Kingshurst CTC

[Red Mommy]

Hi, hope you can help. Kingshurst CTC in North Solihull is the only decent school in our area. Does anyone know anything about the paper(S) used in their entrance test?

Also, CTC have changed their entrance criteria to prioritise catchment area; and guess who falls a few yards outside the 3mile 'exclusion zone'. I figure my son will either need to get exceptional results or do so badly he gets in as special needs!!

Thx

[KenR]

Hi Red Mommy

I read the information on the school web site which is somewhat limited.

Suggest you contact the school and get an application pack which may have more information:-

Do you want the best for your child?

The City Technology College, Cooks Lane, Kingshurst, Birmingham, is pleased to invite applications for 11 year old students (date of birth 01.09.97 to 31.08.98) for admission in September 2009.

Application Packs will be available from the College (telephone 0121 329 8300) from Monday 2nd June 2008. The closing date for returned application forms is Friday 10th October 2008

I assume their application and proposed admissions procedure was approved. You could phone up the college and ask for details on the Sept 2008 admissions - they should be able to tell you the distance from the college of the last successful applicant.

As the test is aimed at covering all ability groups I doubt it will be in tradional 11+ VR/NVR format

[HodgeHillDad]

Hi Red Mommy

We also found ourselves just outside the 3 mile radius for what would have been our 1st choice school for Son
When we went to the open evening last Autumn, a lady from Solihull MBC basically told us not to bother wasting our time applying as outside the 3 mile radius is so far down the list of entry criteria, after kids in care, kids with SEN, kids with siblings at school, kids within 1.5 miles, kids within 3 miles, then any places left (was told places almost certainly would not be offered that low). Were also told that many inside the 1.5 mile radius would not even get in, due to the massive demand for places.
Unless of course child has a sibling already at the school (as many I know do, good luck to them, lucky things!)
With regards to the test, my understanding is that it was a non-verbal reasoning (i.e. shapes) based test.
I understand places are offered to ensure that children across the spectrum are represented, with the majority being within certain percentiles (Imagine a graph from lowest to highest scores, few at bottom and top get in middle scores being the highest amount getting - sorry I am not very good at explaining percentiles!)
You might want to seriously consider Grammar Schools as an option!