Good luck - 11 transfer Northern Ireland

steveymp

Martin_Chambers wrote: »

What parent would listen to a primary school principal and take their advice on listing preferences for a grammar school? Their unions are totally against academic selection, they have said and done nothing in public to disavow anyone from that view and if parents actually read the transfer form it becomes clear that it is they, NOT THE PRINCIPAL, who should complete the form.

Of course you could take the advice of the real trolls on this forum and leave all the power in the hands of a group of conflicted individuals determined to rob parents of control of their child's educational future. Any parent seeking a grammar school place for their child should list every grammar school in the province and leave the problem of placement to those schools.

:eek: I'm shocked

This is the first bit of sensible information to come out of your Gob :T

It is so much nicer when people post properly:T



FAO: Pigsmightfly (great name by the way)

Check out the list of what the schools took last year as scores, it was kindly put on this thread by a very nice person.

I am in a very similar situation to yourself, our local Integrated College (non grammar) seem to insist in 1st prefs to have any chance of admission:o I have however put my local semi integrated Grammar school as 1st pref:o I have not filled in any other prefs as there are no other local schools that offer integrated education:( The primary principle has agreed with me on this issue also.

I would of been very happy to have DS attend Integrated College and have it 1st pref, but DS still has Grammar ideas don't ask me why, maybe because all his friends are heading that way. If he gets in, he will have to put his head down and prove he is capable :eek:

Good luck with all your preferences, not long till May now :rotfl:

36square

Super_Dad wrote: »

Hi -just found this forum and it's really great that parents are getting together to talk through a lot of things which the powers that be should already have told us...

My daughter got 99 in AQE and hopes to get a place at Royal School Armagh. She has one brother and sister already there. Not really sure if this is enough or not and just need reassurance, I suppose. Anybody have kids who did the AQE last year for RSA? I know it's not automatically going to be the same but would be good to know.

Luckily for you Armagh Royal is one of the easiest 'grammar schools' to get into. Not many applicants fail to get in. It's harder to get into some non-selective schools than it is to Armagh Royal. Two siblings should be enough to swing it.

mumofftwo

Doggies you have give me hope!!! We are also applying for special circumstances too my son is disabled and suffers panic attacks which happened on all the tests he had too do didn't help that he had too do these tests in unfamilar surroundings We also feel that he would benefit from going too this school because he will get that little bit more of a push ROll on May
Thank you!!

Doggies

Hi Mumoftwo. Fingers crossed for us both. I'm just heading to the docs now to collect the letter that will say my daughter was unwell throughout tests and had 2 courses of antibiotics. Her tests weren't clear until Jan. Then see the principal at 3.20. He's going to fill the form in with me. You have to supply educational evidence as well to support your claim. Luckily with miss madam her marks in school were a lot more than she actually got.

Right I'm finished work until next Tues, yippee!!!!!!!:rotfl:

Pigsmightfly_2

Thanks for all the advice and good comments everyone.

My main worry is about trying to get son into BRA with his score of 87, that now seems like a long shot. I am worried that if we put BRA first on our list then the intergrated college which has a grammar stream will not accept my son as they have stipulated they must be first on the list if you stand any chance for a place there! If they have been named second on the list he will not be accepted.

How can they get away with this as they are the ONLY school to apparently opt out of the clearing system inplace and apparently run by the education authority?

If this is the case he could well end up in the local high school in North Belfast. I have heard horror stories about this school and I know he would not be happy there.

So as you can see I'm in a difficult position. BRA base their intake on score achieved on AQE and Integrated college base their intake on grade obtained in GL. Integrated is 15 miles away,bus or lift into town then free school bus to college, BRA very close.

It seems that the education minister has suceeded in her plan to totally confuse parents and the current situation proves, beyond all reasonable doubt, that that her idea that all children would get a placement in THEIR choice of local school, grammar or otherwise, has fallen flat on it's face. I wish someone would take the chance to challenge her in court to account for her total failing to impliment her pie in the sky idea.

Its reads like I want a good school close to home ,but really thats not it at all, just want the best for my son, I know he will do his best at any school, but a fighting chance at a school that has other like minded kids there would benefit him more.

Going to drink wine later !!!!! xxxxxxxxx

butterflymum

Grrr.....know it doesn't affect the 2011 Transfer......but has anyone else seen/read/had a child complete this:

EQIA Consultation Report - Removal of Support for Transfer Interviews (Children and Young People's Version) PDF 109KB

and adult version

EQIA Consultation Report - Removal of Support for Transfer Interviews PDF 433KB

The following is relevant to 2011 transfer and may be of interest to any parents about to follow the 'special circumstances' route:

Additional guidance superseding Annex 6 of Circular 2010/12 PDF 136KB

Pmum

Hi everyone,

Very new to this whole thing but I wanted to reiterate what others have said and advise people to put down the schools that you want your child to have a chance to go to in order, regardless of the score they have obtained.

Nothing to lose.

Pigsmightfly,

I'm not sure which Integrated School you are talking about, but Lagan College say they use "Ist Preference" as a tie breaker for any category in which they are over subscribed.

Did your child do the GL thing aswell or just the AQE one?

Surely if they did the GL the school would have to use the grade instead of the order of the form, no?

My reading of the Admission Criteria seems to say they have priority if they are the only or eldest child in the family.

I'm not sure if any of that applies to your child but it might be worth having another close read of the criteria or even phoning the school?

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi everyone

For anyone posting on here, it's a great, really useful thread for parents, let's keep it nice and friendly and on topic please.

Thank you!

Andrea

butterflymum

Pmum wrote: »

Did your child do the GL thing aswell or just the AQE one?

Surely if they did the GL the school would have to use the grade instead of the order of the form, no?

Some GL Assessment schools will use Grade, whilst others will use Score. For those who sat the GLAssessment, a list stating which was sent out with the results.

snowJo

I'm working today so have just been nipping in and out of the forum. Loving the info and support on here at a time when it's hard to get info from anywhere else. Still contemplating the list of choices before heading into school tomorrow with final decision. Think I'll stick down a few grammar schools in the vague hope my son's 93 will scrape through.