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

Charliedevil

Going to complete the transfer form today! Primary school head called Victoria and apparently her gl score of c1 is better than her 91 aqe! She has a lot of their other criteria for the tie breaker so here's hoping. Still considering a remark if aqe, she was so confident after the first 2(not so much on the third) anyone ever heard of a remark outcome?

Charliedevil

Thank you flymetothemoon! Makes me wonder what other figures the schools are hiding I must say this last year has been tough and unless the elb sort this mess out my 2 remaining children are straight for the boys model!

dprovan

flymetothemoon, thank you for taking the time to offer your oppinion. I really appreciate it. Like you suggest there is no doubt in our mind that my dd first choice the academy should be our first choice on the form. As you rightly say we have nothing to loose. I do se that we are lucky in this respect, unlike those in the Ballyclare area who I feel so sorry for.

My dilemma was all to do with what I put as second choice cambridge or slemish. My dd was very clear that her preference was C/H and I was concerned by their poor inspection and rumors of what might and might not happen. This uncertainty led me to consider all manner of possibilities, as is my way too many.

Now that I have had more time to weigh things up I feel quite comfortable with the position. I have more perspective about the C/H situation, ok it is the first grammar to be put on special measures! but I know what this relates to and it is quite specific with a number of reasonable explanations as to why it happened. If this is my dds school we will deal with whatever happens but I am clearer in recognising that I cannot second guess everything and as many have said it may just as easily turn out to be the best thing that happens to school and for dd.

Having read many of the posts here, especially the ones from Ballyclare, I realise that we are quite lucky that dd is at least pretty sure to get second choice and I am happy about that.

However, as a last point, the Dept of educ need to get this sorted. I cannot understand how a supposed civilised society can put 10 year old children through such a process. If streaming is necessary, surely a childs 7 years at primary school can provide a better indication of how this should be managed than a test...

the_money_pit

Hi all, I attended Banbridge Academy open night last which was really enjoyable and fortunately or unfortunately made up my ds's mind on where he would like to go. He (ds) scored 99 in AQE and I was wondering did anyone at the academy last night ascertain any idea of cut off this year, I wasn't stressed until last night but now that son is set on going there I am in slight panic mode!!

confused_mummy_3

Hi the money pit

I was at Banbridge Academy last night also. My son also is very keen to go to it after seeing it last night. I spoke to a few parents all with quite high scores in their schools and this scared me a little and I thought competition was going to be tough this year. But if your not in you cant win so here's fingers crossed.

norvern

Thankyou Pmum

I rang Inst. this morning and my son's mark falls into quintile 4. They said he would have got in last year but they said the banding has changed a little this year, so the cut off for the 4th band is 99!
From my understanding of this - it may be difficult to find a grammar school place if he is comfortably in the 4th band with a score of 97.

I phoned AQE and they said it was still a good score (whatever that means!) and I should apply for which ever school my son wants to go too - but I feel his score rules him out straight away of the Lisburn and many of the Belfast grammars.. I feel a bit disheartened by the whole process to be honest

beccasmum

I thought there were no quintiles anymore so how can schools still be putting scores into bands this is all very confuseing.:eek: What did Inst say the cutoffs were for each band this year?

norvern

By splitting it up into bands, they take the 1st 20%, then the 2nd and so on, instead of quintiles.

The girl I spoke to at AQE said they didn't put the score into quintiles any more as the media and some schools were translating it into a grade, such as a, b, b1 etc.

With regards to Inst, this is the way they have selected for admission for the past two years, I don't think a lot of schools follow this process.

I can't remember what they said the banding grades are this year - it was very similar to last year although the scores had gone up to about 99 in the 4th band...sorry I cant remember more than that. They did say they were an estimate!

Pmum

The quintiles only become important if the school you are applying to use them to separate pupils. Inst does but not many others that I know of.

Some schools just go down the list and admit 104s before 103s before 102s etc.

Others admit kids in groups of scores. Methody group them in 5 mark bands either side of 100.

They only become important when a school admits a band which makes them over subscribed. that is when they start to apply their other criteria like siblings, parent attended the school, list of certain primary feeder schools.

It gives you an idea which kids you are in competition with for those places. last year Inst still admitted 59 boys from that 4th quintile. At that stage the actual score ceases to matter and it comes down to the individual schools "tie breaker" criteria. In other words, your son will be judged as an equal to all the other boys in that quintile from the point of score and they wil be separated on other criteria so a child with a lower score will get in first if they at the prep or have a brother already at the school etc.

Everyone only needs to worry about the bands that their preferred schools use. If they don't mention the quintiles in their criteria then they are essentially irrelevant.

Ex-Spendaholic

No school will know their cut off mark yet as they don't know who is applying. Each school has a certain number of places and they will fill them.

With regard to Inst, I would be amazed if your child with 97 doesn't get in. They have taken a lot less than that and lets face it with their school fund sitting around the £1K mark (sorry can't be specific), the demand for it is not as high as some other schools.

If you want Inst put it first on the list.