Support thread for parents of chilldren sitting the transfer test in 2011

cat313

Mummy Maggie, click on the link at the top of the page it looks like Banbridge took 10 from the next lower quintile last year. Hopefully your child should get in.

My daughter got an A in the GL so will get into the school she wanted, so relieved.

mummy_maggie

Thanks cat313 but im thinking the 10 that got in are either oldest in family or siblings at the school. Of course I am presuming this.

elliemoo

My DD got an A in the GL so pleased for her and proud of her.

It will be a waiting game for her first choice as always overly subscibed and only took As for the last number of years.

Well I hope everyone relaxes a bit today and enjoys what they can.

Pmum

mummy maggie,

From a glance at the Admissions criteria for Banbridge Academy it looks like they just go down the list of applicants in order of scores so the Quintiles don't come into it at all. If I'm right your ds would be admitted before anyone with a lower score. It looks like the siblings criteria only applies if they have kids competing for the last few places that have the same score.

The scores as a whole won't get higher or lower from year to year as they are standardised around the average score of 100. So there should be just as many above that score as below it every year. There will probably be slight variation from year to year and from area to area.

BBDad79

My son just got his result and it is 96 so he is very disappointed and he is even crying. I am trying to calm him down explaining to him that it is a very good score knowing that he's been in this country for just 2 1/2 years and he started school with absolutely no English. So... anyone... do you think we'll be able to claim special circumstances for a grammar school entrance? Grosvenor and Wellington are on the top of his list.

Pmum

BBDad79,

In the old transfer system there was a "Special Provision" for children who had spent less than half their primary education in NI. I would definately look up the Entrance Criteria of the schools you are interested in and check if they still accept this. At a quick glance I can see that Grosvenor do allow this so you need to get the documentation together to prove your case.

Check the school web sites.

That is a fantastic score for a child taking the exams in their second language.

BBDad79

Pmum, thanks for the reply, I was just checking Grosvenor but it is still unclear to me. My son's Vice-Principle told me we'll be able to claim special circumstances as well, but what does it mean and how is it affecting his application??? Do they have a number for admissions of 'special circumstances'?

mummy_maggie

BBDad

I dont know if you could claim special circumstances. I thought special circumstances could only be claimed if for some reason something on the day of the test was making your son perform lower than what was expected, for example an illness. I know with the old system going back 5 years ago there was a child in my dd class that was in a similar situation to your son and they were able to get into their chosen school on the grounds that english was not their first lanuage.

BBDad79

I believe it is called 'special provisions'...?

Pmum

BBDad,

My understanding of it is that a school will look at claims for Special Circumstances/Provision and first of all decide if the claim is valid ie, has evidence been provided that the child WAS sick or that he DID spend less than half his education out side NI.

If they decide to grant Special Circumstances/Provision they then look at the educational evidence to try to work out what score that child would have been expected to get if they had not been ill or if they had been entirely educated in English.

The first part of that should be easy to obtain. I am not sure how the second part is demonstrated in the case of Special Provision.

Maybe they would like evidence from both the current school and perhaps the school they attended in their home land before moving to NI?

I would phone the Grammar Schools concerned and ask for their advice as to what kind of evidence they need. Remember that they can only look at the evidence you supply for them with the transfer form so you must check that you have all the pieces of paper to support your case.

Hopefully the primary school will be able to help you especially if they have had experience of this in the past.

Hope this helps.