Urgent please share! children sitting the 11+ exam Slough Consortium (Kendrick) on Saturday can cheat

[Lindy123]

This has been raised with Kendrick and Reading schools and so far the response has been "Raise a formal complaint" and "we can look at this next year"

Please share urgently!

The morning exam at Reading Boys will finish at around 11.00AM, the morning exam at Kendrick finishes at 11.30AM. The afternoon exam at Kendrick does not start until 13.00 hours with registration half an hour before at 12.30PM. This leaves a possible one and a half hours in which exam content could be distributed to friends and family and content becomes viral.
With this lack of safeguarding a boy could sit the morning exam and his twin sister could sit the afternoon exam and they would be able to have lunch together in between and share the content of the morning paper which is quite feasible as they would not be competing for the same school.

[Lindy123]

@catherineofmumbles

Hello and thanks, you are right...I will do that first thing, right now I'm too tired. I came to mumsnet because it's a credible site with credible readers and I hoped it would help the plight of several parents in Berkshire who have been brave enough to raise their hands against a system that is powerful and unfamiliar with contest....an earlier post says that this happens everywhere. It actually doesn't matter if pupils are competing for the same school. This concern is that children are sitting for OPPOSING schools, so no rivalry is in play as I try to point out in my analogy to the cousins above in my previous post.

If this IS happening elsewhere as people are saying here then raise your hands! Don't allow it! If we don't challenge we don't improve or evolve.

[Lindy123]

@poisoned by pen

It's a shame it's just discussed and no action taken. We have written to the Head, The Head of Education at Reading, the press are involved and mumsnet along with other forums. We're not just discussing, we're trying to action something.

[Lindy123]

@poisonedbypen......I agree aspects of life are not fair and we as humans try to control what we can to the best of our ability. We parents in Berkshire feel that the administration of the 11+ exam is something that is not "life" or "chance" or "luck" and should be administered in the same way GCSE's are. Morning kids don't leave until the 2nd sitting is in.

[Lindy123]

@glacecherries

My daughter is totally and utterly oblivious to any of this, but thanks for the advice. Funny how people don't discuss how they cheated in the 11+ exam, perhaps that's why you've never heard of any cheating going in in Slough then?

[poisonedbypen]

But what about those taking the tests in the coming months? I'm sure that happens in other counties too, although Bucks may be unusual in that they can sit the same test until next July. And it isn't all for the same school, it's for 13 different schools.

[alphablock]

DD took Bucks test this afternoon. Mock on Tuesday was considered by many kids to be "easy" and news quickly spread that kids who took real exam this morning also found it easy (some parents had spoken to friends whose kids sat it). My daughter was therefore gutted that exam wasn't easy and was close to tears during exam as she assumed she was the only person finding it hard.

[poisonedbypen]

Poor her. Most people I've heard of said it was hard (& Berks people note, morning & afternoon exams with a gap in between for different schools).

[Lindy123]

@poisonedbypen

I can't comment about other boroughs as I don't have the critical facts pertaining to those schools. I am only aware of the facts pertaining to The Slough Consortium (which is brand new this year as is the exam and its' administration). Every grammar school devises its own admissions policy, which is absolutely fine, no problems there. However, every parent, person, pupil, human being, has the right, the ability, by law, to bring a complaint of "Mal administration" concerning the administration of the 11+ exam. Which is what we are doing. We are moving through the correct channels but this flaw was flagged only on Monday and we have been fobbed off In the hope that we'll go away. Hence the press and this post.
If all the other boroughs are "doing it wrong" then it's about time somebody contested them maybe? If they can adequately prove their admin is robust and safeguards against the distribution of exam content to prospective candidates, then fine, no problem, we're all happy to get on with it.

[Lindy123]

@ alphablock
She is a star for even taking it but I'm sure you've told her that. Not poor her, great her for trying! She may have done loads better than she thinks even though her perception is not saying that. I hope she gets in. If she doesn't and @poisonbypen is right. let's hope its not because some other child cheated if indeed they were able. I don't know the system in Bucks so cannot comment.

[alphablock]

Thanks Lindy123 and poisoned. We went out for Pizza and she is totally fine now and once she calmed down it sounded like she actually did OK under the circumstances. I had no idea there were 2 sittings until we were waiting to register this afternoon and also no idea if any useful info was passed from morning kids to afternoon kids via parents. I did hear people discussing the subject matter of the comprehension, but this turned out to be incorrect, so my view is that there was a lot of misinformation rather than any obvious evidence of cheating.

Hopefully DD will pass, but if we do have to appeal I shall certainly point out that the pre-exam discussion did have an impact on her performance.

[Lindy123]

@alphablock
I was privy to some of the vocab from the VR paper within minutes of that exam taking place. I can't verify because I didn't sit the paper but I have it, I won't publish it here. I will keep it as I'm pretty sure it's accurate as I got it from a very able candidate. I would be happy to corroborate it with the examining board if needed in order to prove the exchange of information is happening. I think lots of parents, like I did until Monday, assume that even if there are two sittings then kids would never be allowed to mix. Beggars belief.

