Transfer Test AQE 2014-2015

Sugarmummy

gawa75 wrote: »

What a silly, silly thing to say. Maybe it's only bragging parents of children who have done well who are posting on this thread? Maybe parents of children who are devastated at getting mid-80s aren't as !!!!-a-hoop as everyone else.

Congrats to all kids who did well but remember not everyone got such high scores so please don't assume they did.

Rant over.

To me it doesn't matter what score a child got they have all done well. They may not have achieved the score they were looking for, but they tried their best, they went through very hard exams. The result is a means to an end and not the end itself. I'm certainly not bragging about what my child got as there is plenty that got higher than my child!!!

flymetothemoon_2

There are concerns over schools operating this dualing process and the fact that comparisons standardised scores from each exam type are not meaningful
https://paceni.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/early-advice-to-parents-awaiting-results-of-aqe-gl-transfer-tests/

My own personal views on all these issues and the current state of affairs with the transfer test process in Northern Ireland is that we are much worse off now than when we had the old 11+ - no matter if you agreed with it or not.

Some politicians forced the removal of the 11+ and other had their way in preventing any alternative being proposed. Now we are in the situation where all children do not have an equal chance. ......... Parents are stressed throughout the process - children are stressed.

Remember in the next few months when the politicians come knocking on your door - looking for your vote – no matter if you agree with academic selection or not - their failure to agree any alternative has resulted in the current situation.[/QUOTE]



Hi Attritioner

Couldn't agree more. NI is definitely worse off now than when we had the 11+ and I blame our so called 'politicians'. Some of them are so ill educated and unfit to be meddling with our education system. It should be left to the experts who actually know what is best. Instead we have more inequality than ever, worsened by the existence of 2 different tests which gives some kids much greater choice than others. The whole thing is definitely more stressful than the 11+. Not content that they scrapped the 11+ (and left us all in limbo) some remain determined to scrap our good grammar schools and give us all comprehensives. Well all I can say is, I pity the families that can't afford private schools in England. We mustn't let the idiots at Stormont ruin our schools - that 's what I'll be telling any politician that comes to my door. :mad:

Craftyc

Hi does anyone know the answer?
If your closet school is over the 3 mile distance, can you choose another school a bit further away and get a bus pass or do you still have to apply for closet school even if outside walking distance.

Have read into this and it is very unclear about rules. I know you can not bypass a school within the 3 miles but we don't have any...

However don't want to apply for closet school, which we would still need a bus pass for anyway.

Thanks

Busy_mum_3

Hi Craftyc

I think you would be best to phone the ELB as they should have this information at their fingertips.

Craftyc

Thanks busymum I am going to school interview today and will ask them for a specific number to telephone or email address for the relevant dept.

flymetothemoon_2

Craftyc wrote: »

Hi does anyone know the answer?
If your closet school is over the 3 mile distance, can you choose another school a bit further away and get a bus pass or do you still have to apply for closet school even if outside walking distance.

Have read into this and it is very unclear about rules. I know you can not bypass a school within the 3 miles but we don't have any...

However don't want to apply for closet school, which we would still need a bus pass for anyway.

Thanks

Craftyc

The rules to date have been that you only get a free bus pass if you go to a school that is over 3 miles from your home and there is no school of the same type within 3 miles of your home. Grammars are one type of school, secondaries are another type and integrated schools are another type. Hence if you choose a grammar that is 6 miles from your home even though there is a closer grammar just 4 miles away, you will still get the free bus pass to go to the school 6 miles away. What really matters is that there is no grammar within 3 miles of your home. If there were you would not get the bus pass.

All of that said, the Dept of Education recently reviewed home to school transport and O'Dowd is overdue to make an announcement on this. He has already said that the review found that most of the kids who get free buses are grammar school kids who are more likely to come from homes that can afford to pay for their buses. No doubt, his relentless determination to ruin grammars will lead him to withdraw free bus passes from all but the most needy (his usual mantra) usually measured by the free school meals entitlement which suits his electorate. Hence, I'm not sure if any of us can rely on getting a free bus pass for the 2015/16 academic year however I don't think he could get away with introducing this for kids who are already in post primary schools and already have free transport. He will put this down to the need to make savings even though he wasted £17 million trying to establish an Education & Skills Authority that no other other parties ever agreed with and more recently he has committed millions of pounds to set up a new Irish Medium post primary school in Dungiven which will have very few pupils and has been roundly criticised by all. This is another issue we should bring up to any politician that comes knocking our doors looking for votes - the so called working middle class are constantly being asked to pay more for everything whilst others get so many freebies that we wonder why we bother working at all.

Craftyc

Thanks flymetothemoon just more hurdles to jump over. We decided that we were going in order of preference on the form today as none within the walking distance.
As you say the goalposts re transport could have changed by then anyway! Anyone's guess.

Mr_Bun

Another question about bus passes....does anyone know what Slemish College is classed as?
It is integrated,has a grammar stream and also a non grammar stream.
Our daughter has the right results to get her in via the transfer process to the grammar stream,so does this mean she is applying to go to an integrated grammar,which means she will be entitled to a free bus pass,as there are no other integrated grammars near us?

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

For anyone interested.. We got her raw scores today, her raw score out of her best two papers was 82% which gave her a final score of 106 with a Sept birthday. 82% is lower than what she was getting in her practice papers but it got a high enough score that we know she should have no problem getting into her first choice grammar.

Sugarmummy

Veggie_Northern_Ireland wrote: »

For anyone interested.. We got her raw scores today, her raw score out of her best two papers was 82% which gave her a final score of 106 with a Sept birthday. 82% is lower than what she was getting in her practice papers but it got a high enough score that we know she should have no problem getting into her first choice grammar.

How did you find out raw scores?