Hypothetical Question:

The following scenario applies to in catchment Cat 4 non PP applicants- Child 1 receives 224 score and child 2 receives 240. Who will be given priority for entry- Child 1 or 2?

For Cat 4: Is priority based on the score above 224 achieved ? (so higher scores given more preference)

OR

are scores above 224 irrelevant as all treated equally AND distance to school is the crucial factor for such applicants?

Not fully comprehending the new catchment and scoring criteria.

Hi mh1

For category 4 children (non PP and in catchment with a score of 224 or above), any score over 224 is irrelevant. Children will be given priority if they have a sibling at the school and then ranked by distance.

If there are any places left, when all the category 4 places are filled, then the school will offer places to children in category 5- (have obtained the qualifying score-205) These children will be ranked by test score. Cat 5 children may be from in or outside the catchment. Last year both of the Handsworth schools offered places for children in Cat 5 who had not reached the priority score.

This illustrates how important it is to list the schools in the true order of preference. I would think that there would have been parents who decided not to list the grammars if their child had not reached the priority score because they thought that they would not stand a chance of an offer!

Nella, thank you for that.

We fall under CHB catchment. Am I correct in thinking that all cat 4 boys who achieved Priority Score were eventually offered a place last year for CHB?

If cat 4 children are ranked in terms of distance from school and achieve the required score it seemingly appears to boil down to if you're fortunate enough to live close to the school.

Last year I suppose there was the added advantage of extra 30 places available (i.e PAN 150 and not 120 like this year).

Had it been 120 last year 57/120 places (almost 50%) would have been offered to cat 1+2 children which off course is commendable and great news for cat 1+2 children but not so good for cat 4 children (30 would have missed out opportunity to study at CHB).

This was my take for last year for boys, but if the same will pan out for 2021 admissions - who knows.
For non PP.
224+ place at catchment grammar school
222+ good chance for Bishop Vesey
215+ good chance for Aston or Handsworth

For PP
205+ place at catchment grammar
Or places available at KEFW as OOC based on distance. CAT 3.

As OOC it will take 260 plus to even have a chance at an OOC place for CHFW or CHB and even then it will be a long shot.

As said elsewhere, if your grammar score is borderline then make sure you have a certain acceptable non grammar on your CAF.

For non PP a score of 224+ is not a dead cert anymore (I think ) Now , I think its a score of 224+ and living within closest proximity to school as possible.

Casing example was last years FW and CHB scenario. Not all cat 4 children achieving priority score were initially offered places, whether they were ALL eventually offered places?

Any ideas why the Priority Score increased to 224 and yet no equivalent increase in Qualifying Score?

On a related theme how do the decision makers determine what score is the 'Right' score to set either as a Qualifying Score or as a Priority Score (sorry, curiosity got the better of me).

because they have huge amounts of data over the years, that is why they will have increased the priority score as the aim always was to ensure that all children in catchment reaching the PS would get a place

hermanmunster absolutely agree with the notion of catchment area selection BUT the real question is will all cat 4 children achieving PS be offered a place at their catchment grammar? Certainly, in the early days in March this year there were some parents of cat 4 children who were disappointed as although they achieved PS they were not offered a place at catchment grammar due to oversubscription. However, I know of one child in FW catchment who was offered a place later on.

Judging by the events of last year/March this year, it is a given ( I think) that all PP cat 2 catchment children achieving QS will be offered a place but does the same hold true for all cat 4 non PP children achieving PS?

Hi mh1,

That’s why the priority score has been increased. The foundation will have looked at the number of in catchment children registering and they will have a pretty good idea from previous year’s results how many children will achieve the requisite score. I would expect that the percentage of children achieving particular scores will remain constant year on year.

I have a feeling that the children for the 2021 intake come from a bulge birth year, which might explain as well why the score has increased.

And don't forget, these scores are set before the test takes place. There is nothing stopping 100 families moving into catchment areas up until the end of October. Very unlikely of course, but this is another reason why there can never be a guarantee of an offer for everyone.

bearing in mind that there will be a large number of pupils on 222 and 223 there are likely to now be far fewer reaching the PS and hence much more likely that there will be places for all in the catchment + children from outside the catchment