Good luck - 11 transfer Northern Ireland

Awec

snowJo wrote: »

As per Dept of Education website the NI primary pupil figures for 2009/10 -

BELB - P6 - 3,300 / P7 - 3,444

WELB - P6 - 3,990 / P7 - 4,195

NEELB - P6 - 5,067 / P7 - 5,317

SEELB - P6 - 4,694 / P7 - 4,935

SELB - P6 - 5,172 / P7 - 5,437


Children in P7 this year preparing for transfer are the P6 figures above. Each area shows a reduction in the number of P7 pupils this year compared to last year. Total number of P7 last year = 23,328. Total number of P7 this year = 22,223.


So, less pupils.........could this mean a lower test score this year has a slightly better chance of making it to grammar school?

Possibly, or schools could just take less pupils in.

RikM

butterflymum wrote: »

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

That's a lovely bit of scare tactics, that is..... imply that schools shouldn't assist parents in special circumstances, and, to cap it off, insinuate that passing data on pupil achievements in tests would breach the data protection act!
Which they are well aware would only be true, if the data the school passed identified individual kids.

What a despicable piece of propaganda.

(link removed because of forum rules).

Pmum

Awec,

As far as I know the schools have to admit everyone who applies if they are undersubscribed.

They would need approval from DENI to refuse pupils if there were places available.

facingthefuture

So why would the Lagan headmistress say to put Lagan down as a first choice to get in? Surely it doesn't matter if it's first,second or third choice....I am so confused!!!Why do some heads say this....can it be true?I am getting fed up struggling to understand it.:eek:

snowJo

I agree with Pmum - I don't think any grammar school would refuse to admit pupils if there were places as they get a certain amount of funding per pupil enroled. I doubt any school wants their funding cut. So, I will continue to hope that lower scores might make it through the doors this year.

RikM

If it helps, the head of our local grammar stated repeatedly that no school could discriminate based on the order of your preferences. He actually said it was illegal, which I'm not so sure is true. I would be surprised if it wasn't expressly against the rules, however...

Pmum

facingthefuture,

It seems it IS true in that it is one of the criteria they use to decide between pupils of the same grade if they are over subscribed. But I think (hope) it may have been overstated.

All schools want to be full and therefore probably need to be over subscribed in a way. Maybe they feel they lose out to the Grammar schools and so they are encouraging people to apply as first preference.

Only guessing but it does seem very unfair.

In the old Transfer Test system schools were not allowed to use their place on the form as a descriminator.

RikM

How many of you found your primary supportive? I noticed ours made a point of following guidance, while making clear to parents that the practice papers they were giving kids constituted legitimate practice of ks3 english and maths...
And the heads of primary and grammar schools have more or less fallen over themselves to emphasise their support for appeals/special circumstances.

butterflymum

From the Lagan College stated admissions criteria:

"In the event of a tie occurring at any of the stages 1a – 1e,
priority will be determined according to the following criteria
in the order set down:-
I. Applicants who have placed Lagan College first on the
Transfer Form......"

snowJo

Another number crunching piece of info -

In 2009 - 6,714 signed up for GL and 7,023 for AQE

In 2010 - just over 6,500 signed up for GL and around 6,800 for AQE

So, not only are the total numbers of pupils in P7 down this year, but the total number sitting transfer tests are also down.