child. I know someone at grammar school who is miserable, his parents wanted him to go and tutored him intensively and he cannot cope. It is the right place for some children. My daughter will be going to the local comprehensive, which I was very impressed with, she is bright but I don’t see grammar school as the right place for her. My son has always been destined for grammar school and has been unhappy and unchallenged at primary school. I hope that both will be happy and successful in life.

Thank you.

My son only wants grammar - he is grammar "material" out and out. He is extremely academic. He is VERY happy with his allocation. We as parents stress to make it all work around our lives. We will wait patiently for movement on the waiting list (as no-one know where they are at the moment). Unless there are some secret agents out there who does?lol.

We will make this work for him and for us.

Of all 6 schools we were hopeful to be allocated no 1 or 2 on our CAF, but it was no 4. no offer for 3,5 or 6.

One we've got. And one we'll take. Thankful still.

[scary mum]

Janita, we would like your posts to stand as they may help others in the same situation in future, and they may realise that if they put schools on their CAF they could be allocated them.
On the forum every year we have parents asking after allocation how to get to a school that they have chosen to put on their CAF even though it may be many miles away. A bight child can do just as well in a non grammar school, they are, after all, just schools that teach the national curriculum.
I hope that things resolve for your son and that you are allocated a closer school.

[DSDSDD]

We were told to put down all Gammar Schools in my county....

Was this just a grammatical oversight?

[Proudmumregardless]

Probably late to the party on this but have read a few posts. This isn't the first year they've age standardised. My results were age standardised back in the early 90s and it worked well

It is hugely noticeable even in year 5 and 6 who the summer borns are, it's not just academic differences but emotional maturity and social skills that are a year different

And don't even get me started on people putting down schools then having no idea how to get to them or putting down schools and not having visited them.

I seriously think OOC places should only be allocated in extreme circumstances and that Essex schools should be for Essex pupils. I have said this before and I say it again there is a child who travels From Dagenham to Colchester daily, falls asleep in class, is failing by grammar standards and yet there she stays because her parents are adamant she's a grammar school pupil...

[Janita]

We were told to put down all Gammar Schools in my county....

Was this just a grammatical oversight?

"No - absolutely intentional!"

...like the forum member who replied in blue with a typing error as well...I did not need to point her error out to her. Life is just too short. But now you had to make me do it to reply to your silly comment.

Good Afternoon to you too - I'm going to walk my dog to try and get rid of my anxiety.

[Tinkers]

For info. Those of us with green user names are moderators.

When mods write in blue text it signifies they are writing as mods.

[DSDSDD]

I appreciate the sentiment but I’m yet to be totally convinced of the merits of/arguments for age-standardisation. Are SAT’s, GCSE’s, A-level exams age-standardised? But putting that aside.....

@Proudmumregardless mentioned that it’s not the first time the CSSE have applied this process. However, I feel that it was quite unprofessional of CSSE to not explicitly mention when compiling the traffic-light sheet, that cut-offs should be taken with a pinch of salt as it was like trying to ’use apples to predict oranges’. I feel that a lot of parents (who did correctly put their schools in order of preference), failed to appreciate the quantum of the “shift to the right of the bell curve” that age-standardisation had this year, when combined with the increased number of entrants.

[failingtopass]

My understanding is that age standardisation is only applied if there is a statiscal difference in the variance of the results. If no difference then not applied. My DD was December born so did not count for her.

Despite not benefitting from age standardisation I am happy for it to be applied if it is required.

With regards to applying this for A levels or GCSE's by that time the variance is likely to be little and unlikely to be statistically significant. I'm sure someone would have challenged this already!

Giving an extreme example, you would expect little variation in knowledge between a 40 and 42 year old compared to to say a 4 and 6 year old.

Comparing my son who is summer born to my daughter, whilst he seems to be ahead in his work compared to the same stage as my daughter in maths i can clearly see he has less general knowledge and despite reading alot more just does not appear mature enough (may be he is a boy!) - seriously at this stage a 6-9 month difference in generally noticeable in children even if they are in the same year group.

[Leighmum2019]

Comparing my son who is summer born to my daughter, whilst he seems to be ahead in his work compared to the same stage as my daughter in maths i can clearly see he has less general knowledge and despite reading alot more just does not appear mature enough (may be he is a boy!) - seriously at this stage a 6-9 month difference in generally noticeable in children even if they are in the same year group.

This is probably why the English scores were ‘uplifted’ more with age standardisation than the maths paper.

I wish that CSSE would release their analysis and reasoning for applying the formula they did as I think it may allay concerns.