Royal Latin Grammar School Buckingham

[ashishpanwar23]

Hi,

Can someone please advise, if one has to be in catchment for the RLS at the school application deadline i.e. 31st October or at the time of applying for the Bucks secondary transfer test i.e. May-June ?
We currently rent in MK, and are looking at a possibility to make a move to Buckingham closer to the secondary transfer test result date, preferably after the results are out but before the school application deadline i.e. 31st october

The RLS admissions policy states:
”…must have been resident at their home address continuously since 31 October in the offer year (the academic year in which offers for places are made).”
docs.google.com/document/d/1Bb9fhOxhy9nwbHFt7cw5bGz0O6SVqaoi8ISfrJTpXas/mobilebasic

So yes theoretically you could move between results day (mid October) and the 31st October deadline. That’s definitely not the case for all Bucks schools.

Thanks @TeaandHobnobs ! I got confused by "31 October in the offer year". Guess that means if we are targeting the year 7 admissions for 2024, then by march 2024 (offer day) we must have been living at the catchment address since October 31st 2023.
Apologies I've been a bit thick over all this.

Don’t worry! It does get very confusing!

@TeaandHobnobs Please bear with me, I am going into specifics here"

The RLS admissions policy :
”…must have been resident at their home address continuously since 31 October in the offer year (the academic year in which offers for places are made).”

Would you know, if in the offer year there would be a kind of date the school might be looking at that we live at least till? Lets say the offers are out in March, we start the school in September but decide to move out of catchment? Honestly, as we are still renting, we might ultimately want to settle down in MK, edging around Buckingham.

If you move, you will have to notify the school of your new address.
If they suspect you have moved into the catchment of the school for the sole purpose of gaining a place, and move out again before your child starts in Y7, they may decide to withdraw your place if they believe you've obtained it fraudulently - but it is a very grey area.

The whole point of these admission policies (and RLS' is more lenient than many others) is to try and prevent / discourage people doing exactly what you propose: moving in to gain a place, but moving back to where they would prefer to live once they have secured that place, and thereby potentially taking a place which might otherwise have gone to a child who has lived in the vicinity of that school all their life...

Thanks @TeaandHobnobs , appreciate it ! I get you point. Will take some time to think this through, and make a conscious decision.

Please be aware @ashishpanwar23 that Bucks grammar schools can and do withdraw places from students whose parents have acted fraudulently in obtaining that place. Even after they have started at the school.

I get the impression that you are genuinely asking so you have the correct information, but attempting to game the system is a dangerous ploy.

Buckingham is a lovely place to live, and whilst MK may have the infrastructure and ‘stuff’ to do, I can be in the centre of MK in less than 20 mins. Give me country town over city any day!

You do also have to consider what happens if your DC doesn’t pass their 11 plus. My DD has just left Buckingham School (the ‘other’ school) although with excellent results and starts Uni tomorrow!

@thing47 Thanks! yeah, i kind of get it now, its either here or there, there s no middle ground.

@PicpoulDeMeNay Thanks! Cant agree more! I travel to central London twice a week (mostly wfh), so 20 mins drive to central MK station sounds best deal.

Congrats for your DD and wish her all the luck for the UNI :-)

Thank you! She’s actually staying at home and going to the University of Buckingham so nice and easy!

I also travel to the station at MK a couple of days a week - it’s an easy journey; the best I’ve done door to door from my office in Fitzrovia to home is 1h15!

This is a bit of an old thread but I find it all a bit depressing, the RLS catchment issues I have to be in London 3-4 days a week, so moving out of central Mk would be a nightmare for me. Also I rather like MK, weirdly. Buckingham seems to me a bit too middle Englandy, I suppose it is quite literally! My DS is highly likely to pass the 11+ but if we're not in catchment there's no point even taking it, is there?

Royal Latin can do consider a lot of MK state kids if they get top scores. In fact I know of a lot of Indian kids in MK who get over 99%. These kids often have extremely well off and highly educated parents who devote a lot of time and energy to kids passing the 11+. So you need to compare the pass rate needed compared to grammars in other areas.

The pass mark for Bucks is county wide. There is no advantage to a very high score in Admissions terms. You either pass or you don't.

@Wenfy I am sorry, but that is incorrect. Getting top scores doesnt guarantee admission to RLS. Passing the threshold is just one of the criteria that makes you eligible to get admission ( though the crucial most).

@Wenfy This is the RLS allocation for 2022. Scores make no difference whatsoever.

@TizerorFizz thanks! Just to clarify these criteria kick in only when you get the minimum score required in the bucks secondary transfer test. Am I right? I know sometimes the schools do consider certain borderline score cases.

@ashishpanwar23 as a general rule, the standardised score of 121 has to be achieved.
If this score isn’t achieved, you can appeal, and some children are then deemed to have passed if the appeal is won - but this is at a county level.
The child has to have passed (by achieving 121 or succeeding at appeal) in order to be considered by a specific school for admission under the admissions criteria.

Just to note that certain schools have particular admissions criteria which may admit children who didn’t achieve 121 if they are on Free School Meals / Pupil Premium - but you’d need to check the admissions policies of each school.

@ashishpanwar23 Exactly as @TeaandHobnobs says. The 11 plus in Bucks is administered by Bucks CC county wide. The same tests for everyone. The same score is needed. Then each school has admissions criteria you need to read and understand. Some will have lower score required for fsm DC for example. Then you can look at previous admissions data. This, if Dc are young, gives an indication about where to live. Obviously things can change but MK isn’t a given to get into any Bucks grammar.

@TeaandHobnobs Thanks! I know about the standardized score but being honest, I am still confused how is that calculated. Lets say for verbal reasoning, total number of questions are 60 and score achieved is lets say 54, what will be the standardized score. I know that the age of the child at the test date is also a factor, but looking at bucks website I see multiple STTS for single birth date E.G. DEC 2008 for entry into 2020 secondary.

@ashishpanwar23
Why does it matter? Your Dc takes the tests. You get the result. You can tutor or do what you want to improve the results. Worrying about how they are worked out is pointless. You get 121 or you don’t. Appeal if quite close.

A good website to look at is the 11 plus forum.

They have different boards for each county / district. There are loads of these sorts of questions every year.

If you are thinking of moving into a catchment for a specific school you need to do your research. Catchments are on the map, however, sometimes the distance of the furthest offer is tiny.

Also if you have multiple DC, catchment usurps siblings so you would need to stay living in that area until at least your youngest DC is through the 11+ process

Do you mean even where the child passes the 121 cut off mark and is in catchment they might not be admitted as admission can be limited to a certain distance within catchment?

@StrawberriesSW1

Exactly that - just because you pass does not guarantee you a place.

Here are Bucks allocation for admission this year

https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools-index/school-admissions/school-admissions-guides-policies-and-statistics/school-place-allocation-statistics/

I always tell people to look at previous years allocation criteria, the catchment map for each school and the furthest offer made. There are some schools with a very short distance e.g. Burnham Grammar, which is why we didn't put it on our shortlist. There was no way we would have got in.

@Pipsquiggle I posted the allocations earlier. The distance isn’t huge. Certainly less than it used to be. I know North Marston DD went to RLS but that might be ? now. They probably go into Aylesbury. Some areas of MK would also be ? However they are not Bucks grammar system. You would opt in.

Most people just take the test because you cannot do anything about scores are worked out.