[FlowersForAlgernon]

I have a DS in the morning sitting. What's the going rate for tips? He needs some pocket money

[Lindy123]

@flowers....Love it! Maybe I need to take a leaf from your book! Not your fight. Hope he does really really well. If it's Bucks, Irony is, I do know some of what's on that paper. It's scandalous.

[FlowersForAlgernon]

Bucks was today. Everybody's already sat that. He was fine with it. Finished on time etc. It's the reading & slough consortium on Sat.

[Lindy123]

@flowers...not familiar with Bucks....as you said "I have a DS in the morning sitting," I misunderstood and thought you meant tomorrow morning instead of "had". Yes I'm aware of Saturday hence this thread. Sounds like your son did well. Hope he gets and if he doesn't I hope that somebody sitting the afternoon didn't have knowledge of the morning papers' content.

[FlowersForAlgernon]

He sat bucks today, at school, and will sit slough on sat.

I think Slough used to do them in school like bucks does but they changed to a sat exam a few years back. Don't know why.

Sitting in school was excellent. Much more low key for the kids and no stress for me. I think Sat is going to be an absolute nightmare. Not sure how we'll drop him off / pick him up. School says there is no parking anywhere.....

[Lindy123]

Is it part of The Slough Consortium exam? If so it includes six schools. what time does he sit and where?

[FlowersForAlgernon]

St Bernard's first sitting.

[Lindy123]

Fantastic! We could do a deal...It would cost us about 250 grand each to put our kids through a private school, say like the calibre of Wellington college. Your DS is experienced and bright, he just sat a test today. How about I grease your palm with 10 grand (cheap at half the price) you brief DS on remembering as many aspects of the verbal reasoning paper as possible (he's bright and experienced and probably can speak quite good English) the minute he comes out, you text me the vocab and Bobs your uncle....as a consolation, if he doesn't get in, but because of his help my DD gets in, I'll up the payment to 30 grand as it's still a lot cheaper that 250 grand each. Do we have a deal? Absolutely possible with the way the test is run and possibly how some people will think. I'll have my phone in hand!

[prh47bridge]

Verbal reasoning tests are not about vocabulary. They are about reasoning. In order to cheat you would need the exact wording of each question. A paraphrase won't do. Even an adult coming out of a VR test would not be able to give you sufficiently precise information about the questions to allow you to cheat.

Similarly with NVR. Unless the person who has taken the test can reproduce the questions exactly as written they won't be able to help you.

[Ladymuck]

Just be glad you don 't live in Kent then. Over 5,000 children at state schools in Kent sat their papers on Wednesday, whereas another 1,000+ who are in private schools or live outside of Kent sit it on Saturday. So no need to stress about only having 2 hours to pass on information at all. Just wander into the local Pizza Express on Wednesday evening and you'll hear more than you ever want to know about the content of the papers.

Let's be clear - the 11+ isn't a "fair" test, and never has been. There are huge costs to the schools in running the tests. They'll be picking up the kids who are bright enough to cope whether they've been warned about some question content or not. Your headline risk always exists - some children phone in sick on the day and sit the same paper a week later.

Good luck with finding someone willing to pay you £'000s for your tips though.

[Seriouslyffs]

If this IS happening elsewhere as people are saying here then raise your hands! Don't allow it! If we don't challenge we don't improve or evolve.
Too true I was going to quote from the Niemoller poem but actually comparing the two isn't funny just a bit sick.
OP take a chill pill, this isn't a human rights issue.
School selection makes perspective and grip losing loons of so many parents.

[Soonish]

I can sort of understand why people turn into raving loons about this.

It isn't like you have a choice - if you live in the areas where there are no comprehensive schools, you either get your child to sit the test or you resign yourself to their attending a not very good school.

So most people take the test option.

When you have a city with one super selective, one selective and several non selective schools which are all really dodgy then you do want your child to pass.

We didn't pay out for tuition, we didn't get in a state about it, and I didn't push it but I sometimes wish I had done as despite the fact ds has dyslexia and couldn't understand most of the practise papers anyway, however hard I tried to explain the questions, he nearly passed, and it would have made a huge difference to his little life not to be at a school where he gets verbally and physically abused by the other children. (He's only been there a week).

However even if he had scraped through into a selective, it still wouldn't have been fair on the kids who didn't. I don't believe in this system and never have done despite having been to a selective myself.

I can see why parents get het up though.

[Soonish]

and don't ask me why the non selective schools seem to be more violent than the selective ones. I have no idea. I'm sure you get pricks in every school. Just he seems to have met rather a lot of them already.

[OwlCapone]

Unless a child has a photographic memory and can relate the entire paper, one and a half hours is not going to help an afternoon child pass.