Schools admission criteria......

Were you half-asleep when you wrote this? It makes no sense.

It sounds like normal selection criteria to me. Looked after children always rank higher in the grammar schools around here too. It’s obvious there is no sibling rule, it’s a selective school based on academic achievement.

Perhaps look at historic pass rates. I take it you’re in catchment? What score did your daughter get? What is the minimum score to get a place over the last 5 years? If she is within that, then surely she stands a good chance. There is no pass or fail with the 11+ normally, they’re ranked and the top X % get a place.

The pupil premium threshold is for households who earn less than £7400. With minimum wage as it is, these children come from homes where work is just a gesture .

You are confused.

A child receiving free school meals also has to pass the 11 plus.

This would be impressive without the intensive tutoring other wealthier families use

You sound like a nasty snob thinking your child deserves a better education than children from less well off families

By the way the vat on fees absolutely does not impact many families at all. As 93 per cent of children go to state schools anyway

I dont understand. Surely the places go to those who passed 11+ first ? Or is it that plus distance ? The numbers of care children and pupil premium won't make a big difference..ring the school and get a clearer understanding of what is going on..she has the 11+ is there not another grammar option ( yes not ideal but ..)
surely there are not loads of 11+ children with no corresponding school to go to ?

I think there needs to be more education as to what pp actually means, you seem to be under the impression it is only for those who never work, which is rarely the case.

To get pupil premium you have to be very poor.

Also op look at your local stats.they prioritise those DC because they barely ever get in!! Even with that priority, the grammar near me still has only about 3% of children who are pp.

Honestly, it will probably have less impact than you think, the proportion of DC on pupil premium who will pass the test will not be high.

This. Your sense of entitlement is off the scale. How do you know those children in care aren't placed with "hardworking" families, that those with pupil premium aren't. Because your income is higher you think you get first dibs?! Or you think you're "harder-working". Get a grip. Teach your children a better attitude than you have.

Are you suggesting that anybody beyond the threshold of pupil premium entitlement is middle class?
Because of course they aren't.

In fact this is an intervention that is most painful for working class children whose parents work, being both outside the privilege of tutoring and the new rules affording priority to children of workless parents.

@Jugjug

Reform would remove VAT private schools, increase grammars/selective schools, segregate off SEND children with more pupil referral units. It’s basically survival of the fittest/richest - and any child with needs pulled out of their local community and partitioned off.
I have no doubt the PRU’s won’t get adequate funding with abuse/safety concerns/high staff turnover in favour of preserving the quality of life of the advantaged.

I will be home schooling if that happens and I will have no job.

Lac and plac children are the most vulnerable in society. It is right that they are prioritised.

I don't fully understand your op, but I assume you're saying that lac and pp children who pass the 11+ are first and then all others. In which case they're not filling a cohort with 11+ passing lac/plac and pp children.

All the schools in our area, selective or not, prioritise children in care and those with pupil premium. I don’t have an issue with that. Especially when it comes to grammars, how many of those pupils do you think manage to pass the exam?

OTOH I do have an issue with the distance criterion for the grammar schools. We are (just about) in catchment, but based on the previous 4 years statistics my DC would not get in. If it’s a selective school with a catchment why should distance be a factor at all and not just accept students in reverse order of exam scores?

Why should children who work hard and value education not have the same opportunities because of their parents? Or children who show good academic potential, without tutoring.

Children in care or on PP often have had past trauma, a lack of involved parents or absent parents all together. They haven't had a lot of support. Parents to go over phonics or reading. Hugely disadvantaged.

It does mean they are disadvantaged in some way, that's the whole point of it.

Also, your logic is incredibly flawed. You want your child to have more opportunity to get in than others who have passed simply because she has a sister who also passed and got in.

Not a fan of grammars. If your area didn’t have one your other choice of school wouldn’t be so shit. And everyone would go to their nearest school. Better for everyone. Grammars need to die out.
I realise that means postcodes are the only deciding factor but that’s less worse than having one school creaming off all the bright children (or more likely the ones with resources and support at home).

