Travel abroad during christmas break 2016

psarinuk

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

My point is, that you so cleverly ignored, is that the 11+ is an examination that is designed to cream of the top 25% or so.

Now if you have a child that naturally would be in that 25% all well and good but what about that child that has struggled to get in that 25% and is only in there because of coaching? Is a grammar school the right environment for that child?

In any event the whole issue is neither here nor there.

Yes, it the right environment for any child who is willing to put an effort to be in top 25%

zagfles

Voyager2002 wrote: »

OK, if you are interested...

This related to the former Royal County of Berkshire, which in the early 1990s had Grammar schools in Slough and a comprehensive system elsewhere in the County. There were several studies, all using part of the vast quantities of data that local government collected about the schools and the communities that they served. The essential idea was "value added": compare the GCSE results that the school actually achieved with those that could reasonably be expected, taking account of the pupil's performance in attainment tests before the transfer to secondary school, and various measures of socio-economic advantage or disadvantage.

So? What has the "value added" got to do with your statement that

the admission process for the Grammar schools I monitored was about as effective as a lottery in selecting able students

The "value added" measures the school's performance. If the admission process was a "lottery in selecting able students", as you claimed, then their raw results should be no different to non selective schools because the students were selected at random!

Obviously the grammar schools achieved good results, but when one looked at the background of their pupils and their prior attainments

Oh so now "prior attainment" does matter does it? Like performance in the selction tests perhaps :rotfl:

all the statistical models suggested that one could reasonably expect even better results. Similarly, when one compared grammar schools with other schools, correcting for social background, it did seem that the entrance tests were remarkably poor at identifying those pupils who would go on to do well at GCSE level. This was particularly marked for non-white pupils.

Yet above you say they achieved "good results". Lets have a look, as they still have grammar schools in Slough:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/education/school_tables/secondary/12/html/871.stm

All the grammar schools have "5 good GCSE's" in the high 90's.

All the others range from the 30's to the 60's, except one independant in the 70's.

The "value added" scores are more random, but that measures the school, not the selection process.

So given the school's "value add" isn't much different across type of school, yet the GCSE results are vastly better at the grammar schools, that implies the grammar schools started off with far more able pupils. So the selection process must have been very good, far from the "lottery" as you claimed.

So congratulations to the OP's child, well done. Ignore all this "lottery" rubbish, your child deserves a good holiday

Voyager2002

zagfles wrote: »

So congratulations to the OP's child, well done. Ignore all this "lottery" rubbish, your child deserves a good holiday

Agreed.

Had the child worked just as hard, but not passed the test, she would still deserve a good holiday -- perhaps even more, since she would need some kind of consolation.

psarinuk

Can someone who know of an apartment for 4 (2 adults + 2 kids) or hotel room for 4 in Tenerife with a mini-kitchenette please respond here or PM me with the deal.

I need it for 6 nights from 25th Dec to 31st Dec.

No one has responded me so far on Airbnb and Owners direct.

Hope I can find something decent as the holiday is still a month away.

Thanks.

Moto2

michele-p wrote: »

Great bargain there for Tenerife, we spent half term there with our 15 year old step daughter. For accommodation I can recommend Christian sur hotel in Los Christianos, we had a 2 bed apartment, it's 2 floors. Huge room and en suite on the top floor up a spiral staircase,we let dd have that room. It has 3 pools, was about 10 mins walk from beach, and 30 min walk to Las Americas.

Siam Park was fab, arrive before it opens, and it's pretty quiet the first hour or so, we bought fast track tickets on the door.

We also enjoyed the escape rooms on a rainy day, we did the bank robbery, which was fun and made us think as a team!

We had a similar 2 bed apartment at Christian Sur last year, nice place and good value.
We tried to book up for January but it was full so we're across the road at HG Sur this time

psarinuk

Its Moto2 once again to the rescue!!

Could you please share the link or website where I can book it? Any idea what price should we expect for this time of year?

Voyager2002

zagfles wrote: »

So? What has the "value added" got to do with your statement that The "value added" measures the school's performance. If the admission process was a "lottery in selecting able students", as you claimed, then their raw results should be no different to non selective schools because the students were selected at random! Oh so now "prior attainment" does matter does it? Like performance in the selction tests perhaps :rotfl:Yet above you say they achieved "good results". Lets have a look, as they still have grammar schools in Slough:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/education/school_tables/secondary/12/html/871.stm

All the grammar schools have "5 good GCSE's" in the high 90's.

All the others range from the 30's to the 60's, except one independant in the 70's.

The "value added" scores are more random, but that measures the school, not the selection process.

So given the school's "value add" isn't much different across type of school, yet the GCSE results are vastly better at the grammar schools, that implies the grammar schools started off with far more able pupils. So the selection process must have been very good, far from the "lottery" as you claimed.

So congratulations to the OP's child, well done. Ignore all this "lottery" rubbish, your child deserves a good holiday

I am relying on my memory of some projects that I completed before 1993 (I no longer have notes from then), so I cannot give the detailed reply that you deserve. We did follow an approach similar to yours, but obviously with a far greater volume of data, and we stripped out the effect of socio-economic status (put simply, children from better-off homes are far more likely to be accepted by selective schools and to do well in tests like GCSEs). Initially we asked how large the difference in GCSE performance between Grammar and other secondary schools would be if the tests were 90 per cent effective at identifying able pupils, and if that were the case then the difference would be a good deal greater than what was actually the case.

Ultimately we looked for statistical evidence that the selection tests were any better at identifying able pupils than relying on chance, and could not find such evidence. Of course, we had begun by stripping out the effects of home background. I suspect that what this really showed was that an equally effective selection process would be to choose kids whose parents were able and willing to pay for a place.

Moto2

psarinuk wrote: »

Its Moto2 once again to the rescue!!

Could you please share the link or website where I can book it? Any idea what price should we expect for this time of year?

Try Atlantic Horizons for Cristian Sur
http://www.atlantichorizons.com/

And we've just booked HG Sur with booking.com

I don't recall what we paid last time we went at Chrismas, HG is costing us £390 for a week in Jan

psarinuk

£390 is a fair price for week I would say.

but HG sur is showing fully booked on their website.

Cristian sur does not have booking page, so I've sent them the enquiry.

Fingers crossed.

michele-p

Hi. We paid 350 for 5 nights in Oct half term St the Christian sur, it has a kitchenette, 2 hobs and a fridge.

We booked through a lovely lady called Corrin at Ultimate Destinations in Norfolk, she's an independent travel agent, and sorted it all for us.

https://www.facebook.com/UltimateDestinationsUK