question about 11+ / secondary offers

[shelley72]

hi i see that its secondary offers day today, and was just wondering about the 11+ and grammar schools. does the admissions process mean that you can pass your 11+ and STILL not get in to GS? do secondary schools have the same kind of admissions procedures as primary schools whereby schools are allocated on LAC, SEN, siblings, distance etc? my friends son will be taking his 11+ in november and i thought from what she was saying he just had to pass and he would get a place - or is it not that simple?

we are still at primary admissions stage so have all this hell to come!

Depends where you live- all the 11+ areas are different. The bit of Kent where we live, for example, is pass and you're in. Other areas not so simple. Sorry, not much help!

In theory yes your child can "pass" but not well enough to get a place. I know of one where last year those with 418 marks out of 420 got a place but one of dd's friends scored 416 and is out of area which is nailbiting. Some GS ringfence so many places to be allocated by results alone then go by scores in order of other criteria including siblings, catchment etc.

No most are oversubscribed. In our town if you pass for the girls grammar it is dependent on distance to school, where as for the boys you have to be in the top 145 to get a place.
I have had the hellish wait until today to find out if My DS got in ...............he did

Congratulations to your ds Wormshuffler. So pleased. You were posting on my thread in G&T last year and I was wondering....my dd also in - email in the last hour.

shelley72 our area has one grammar school and there is no pass mark - they offer the top 120 the places and then there is a waiting list....

Here the gs places are filled from the top score down. There is no pass mark.

Next year the school has to give out raw scores and the score above which places were filled last year. It'll create chaos because that isn't a pass mark and doesn't mean yore in or not in the current year!

No pass mark here either - just top scorers. There used to be minimum standard though where in theory if not enough achieved it they wouldn't fill all the places (although I don't think that ever happened).

Yes it is possible to pass the 11+ and not get a place at grammar school if there is a pass mark. If more children pass the 11+ than there are places available places are allocated in accordance with the school's admission criteria. They may give priority to the children who score highest in the test. And as others have said, some grammar schools don't have a pass mark as such, just taking the children with the highest scores.

If your friend's son will be taking the test in November the school concerned needs to buck its ideas up. The new admissions code requires them to take all reasonable steps to make sure parents know the outcome of selection tests by 31st October so that parents don't waste preferences on schools where they have no chance of getting a place.

In our bit of Kent, if you pass you get a place. The pass mark is adjusted slightly to ensure that.

In my bit of Kent, you can either try for a super selective grammar, which is the very top scorers or the grammar with a pass mark and select on distance.
We ended up with worst case scenario last year, a high scorer who didn't get a place at 1st choice distance grammar or 2nd choice super selective as they rank equal score on distance. Luckily we won at appeal.

In Bexley 180 gs places are allocated to the highest 180 scores irrespective of distance. To qualify for the remaining places , getting at least the set pass mark and the distance from house to preferred school. Skinners gs in Tunbridge Wells is top 120 scores irrespective of distance while Tunbridge Wells Gs down the road is at least achieving set pass mark and distance from house to school.

thank you for the replies. we only have one boys and one girls grammar in this area, and i have no idea how they select as i've not had reason to look - i just know that my friends son will have been having tutoring for about 18 months by the time he sits the exam so he should be prepared. just as well as i dont think him not getting in is an option!

prh47bridge i'm sure she said the exam was in november but i may be wrong. i do know (from looking at primary schools for this years reception intake) that none of the schools around here do anything to assist with the 11+ process.

i thought i was stressed waiting on a reception place, seems its only going to get worse

prh47 I'm sure the school will have bucked it's ideas up. The problem this year is going to be communicating to prospective parents that things have changed. This parent probably just assumes the timing is November, as it has been for so long before.

Thanks dunlurking and to your DD too . Now for a !

Thanks Wormshuffler Enjoy your evening

Shelley, the few remaining GSs around us (in adjacent areas to us, none in ours) have catchments. They seem to have enough places that everyone in catchment who passes will get a place. This leaves some 'residual places' which are allocated to out-of-catchment children, in order of their results, provided they are within reasonable travelling distance.