Sibling priority seems to be one of the least fair criteria. What should a bright child not get into a school because somebody has a brother or sister there? Makes less sense to me than a child in care getting in.

What is shit is that any child has yo go the substandard school. Your DD still has a chance to escape it.

haven’t heard of this can you explain

I think it’s very harsh to begrudge kids in care they’re a tiny percentage of the population anyway unlikely to affect ops child’s chances.

should of just mentioned pupil premium and distance (I say that as someone who’s child gets free meals and we live multiple counties away from any grammar schools) would of gotten a more sympathetic response even from me.

but moaning about kids in care that’s some very nasty stuff

Thank you.

There will be smaller amounts of children in care going to a selective school. And yes they should be ahead of your child.

You may not like it but care experienced young children have to overcome so much just to get to your daughters starting position. If they can do as well as her academically then they deserve their place first and more.

For pupil premium. this is additional government funding given to schools in England to support disadvantaged pupils and help close the attainment gap between them and their peers.

Yes a disadvantaged child again needs to have a good school space where they pass the 11+ - to do as well as your daughter they’d have had to overcome significant difficulties in home life and other disadvantages.

This is about young children aged 11. It’s not about their families. Educators have said in this batch of kids the ones who are suffering or in unstable situations get to the front of the queue. It’s equity as it brings them a little closer to your daughters starting place, but they are and will be disadvantaged compared to her in all settings. She has an engaged and loving mother supporting her all the way. It’s a powerful thing. Use that power to propel her - not diminish others.

Absolutely! This thread has upset me a bit more than I thought it would. I can't believe that adults would resent LAC or previously LAC like this. I'm trying very hard to the generous and think they naively just have no idea of what our kids have been through.

Anyway OP. If Reform UK get in - they will 100% be backing your ‘ethos’.

Which will leave me home schooling, no school place and without a job.

I live in an area with no grammars. I also live in a town where the nearest secondary is miles below the others in the wider area. Think 43% pass A-C versus 72%.

We sent our children to a very good, undersubscribed village school about 5 miles away age 4 so they could get into a very good junior school 9 miles away aged 7 and with the hope of a very good secondary school 7 miles away aged 11.

There is a chance that they won't get into the secondary. My older two were the last of the big year groups in this area and there's a chance they won't get in. It is frustrating, I will be devastated if they don't get in but we've done what we can and the rules have to be followed.

it is absolutely fair that others have priority above us. Especially those in care.

One of my children has an EHCP. But like someone said above, some schools just say they can't meet need and that is an added worry. There's one near by that doesn't reject at year 7 but makes life so difficult that most children with SEN have left by the end of year 8 due to mental health.

We are a ‘hard working family’ and we also get pupil premium as my two children were removed from their birth parents, put in to foster care and then adopted. And whilst I can say they have had all the love and care possible since being adopted, they had a terrible start in life and one in particular also had neglect in foster care

Being able to be guaranteed a school place is one of the few things that can be given to them to try to give them help for their education, the least I would say that could be offered given what they’ve been through. Even the pupil premium funding doesn’t go them solely, it’s given to the school to purchase resources that can benefit the whole school. So your other child who is at that school will be benefitting from resources purchased by the pp funding

Do you know how difficult it is to break the care cycle? And the statistics of children in care who when they grow up as adults suffer with addiction, turn to crime, end up in prison etc often because they have faced such trauma in their childhoods and then go through life without any caring family ?

So are you really begrudging children in care and pp a priority ? Really ?

I don’t often post on here but I am genuinely shocked by your level of entitlement and lack of empathy towards a group of children who have had such a traumatic start in life

My dd is adopted OP so she is classed as looked after and therefore has priority choice over schools. We are both a 'normal' and 'hardworking' family. Kids who are adopted statistically gain much lower grades in school than their peers. I work like crazy to make sure my daughter isn't a statistic and give her the same chance in life as any other kid. Sorry but I'd take that stinking grammar school place for her if she needed it without a second thought for who she was taking it from. She's already been dealt a shit hand in life and this is our government's way of levelling the playing field a bit. I resent that you resent this.