Applying to Secondary for 2018 entry

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi all,

Open days are happening at the moment in all secondary schools. Try to see as many schools as you can, take your year 6 children with you. Do look across Borough borders too eg Deptford Green, Sydenham Girl's etc. Check admission criteria for each school (eg distance, faith lottery etc). More than one factor may need to be considered eg St Thomas the Apostle, faith and distance. In 2017 some places were offered on distance to non-faith applicants. Try and find six schools you like and place them in true order of preference on your CAF. You will be offered a place at the highest ranking school on your list that can offer you a place according to it's admissions criteria. This means if choices 2, 3 and 6 can offer you a place, you will be offered a place for your child at your second choice school. If they would be the dream schools for your child, It is OK to put a couple of favoured long shots at the top of your list. It will not prevent you being offered a place at a lower more certain choice. Please do not put down 6 unrealistic choices!

Please remember the end of October deadline and ensure and medical information, sibling link etc is included in your application.

Good luck!

Renata

[bodsier]

Hi

As the children take says in year 6 and the last 2 years of their school record are taken into account, why the children need to sit another test by the secondary schools? Do you know what that's all about. Obviously I have some ideS, just wondered what your take is on this. Is it just academy schools that do this or is it something that all schools do, if there are any LA secondary schools left.

[cactus]

When we went through the process 2 years ago, some schools asked children to sit banding tests, these were non verbal reasoning papers. My understanding was that this was to ensure a fair intake of children across all abilities. My son had to do this for Kingsdale & Askes, but the other schools on our list didn't use this system - Deptford Green, Forest Hill, Elmgreen and St Thomas the Apostle.

Then there was another set of baseline tests for the school he eventually went to, these were done in the Summer term.

When it came to putting him in sets according to ability, the school assessed all students at half-term to do this, but his Year 7 targets were apparently based on his Year 6 SATS, all a bit confusing.

[Carbonara]

bodsier - no there are no Community Schools - those run by the LA and with admissions criteria set by the LA - left in Southwark.

As another poster said, the tests are just banding tests. They are designed to make sure that a school has a representative inclusion of all abilities of children. The tests are different from SATS and are about the child's ability, not their achievement. So puzzle type questions, rather than testing their education up until this point.

There is no pass or fail, they just give an idea of ability and schools admit an equal number form 3 or 5 ability bands.

Of course, if you try for selective places at one of the grammar schools then there will be a pass / fail selection, and those with the highest test scores will be let in. But that does not apply to any Southwark schools.

Targets are set based on SATS because that is what provides the steady level of progress monitoring throughout the child's school career.

[Jules-and-Boo]

SATS don't come into the secondary selection, other than to stream your child (if the school does this) and give an indication. It's largely a measure for the primary school.