Good luck - 11 transfer Northern Ireland

KittyKaity

Well happy little bunny rabbit here got into her first choice which is non-selective but oversubscribed. She was stomping around yesterday saying that if she ended up at the grammar school she would be homeschooled instead (2nd choice) so all's well that ends well.

Pink.

Despite not getting a great score at AQE our son got into his first choice grammar school and we're all delighted. :j

It's been a rotten, worrying year for all of us and our children but at least it's over now and I think that each and every one of the children deserve congratulations for giving it their best. Hopefully this time next year they'll all be happy and settled in their new schools and the transfer procedure will be a distant memory.

Pink (who is about to crack open a bottle of wine)

happymummy24-7

well our daughter got into her first choice grammar........we are extatic and can hardly believe it as she only got 98 and we had no extra boxes to tick-we are married,hubby works and shes the eldest lol-and we heard of a friend who didnt get same school who only got 2 points less and had extra boxes!!!!
i know no matter what all our kids got-and i really feel for those who didnt get the news they hoped for,its gutting-that by working to their best they will achieve great things as they have parents who care enough to make them!!
well done to us all for going through this stress,personally i will be doing it all again in 2yrs,6yrs....and 11yrs as we have just had our 4th daughter thank god the grammar is all girls and we will have the 'older sibling attends school' box now ticked :beer:
xxx

YNWA-J96

Well done to all who are happy with their school allocation...xxxx

36square

Move west! I think you'll find that grammar schools west of the Bann are a lot easier to get into, especially the non-Catholic ones. Some of them are only turning away a handful of applicants (ie fewer than 10) each year and I've heard of one that couldn't even fill all its places a couple of years ago.

lisburnmum1

Hi there

My daughter is absolutely gutted (as are we) that she didnt get into Wallace. What makes it worse is that her classmate was accepted who only scored 103, my daughter got 104. This other girl did not meet as much criteria either not being the eldest child or having any criteria higher than my child. Any advice on this or appeals would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Pmum

lisburnmum,

The only thing I can think of is that they had to use the "random computer generated tie-breaker" unless there are circumstances in the other family that you may be unaware of? This is one of the most annoying things about this system compared to the old one. In the old one this sort of thing happened all the time but we were less aware of it because you didn't know childrens actual scores, just their grade.

Did you put all the criteria down on the transfer form? ie Oldest child etc?

steveymp

36square wrote: »

Move west! I think you'll find that grammar schools west of the Bann are a lot easier to get into, especially the non-Catholic ones. Some of them are only turning away a handful of applicants (ie fewer than 10) each year and I've heard of one that couldn't even fill all its places a couple of years ago.

This is quiet true, my son got into Foyle and Londonderry with what I considered a Low score:o Headmaster encouraged us to put it as first choice as he didn't classify his score as low and he was certain he would get a place. Over 400 pupils took the AQE test at Foyle (for 125 places) but a lot of them where using it as a safety net as Foyle is considered a non-Cathoilic school but is very well integrated sex and religion wise:T it can't be that bad a school as it produced me :rotfl:

Quiet a lot of people in Stroke City did the GL and AQE tests, my DS's classmate did both and scored high in both looking for a place in Lumen, his 2nd choice was Foyle, and it was Foyle he got.

School's in Omagh and Enniskillen are in similar situations so for your next child leave Belfast and come West of the Bann where the sun always shines anyway:rotfl:

lisburnmum1

Pmum wrote: »

lisburnmum,

The only thing I can think of is that they had to use the "random computer generated tie-breaker" unless there are circumstances in the other family that you may be unaware of? This is one of the most annoying things about this system compared to the old one. In the old one this sort of thing happened all the time but we were less aware of it because you didn't know childrens actual scores, just their grade.

Did you put all the criteria down on the transfer form? ie Oldest child etc?

Hi
Yes all info was submitted on transfer form,ie eldest child. To the best of my knowledge the other child does not have as much criteria. I don't really understand this "random tie-breaker" business. I thought that this maybe would have come into operation say when 2 pupils were left with the same score and there was only one place available? Or does this apply to all pupils under 106 in the third quintile.

Pmum

lisburnmum,

From reading their criteria it looks like they divide scores into "bands" of 5 marks at a time and admit everyone in each band until they are oversubscribed. From what you say it would appear that this happened in the band 105-101.

I think they then disregard the score and apply their criteria to all the pupils in that band.There is a list of the criteria and the order they use them in on their website.

So a child in that band who went to the prep will get the first place. Then kids with siblings at the school and then those with siblings who used to be at the schooland then kids who have a parent who went to Wallace...

As far as I know you can only appeal if they applied those criteria wrongly, ie if you found a child with no connection to the school had got in ahead of a child in the same band whose brother was at the school etc.

Have a look at the criteria and see how far down the list your circumstances kick in.

I suppose you also have to take into account that you may not be aware of the entire circumstances of the other child.

The important thing is that once Wallace start to apply those criteria the score itself is of no bearing so there is always the chance that kids will get places ahead of kids in the same band with slightly higher scores.

I think that they use the random thing if they cannot separate kids using their other criteria. Say eg they had 2 places left and 4 kids with siblings at the school then they would have to use their random thing to choose who gets the places.

I hope I explained that correctly.

Some schools who use that type of system give a worked example on their website to explain how it works.