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

beccasmum

Why is the Belfast Telegraph and apparantly some schools still talking about quintiles this year when we have not been issued any info on these. Have there been unofficial bands given out to schools that we parents are unaware of. I for one would like to know the rough breakdown of scores the same way as previous years and find that this lack of information just makes for more questions.What is the big secret! I just wish AQE would make a statement and clear all the speculation up regarding upper marks and banding. That's my rant over now and I'm away to do some work.HA HA.:rotfl:

dprovan

we have our 2nd meeting with primary school principal this afternoon. He agreed to us having a couple more days when we met him on Monday. What a system we have! Our first meeting was strange, you would have thought there had been a bereavement. Because dd got a b2 which was lower than what was expected (he didnt say this) the mood music was that we had to be realistic with her re school choices so she did not face "another disapointment in May". I understand what he was saying and believe me we are realistic with dd, but it is little wonder there is so much disapointment and pressure around when people see schools as elite, and poor cousins....

We managed to speak with a number of people who appear to be really well informed re cambridge house. I am happy that i understand the factors why they had a 'negative' inspection and there is no reason why this won't be turned around. Particularly as they took more than 160 a level students year of poor inspection instead of normal 120 and this year they reduced this to 80. Seems there has been a number of problems but one certainly has been that the previous management appeared more focussed on numbers as opposed to results and that is going to change.

We mainly wanted an extra couple of days to have some space and to see if dd changed second preference to slemish. dd has however remained consistent that academy 1 slemish 2. I think she still has her heart set on academy which is very unlikely with a score of 224 however this is out of her hands and we will just need to deal with this when the time comes.... That is the hard part isn't it.. You feel that certain schools may be saying that your child does not reach their level... You instinctively want to speak with the principal and say look my dd is bright, sociable, mannerly and it would be your fortune to have her... That is what is behind all this, a feeling that your loved one has been put in a category and judged as less able than her peers... A one off test when there is evidence from seven years of schooling not considered...........Who ever said being a parent would be easy! And who ever claimed this was anything other than a crazy system.

Logically, I understand that getting into one particular school is only the start of the journey, what will be more influential in her future is the choices she makes.

So after much deliberation, reading, sleepless nights, chatting with others and changing of minds we have opted to go with the selections my dd always wanted 1. academy 2. cambridge and 3. slemish. I should have just left it to my dd.

Off to see the principal now. Good luck to everyone else.

cck_3

I am really saddened by a lot of the posts on here especially the ones suggesting that parents should just list all the Grammars nearby in the hope of getting into one!!!!! What is that about??
What is so good about a Grammar school? the name?
Parents need to pick a school that suits their child NOT their ego. If you child is only scraping into a Grammar then maybe they would be better served at a non- selective school, then they would possibly shine rather than possibly getting left behind at a Grammar.

My daughter done very well in both the GL and the AQE ( 99 and B1 ). However i know my daughter is not a driven child and would possibly get eaten up in a competitive Grammer setting. We have a Grammar school less than half a mile from my house that she could easily get in to, but i'm sending her 20 miles away to Slemish College where i am sure she will be nurtured and encouraged to achieve what she is capable of.

I hope everyones kids get to the school that they feel is best for them.

Rant over!!

Pmum

cck,

I suppose you have to consider that this thread is for parents who chose to enter their children for test which allow them entrance to Grammar school. It is not really too surprising then to find them keen to obtain that goal if possible otherwise what was the point in the children doing the test?

I fully agree with you that we all should be doing our best to find the right school for our own child but a significant proportion of the people who had their children sit these Entrance Exams will, by definition, see that as a Grammar school.

I hope your child and all our children find the school for them and are able to go there.

RikM

cck wrote: »

I am really saddened by a lot of the posts on here especially the ones suggesting that parents should just list all the Grammars nearby in the hope of getting into one!!!!! What is that about??
What is so good about a Grammar school? the name?
Parents need to pick a school that suits their child NOT their ego. If you child is only scraping into a Grammar then maybe they would be better served at a non- selective school, then they would possibly shine rather than possibly getting left behind at a Grammar.

