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

travellinglight_2

i think the school does matter. That's why we put so much time neergy and serious thought into looking at so many and picking our preferences. Unfortunately some schools are just not providing as good an education as others... there are limited choices available and some do not seem to have high expectations of themselves and their pupils.

RikM

BallyclareMum4 wrote: »

Don't understand why a child who has achieved a score higher than the lowest accepted by a school isn't offered a place - can anyone explain please?

Two explanations that occur to me:
1. special circumstances led to one or more pupils getting in with a lower score.
2. the school's selection criteria work that way.

A year or so back it wasn't uncommon for schools to say "the first x places will be assigned according to test results and the remaining y places will be allocated according to other criteria". I don't know if any are still doing that. Some certainly abandoned the idea last year.

caz100

I know it's been almost a week now. But I feel utterly robbed that my child did not get her first choice. We know of individuals that are granny napping and got their child a place although they live south of the border. I also know of individuals from a different county getting a place with an hours bus journey away simply because their loc grammar has almagamated with the local high school. My daughter who lives ten minutes away didn't get in but would have any other year in the history of the school. I do appreciate the score system but really should not other factors be considered also?

caz100

The school I am talking about is small town 40 minutes away that has had to almagamated their high school and grammar school at the beginning of this year! This must have put parents off in the town in order to explain the ridiculously high number of 240 applicants compared to 189 last year. My daughter missed out as a result by one mark and is high on the waiting list but not high enough! I hope I will be able to console myself soon about it all, my daughter is very very disappointed!

annoyedmum

caz100 wrote: »

I know it's been almost a week now. But I feel utterly robbed that my child did not get her first choice. We know of individuals that are granny napping and got their child a place although they live south of the border. I also know of individuals from a different county getting a place with an hours bus journey away simply because their loc grammar has almagamated with the local high school. My daughter who lives ten minutes away didn't get in but would have any other year in the history of the school. I do appreciate the score system but really should not other factors be considered also?

I'm with you Caz, still feeling very disappointed for my son as any other year his score would have secured a place but due to the amount of applicants for places this year he loses out. I understand it is the nature of academic selection but the system is not fair to all chidren. In our area we have one grammer school only to choose from however this grammer takes applicants from other towns which have 2 or even 3 grammers to choose from meaning that children from the local area loose out. It cant be a fair system when a child in Belfast gets a grammer place with 91 and a child in Banbridge can't get a place with 99!!

molly68

BallyclareMum4 wrote: »

Don't understand why a child who has achieved a score higher than the lowest accepted by a school isn't offered a place - can anyone explain please?

Sorry to hear that some children were disappointed with their placements, no matter how enevitable it was that not all would achieve their first choice. We discussed with our ds which schools he would be happy to attend, but we didn't tell him the order of preference we stated on the form. As far as he's concerned he got into a school he chose and is happy with and has not had to worry about it being the 'first choice.' We asked him to trust us, he did and he is very excited!
It doesn't matter which school a child attends, it is what they do with the opportunities they are presented with during their education journey that counts -to that end I wish all of your children success and contentment.

One down, three to go, I wonder if this process will ever be sorted out?

Best wishes to all x


:-)

Hi Ballyclare mum
It's a difficult one to explain when a lower score gets a place over a higher score because criteria is applied. Ballyclare High accepts its final 5% of places using criteria (used to be 10%). I've been told this is to try to keep siblings together. Our ds has an older sister at the school and therefore was accepted with a score of 94. I am very aware that he was really lucky and i hope everyone's child settles well at their new school and enjoys their time there.

BallyclareMum4

E=molly68;53556805]Hi Ballyclare mum
It's a difficult one to explain when a lower score gets a place over a higher score because criteria is applied. Ballyclare High accepts its final 5% of places using criteria (used to be 10%). I'ved this is to try to keep siblings together. Our ds has an older sister at the school and therefore was accepted with a score of 94. I am very aware that he was really lucky and i hope everyone's child settles well at their new school and enjoys their time there.[/QUOTE]


DS got 100, but I'm only disappointed he didn't get accepted at BHS because of the convenience elemement (we are 10 min walk round trip to and from school!)
Our first and second choice were really joint first and second joice probably had the edge for us - we had to put BHS first on form due to transport pass :0

Congrats to your ds

:-S Quoted ds music theory score which had just arrived in post - he did in fact achieve the cut off score of 98!

molly68

Hi Ballyclaremum4

I'm really surprised he didnt get offered a place with a score of 100. As far as I was aware the cut off before criteria was applied was 98. It's just hard to know what to do but if he and you are content with his allocated school thats the most important thing.

flymetothemoon_2

BallyclareMum4 wrote: »

E=molly68;53556805]Hi Ballyclare mum

DS got 100, but I'm only disappointed he didn't get accepted at BHS because of the convenience elemement (we're 15 mind walk from school!)
Our first and second choice were really joint first and second joice probably had the edge for us - we had to put BHS first on form due to transport pass
Ballyclare mum
Glad your DS is happy with the school he's going to, he did very well to score 100. However, when you say he didn't get accepted at BHS do you mean Ballyclare High School or Belfast High School (it's confusing because both schools call themselves BHS!). Either way, it is shocking to think either school would have turned down a score of 100.

flymetothemoon_2

annoyedmum wrote: »

I'm with you Caz, still feeling very disappointed for my son as any other year his score would have secured a place but due to the amount of applicants for places this year he loses out. I understand it is the nature of academic selection but the system is not fair to all chidren. In our area we have one grammer school only to choose from however this grammer takes applicants from other towns which have 2 or even 3 grammers to choose from meaning that children from the local area loose out. It cant be a fair system when a child in Belfast gets a grammer place with 91 and a child in Banbridge can't get a place with 99!!

Dear annoyedmum
I feel for you and for Caz, my own child lost out on 1st choice school last yr by 1 mark but would have secured a place in that school this year, and indeed every year in the past 5 or 6 yrs with the exception of last year by 1 mark. It can be a cruel system but, as you say, this is the nature of the selection process. And, no doubt, many parents have experienced the same problem with children from other areas taking places in their local school at the expense of local kids however, Banbridge is not alone when it comes to this issue, as this happens in most areas outside greater Belfast. It is really unfortunate for you that Banbridge's cut-off rose so much this year as entry scores do tend to be lower when you move away from the greater Belfast area, with only the odd exception.