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]

If a kid can pass vocab content over to another kid then that is a possible 5 marks. 5 synonyms would do the trick. And no it's not human rights but it's very wide scale and possibly life changing. I think that's important. Why just accept something done badly just because that's the way it always been done.

[GlaceCherries]

OP can I ask what exactly you propose the Berks consortium schools to do eliminate this possibility for cheating?

I hear what you're saying about the (IMHO slim) chance to cheat, but what are you suggestion the 6 schools do to prevent it next year onwards?

Multiple sittings of different papers? (Thereby increasing the stress on families about the varying content and fairness...) Enormous venues to enable only 1 sitting? (What about latecomers or illnesses then?)

This year's system has been introduced presumably for good reasons, maybe to eliminate test "tourism", maybe to make it easier for some families to apply to multiple schools. It's not a perfect system and it is a good thing (again IMHO) that flaws are pointed out - but I'm curious to know how you think this particular problem can be resolved?

[Lindy123]

@seriouslyffs Thanks for the mental analysis and subsequent diagnosis I appreciate it. Until I thought this exam was well administered correctly I was indeed a well person who cared for her family. I don't like the thought that folks can cheat but maybe that doesn't bother you? I wouldn't play cards with you I think. I'm now off to check myself into Broadmoor as it's fairly close. Thanks again for your invaluable input, I feel better already.

[Lindy123]

@ Glacecherries

All schools in any one consortium must have their morning and afternoon sitting synchronised exactly, at the moment they are not.
When morning candidates are finished then they would be all bel taken quickly to the sports held and held there. In the meantime 2 nd will have been in a registered. Let the other kids go home and 2nd sitting cannot be sent any info. It's simple. You get the 2nd sitting to register and hold them in another place. Cross over could be a swift as 15 minutes if it was thought out beforehand and the it's then impossible to share. Simple and cast iron cheat proof or about as good as it gets. All consortium sitting the same paper must be the same paper, I agree. But it's not difficult to hold kids in a sports hall for 15 minutes is it to eradicate possible cheating.

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

Soonish that is exactly it. If only parents would put this much effort into campaigning for community-wide backing and support for ensuring behaviour of pupils in non selectives becomes exemplary. Let's find ways to make non selective schools such fantastic places for pupils there that they all want to go to school, want to treat one another well and are proud of themselves.

[Lindy123]

@glacecherries
apologies for typo *They could all be taken quickly to the sports hall and could be held there for eg.

[Lindy123]

Soonish
I absolutely could not agree with you more. I'm campaigning to make this antiquated 11+ fair and right. Why don't you campaign to get rid of Grammars and make sure all of these bright kids go to those schools. I couldn't agree more. If you start lobbying let me know. It's how it should be but until then.....

[Lindy123]

www.getreading.co.uk/news/mums-fears-over-11-exam-7758748

Article in today's press. another parent talking about their concerns. I think it summarises mine very well.

[Lindy123]

Prh47bridge

Yes but not wholly correct, if you're referring to "old type" VR then yes, more difficult but still possible...new type could contain a tricky poem comprehension with lots of inference. If you were sitting in a car waiting to go in and you were sent the title of said tricky poem then you get it on your smart phone and you teach your child the exact meaning of every inference and tricky word in that poem, and two hours would be able time to perfect that section. There may well be a poem comprehension on the paper.
Nearly 2000 kids sit for 200 places at Reading and Kendrick 1% point is the difference between getting in and not. That is Fact I'm afraid and the average pass mark has historically been between 85 and 95% for these schools and even higher. Might be tempting if you could get your hands on info from a boy in the morning and you have a girl sitting in the afternoon and not competing for a place at same school, especially if it was your best mate's boy or perhaps your cousin.

[TeenAndTween]

OK. I've read most of the thread.

I have a 100% sure fire, no cost solution.

Actually it will save parents money.

......
wait for it
......


Get rid of the 11+ and introduce a properly run comprehensive system such as Hampshire has. Good schools, good results, no angst.

Bye

[Lindy123]

TeenAndTween

Yep, couldn't agree more....

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

Lol, Hampshire isn't wholly comprehensive! Lots of children living in Hampshire go to selective schools (both grammar and indy). Also, you have to be pretty well heeled in the first place to buy a home in Hampshire in the catchment of a good comprehensive.