My daughter done very well in both the GL and the AQE ( 99 and B1 ). However i know my daughter is not a driven child and would possibly get eaten up in a competitive Grammer setting. We have a Grammar school less than half a mile from my house that she could easily get in to, but i'm sending her 20 miles away to Slemish College where i am sure she will be nurtured and encouraged to achieve what she is capable of.

I hope everyones kids get to the school that they feel is best for them.

Rant over!!

I would agree with you that "any grammar is better" is the wrong attitude (and factually wrong to boot).
But it's also true to say that people have an attitude/prejudices where it comes to the grammar question.

I wanted my son to go to his grammar as I felt he needed challenging. My second choice would have been the next door secondary. Not because of proximity, in either case, but because of the attitude of the staff and leadership. Second choice was irrelevant once we saw his AQE score, however. Which wasn't a surprise.

Why the grammar? Because it's selective -greater proportion of bright pupils, more competition for top place in the tests, more experience of being a smaller fish in the pool than he is used to.

Ex-Spendaholic

Living in an area where there are several good grammar schools and nothing but bad secondary schools (that is nothing to do with prejudice, its fact), I want nothing but a grammar education for my kids. If that makes me a bad person then I'll live with it.

CCK, I'm intrigued as to why your child sat 3 AQE tests and a GL test if you had wanted a secondary school?

Lilyoo

Anyone any idea what aqe result needed for friends or Wallace this year.

cck_3

Pmum wrote: »

cck,

I suppose you have to consider that this thread is for parents who chose to enter their children for test which allow them entrance to Grammar school. It is not really too surprising then to find them keen to obtain that goal if possible otherwise what was the point in the children doing the test?

I fully agree with you that we all should be doing our best to find the right school for our own child but a significant proportion of the people who had their children sit these Entrance Exams will, by definition, see that as a Grammar school.

I hope your child and all our children find the school for them and are able to go there.

Pmum,
I understand what you are saying, but some parents seem to have tunnel vision when it comes to schools. Its almost like they want a Grammar school at all cost, even at the cost of the happiness of the child. There are a lot of very good secondary schools out there and we must not forget about them. I think it was just the "list all the Grammar schools first" comment that got me slightly irritated.

cck_3

Ex-Spendaholic wrote: »

Living in an area where there are several good grammar schools and nothing but bad secondary schools (that is nothing to do with prejudice, its fact), I want nothing but a grammar education for my kids. If that makes me a bad person then I'll live with it.

CCK, I'm intrigued as to why your child sat 3 AQE tests and a GL test if you had wanted a secondary school?

Hi Ex-Spendaholc
When you say you wanted"nothing but a Grammar education for my kids" i assume you meant nothing but a good education, which was, in your opinion, only available at the local Grammar schools?

Regarding my child, all i ever wanted for her was to have the best educational experience available, wether it was a Grammar or a Secondary school. I didn't say i wanted her to go to a Secondary school.
To keep all options open, and until we had time to go round all schools, i put her in for both the tests. (and to keep her on her toes, if i'm honest )
Once we had time to see all the schools on our radar, two schools stood out head and shoulders above the rest as regards providing a happy learning enviroment where i would be confident my child would thrive. These two were Slemish in Ballymena and Ulidia in Carrick.
The fact that you didn't need to sit the exams to get in to either of them was a bonus!! It meant no stress for my daughter sitting the exams and a stress free lead up to last Saturday!!
The only stress we will have now is how to get her out of bed to catch the 7.30am bus to Ballymena instead of leaving the house at 8.45am to walk to the local Grammar!!

Ex-Spendaholic

Exactly right CCK. If there were good secondary schools in the area I wouldn't be so hung up about it.