Good luck - 11 transfer Northern Ireland

facingthefuture

Ex-Spendaholic wrote: »

Well done to all the kids. :T:T My son did it last year so I know what you have all being going through. Luckily he got his and our first choice grammar and I can't begin to tell you the relief of getting that letter. Its as nervewracking as the results letter.

Facingthefuture its difficult to explain in writing, easier via a conversation. I'll do my best.

Child 1 Scores 90 Applies to Wellington College as his first choice.

Wellington gets the pile of forms for all the kids who have put it as first choice.

Wellington then take the highest scores from the bunch of forms they have received up to their capacity numbers. In this round child A is in.

Child 2 Scores 92 Applies to Grosvenor as his first choice

Grosvenor do the same exercise as above but child 2 doesn't get in as there were too many applications with higher scores. Child 2's form then goes on to his 2nd choice school which just happened to be Wellington. He gets a place in this round and Child 1 is knocked out of the running so his form moves on to his 2nd choice school which is Inst.

Virtually all of the schools are accepting kids on strict rank order. It makes no difference where you live or if you have 20 brothers at the school. There are a few exceptions though who have a pool system in operation for a proportion of their entrants based on siblings at school etc. Sullivan Upper and Methody spring to mind.

My advice to you all is put down each and every school you would consider. Do not let anyone tell you different. If you want a particular school for your child but aren't sure if the score is high enough put it down as your first choice anyway. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. List every grammar school that is feasible for your child to travel to.

Thank you so much for this explanation, this makes sense now!

RikM

I must admit to finding this whole transfer business a bit of a trial. Coming from a background which did not involve grammar schools; having a choice of schools and academic selection to deal with is a new experience.....

Take the schools: comparison criteria are hard to come by. School inspection reports? N/A. Exam results? Fairly irrelevant, given that there are selective schools and the figures aren't adjusted to be value-added. They basically just reflect the quality of the intake.

So that just leaves the subjective impressions of the schools. Luckily, the nearest grammar gave the best impression.

Which just leaves the test...

I kind of wish they had just used some sort of IQ or CAT test, and left the spurious association with school maths and english out of it. The results seem to bear little relation to the raw scores (judging from ds result), so they may as well have done that, as making the kids think that it was their attainment in the academic subjects that counted.

Ah well, a few years to wait before the next one. Maybe they'll have something better in place by then.

Doggies

Thanks ex-spendaholic, that explains it to me to. I had decided to put 2nd choice school as 1st as her score more than likely isn't high enough. But who really knows what this year will be like. Also after reading last years posts, I must put the closest grammar school first and if she gets turned down and gets second choice which is more than 3 miles away she'll get her bus pass. Wheras if we put Hunter House first and she gets in, forfeit the buspass. Its only from sifting through all the posts that I've found this out. So good information is picked up here. Thanks again

sus45

My son did both tests - got an A in GL and 109 in AQE. Really proud of him.
:j
Have only heard of about 6 of his friends - 4 have got A's in GL ( all boys). They were the top group in their class so others could have lower grades.
He thought GL was tougher than AQE especially English.

I would like to hear is the general concensus that there are lots of A's in GL as he wants a school in Belfast that is oversubscribed and turns away A's each year. Trying to get an idea of standards out there.

Is 109 a good score - he is second highest in his bunch of friends. I know this would be enough for most Belfast Grammars based on last year.

facingthefuture

I agree GL was tougher this time, still lots of A's about. I guess it's the standardised score which counts, it's very frustrating to think we won't know till May which school they will get in to. I guess we just have to fill in our choices and hope it turns out ok. I have heard marks from 225 - 260 in the gl test, the majority being around 245 - all boys too.

KittyKaity

DDs class did really well this year, in AQE they had 3 at 107+ and in GL 4 As, a B1 and a C2, so 9/10 qualified for the local schools if the intakes are the same as last year. THere only are 15 kids in her class. Last open night is on Tuesday with parents meeting first thing Wednesday morning.

mamabuddah

RikM wrote: »

Ah well, a few years to wait before the next one. Maybe they'll have something better in place by then.

perhaps a new minister for education that realises academic selection is the only real method for selecting those who wish to pursue education to the highest level in this competitive world we live in...

Rach39

facingthefuture wrote: »

I agree GL was tougher this time, still lots of A's about. I guess it's the standardised score which counts, it's very frustrating to think we won't know till May which school they will get in to. I guess we just have to fill in our choices and hope it turns out ok. I have heard marks from 225 - 260 in the gl test, the majority being around 245 - all boys too.

do they look at the standardised scores then? My DS trying to get into Rathmore who turn away A grades every year and in their prospectus it just says they will consider As before B1s etc then apply other criteria. We don't fit any of the other criteria except only child so am hoping they will look at standardised scores too as he got 266 which is pretty high within the A bracket. Does anyone know from last year??

KittyKaity

Rach39 wrote: »

do they look at the standardised scores then? My DS trying to get into Rathmore who turn away A grades every year and in their prospectus it just says they will consider As before B1s etc then apply other criteria. We don't fit any of the other criteria except only child so am hoping they will look at standardised scores too as he got 266 which is pretty high within the A bracket. Does anyone know from last year??

From the lists last year they took to 235 so it looks like scores rather than grades. The grade only schools seem to list the grade rather than the score. Might be worth giving them a ring and asking, or tracking down someone who is on the board of governors.

butterflymum

If you refer to the yellow coloured GL Assessment 'Statement of Results - Frequently Asked Questions' received with the letter and outcome card, it indicates by a tick in the appropriate column, which schools are using Grade and which are using Score. For Rathmore, the indication is Grade.