11+admissions

[ellybabb]

Can anyone explain why a grandchild re-locating to England cannot have the 11+ papers sent abroad securely to be taken in his own school under supervision? We are told he will need to come over again and sit in the same room as all the others children on that day....from Tasmania!

It would be more appropriate to ask the question in reverse. Why would a school or LA (whoever is administering the 11+) agree to this? They don't have to do what you want. From their point of view, doing what you want adds complexity, costs and potential security issues.

Even if the paper is shipped securely, he won't be sitting it at the same time as the other children so there is the risk of information leaking to help him (or some of the other candidates if he sits the paper before them).

Fair point - Private Schools will however send their entrance tests abroad for a candidate to sit under supervision. Its a tough call for a bright child set upon joining a school that would suit him down to the ground....pity he is already coming over in the summer for a visit. Thanks for the input.

How would they ensure that the same exam conditions applied for the child in tasmania? For all they know his parents or teacher could sit the test for him! Exams usually have strict rules and invigilation to ensure the same conditions apply to all and to eliminate cheating.

Private schools have paying customers though, and scrupulously fair access arrangements are not necessarily their priority.

Because someone resident in Tasmania is not eligible for a British state education and the 11+ is a test for that education?

Of course private schools will do it. They are a commercial concern, they need customers and they charge significant amounts of money for a candidate to sit the test.

I’ve known children fly in from Singapore for grammar school tests for a boys school near me. However now they’ve changed it to a two test system with the tests several months apart it seems these applicants are no longer finding it practical. DD is at a Grammar and it is strapped enough for cash without trying to accommodate different test scenarios. They are not allowed to charge for the test to be taken as it is a state school. I suspect it might also make it hard to be seen to be fair and consistent. If someone appealed and said they’d been disadvantaged by not doing the test in their own school like the international candidate was able to do, it could open multiple cans of worms.

The independent schools however will often allow a sitting in an accredited test centre in that country or under agreed control conditions.,

We looked into this last year (we are currently in Asia on a placement, returning to the U.K. in summer so that DD1 can start secondary in September).

State schools all require you to be in the U.K. for tests (though, if academically selective, you are still allowed to apply while resident abroad) As others have said, it’s down to cost, fairness, regulation etc Some grammars in London have 3000+ applicants and if they allowed people to sit remotely as well, that number would sky rocket and the cost /administrative burden would be immense, and other obvious problems would arise.

Independents vary: until 2018 it was possible to sit the North London Consortium test remotely, invigilated by current school abroad. They changed the rules very late in the day and said our DD would have to be in the U.K. forvthe janusry rest. Massive pain in the arse and the result was that we decided it wasn’t worth the disruption/cost/time out of school over here etc and she’s taking the place at the state school she liked. That in itself was complicated (for aforementioned reasons): we couldn’t apply for catchment places being currently out of the country, so she applied for a school with an unusual (non-catchment) selection criteria and still had to make a trip back to the U.K. in the autumn.

Other independents have different policies (some non-consortium schools e.g. City of London School for Girls will let you sit them from abroad, I’m sure all the boarding schools would too).