Aged 12 sitting 11+

Eleven Plus (11+) in Warwickshire

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guest27

Aged 12 sitting 11+

Post by guest27 »

Could anyone please explain to me how the scores attained for a child who was over 12 when he took the exam will be standardized?
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Exactly the same as the other children, the Age Standardisation process cope with all ages.

Warwickshire actually ran a trial of the new CEM exam a couple of year ago using the year-& from Alcester Grammar who were all 12+
guest27

Post by guest27 »

I must confess that I had never heard of a child who was over 12 taking the 11+ before. My DD took it in Oct 07 and we were all concerned because of her Sept birthday. As it happened, we needn't have worried because in spite of her birthday she was highly placed.

Your answer Ken has not really explained exactly how someone who is over 12 will have their score standardized.

Do people realise that the identical exam is open to people who are over 12 for various reasons, because I didn't?
magwich2
Posts: 866
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

aged 12 sitting 11+

Post by magwich2 »

Is it really true that children can sit the 11+ when they are 12 and have been in this country in school for several years?

Does this child speak english or is there any other reason why they should gain such an advantage over all the other children sitting the exam?
Charlotte67
Posts: 893
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:59 am
Location: Cloud 9

Post by Charlotte67 »

Not sure I really understand this...

Is the child in question applying for a place in the current year 7 or 8?
magwich2
Posts: 866
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

aged 12 sitting 11+

Post by magwich2 »

In the september 2009 year 7 so they will be older than the rest of the class.

When I phoned admissions they were really cagey, tried to lie and then avoided giving a proper answer. It seems really unfair to me.
guest27

Aged 12 sitting 11+

Post by guest27 »

Yes, I wonder what the rationale is behind this.

It wold appear that foreign candidates who started school at a later age than in this country are allowed to take the 11+ even though they are older because they have not had so much formal education.

I wonder how other guests feel about this and thes standardization system, is it just a mockery?
guest27

Aged 12 taking 11+

Post by guest27 »

Ken, if the Age Standardization Process copes with all ages as you say, would it be possible for a bright child who is a year younger (ie 10+) take the test and then take up their place at the right time or even a year early?

Should we keep our children at home a year or two and also take advantage of this? A bright child who is coached at home and then intensively with tutoring would have no problem securing a grammar school place at twelve years of age!

At what age does this process go up to? Can 13 year olds take the 11+ and so on? At what age does the education authority draw the line or are we going to be presented with classes of year 7's sporting moustaches and sipping from hip flasks full of Remy Martin quite legally?
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi Guest27

For the majority of LEAs the norm is that the child can only take the 11+ if the child's birthday falls between the dates specified in the LEA Admissions booklet. Although there are clearly the occasional exceptions, usually when parents move into the areas from other KEAs or from abroad.

Although the Age Standardisation process copes with different ages (anything from age 10-12), an older child of 12+ would be significantly disadvantaged due to the fact that he or she was older compared to the rest of the cohort. As an example, for the B/Ham KE Foundation 11+ exam in 2005 (which is similar to Warwickshire), I obtained a copy of the Age Standardisation tables for that year. I recall that for the youngest and oldest children, the different in the raw scores that a child had to score to achieve an average Age Standardised Pass score of 116 was as much as 7-8 marks. e.g the oldest child might have to score say 70/100 whereas the youndest child only 63/100. (this is only an example, but I can give you the precise figures if you want to know).

Of course the corollary applies, if a very young child takes the 11+ exam then they will be advantaged. However you have to bear in mind that very young children (particularly boys) are often very immature. That's one of the reasons why they do age standardisation.

The point about children taking the exam early in Warwickshire is not entirely academic. My nephew sat the Warwickshire 11+ exam early some years ago and got into KE Stratford Boys. (He was about 1 month younger than the minimum age.)

The reason for this was that he came from a prep school where the year entry age criteria was different at the time to Warwickshire LEA schools. Although he passed the exam he was initially rejected for entry into KE Stratford because of his age, but this was eventually overturned on appeal.

It would be correct to say that in this situation the Age Standardisation process probably worked to his advantage as he was performing well in his prep school.

Hope this helps
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

There are a handful of children each year here who take the test a year early. It is not encouraged though and at one time in some schools people were actively discouraged by a ruling that the results would be standardised as though the child were in the oldest group of the current cohort.
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