[poisonedbypen]

"Article in today's press. another parent talking about their concerns. I think it summarises mine very well"
So well that you seem to have outed yourself

[Lindy123]

poisonedbypen

There are four parents who spoke to that journalist. Four people who are raising concerns and have written to the head and tweeted. 4 parents are trying to do something about this. 4 parents, who are raising a formal complaint. 4 parents who are in constant contact so we are on the same page. So not sure why you think we are one and the same?

Have you thought that maybe if you possess the ability to identify somebody by the way they type that maybe you should make use of that talent and become a police officer? Don't chew the end of your pen though will you?

[TeenAndTween]

YeGods
I am aware that some people choose to go out of Hampshire to e.g. Salisbury Girls. I don't personally think it's worth it unless people live close to the county boundary.

And of course there are independent schools everywhere in the country.

As far as I can see the nearest independent to us is no better academically than either of the comps. Furthermore even the better indie a bit further away, kids often leave to go to one of the state 6th forms they are so good.

Yes Hampshire as a whole is quite affluent. But in DD1s year, about half the intake came from out of catchment, including a number of less affluent areas of Southampton.

If the alternates to grammars were better in 11+ areas, people wouldn't spend so much time, money and stress being desperate to get their kids to the grammars.

[CatherineofMumbles]

poisonedbypen
indeed (re the outing)

[morethanpotatoprints]

You'll be campaigning for a long time to get a fair 11+
some parents spend a fortune for their dc to pass the test, how is your campaign going to stop this and make it fair.
Oh OP you are so funny.

[prh47bridge]

new type could contain a tricky poem comprehension with lots of inference

My comments cover all types of VR test.

Yes, a VR test may include a paragraph or poem followed by a series of statements. The child has to say whether, based purely on the information in the paragraph, the statements are true, false or insufficient information to tell. The cheater would need the exact text of the paragraph and the exact text of each statement. A paraphrase won't be remotely good enough. And it isn't as if you can look the poem/paragraph up elsewhere. It will have been specially produced for the test and designed to make it difficult to work out whether or not some of the statements are true.

By all means have a go at cheating in the way you describe. It won't work.

[Lindy123]

morethanpotatoprints

Really pleased to have made you laugh, that's nice! (As Mrs Brown might say.....)

One of us is being interviewed by the BBC on Monday, it's after the event I know, it was too late for them today.... Reason why they don't mind doing it after the event...and I quote.. "This is a national story with far reaching interest." Granted it might blow over, but at least we tried.

[Lindy123]

prh4Bridge

Yesterday I received a list of vocabulary that had been on the Bucks 11+ paper minutes earlier.

Kendrick School have that list now.

The list consisted of five tricky words, the test was then to choose the antonym of those five tricky words from a choice of five other tricky words. If you had that list of tricky words beforehand and you looked up the meaning and then searched for antonyms on your smart phone, you would have an advantage. If that got you 5 marks you're on your way.

I won't cheat in the way I describe but it WILL work.

[prh47bridge]

You are assuming that your informant has got the words absolutely correct. You are also assuming that all the questions ask for antonyms.

This type of question is normally of the form "A is to B as C is to D, E, F, G or H". You only need the antonym if B is the antonym of A. It may not be. So you need all 8 words to be sure of getting the right answer. For example, if the question was "Prison is to Crime as Pain is to ..." and all you had was Pain you may think the answer is Pleasure, which would be wrong.

[Lindy123]

prh47bridge

And maybe you are assuming that the test will take the "old" GL form, which indeed it might, on the other hand, it might not and yesterday it didn't take the form you describe above...and believe me, the child who passed on the information would not have got those words wrong and in fact are viral now if you search for them.

The point is...as is with GCSE testing kids, are quarantined if there is a conflict of interest. Parity should exist with the 11+ and I'm not sure why that is such a problem as it's common place with GCSE...Is it because grammar school are very much self governing and quite formidable institutions?

[andmypointis]

To be honest there is no limit to the steps some parents would be willing to take to get a child into these grammar schools. It is like getting a private education for free. Some parents have been paying for tutoring from their kids for years and will do everything they can to get a competitive advantage. Now I am not saying that it is right (far from it!) but I do think that in such a competitive exam situation the administration of the test must be scrupulously fair and seen to be fair, with no information overlap possible between those sitting it. There is no doubt that snippets of valuable information can be shared given the time lag between schools/sittings of this. I honestly believe close-knit extended, families & communities will share information to get children in using whatever means. All that needs to be done is to put in place an effective quarantine procedure to resolve it. I can see lots of appeals afoot! Good luck all