Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Walsall
ADMISSION ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 2008 - 2009
Queen Mary's Grammar School is a selective state school which provides free education for pupils from the ages of 11 to 18. Only boys are admitted to Years 7 to 11, but both girls and boys may enter the Sixth Form. It is a Voluntary Aided School and so the Governors, not the Local Education Authority, are responsible for the admission arrangements.
The School has no defined catchment area. All parents living both within and beyond the Borough of Walsall may apply to have their sons admitted to Years 7 to 11 and their daughters and sons admitted to Year 12 of the School.
For those who apply by the deadline, admission to Year 7 is determined by the performance of candidates in an entrance examination and the availability of places. Admission of applicants to Year 7 who apply too late to sit the entrance examination tests and those who apply to enter other Years is determined by attainment in academic tests administered by the School or, for admission to Year 12, performance in GCSE or equivalent examinations, and is dependent upon vacancies existing in the relevant Year group.
Admission to Year 7 in September 2008
For admissions to Year 7 of the School at the beginning of the Autumn Term in September 2008 the Governors will be participating in a co-ordinated inter-LEA admissions scheme for state secondary schools. Parents who wish their son to be considered for a place in Year 7 of the School from the beginning of the Autumn Term 2008 must therefore complete two forms. The first, the Registration Form, must be obtained from and returned to the School at the following address:
- Admissions Office, Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Sutton Road, Walsall, WS1 2PG.
The second form is the home LEA “Preference Form”, (sometimes known as the Common Application Form), which must be obtained from and returned to the Local Education Authority in whose area applicants live. The parents of children resident in Walsall and attending a Walsall primary school will receive a Walsall “Preference Form” via their primary school. The parents of children not resident in Walsall must obtain a Preference Form from their home LEA. All applicants for admissions to Queen Mary’s Grammar School must name the School on their home LEA Preference Form: if Queen Mary’s Grammar School is not named on the home LEA Preference Form the application will not be accepted.
The deadline for the receipt of the School’s Registration Form by the School will be
the same as the closing date published by the home LEA for the receipt of their
Preference / Common Application Form.
Entrance Examination for Admission to Year 7 in September 2008
Admission to Year 7 of the School at the beginning of the Autumn Term 2008 will be determined by the performance of candidates in an entrance examination which will be held on a date which will be announced in the Summer Term 2007.
The tests are open to pupils who will be 11 years of age, but not 12, on 31st August 2008, (normally those in Year 6 of primary education). Boys will be allowed to sit the test at a younger age: however, they may sit the Entrance Examination only once and if they are unsuccessful they will not be eligible for admission to the School below the SixthForm.
The School will write to applicants to confirm the detailed arrangements for the entrance examination. Only boys invited in this way to attend the entrance examination will be allowed to sit the tests. Applicants who have not received such an invitation one week prior to the day of the examination should telephone the School immediately.
Special arrangements may be made for those children who satisfy the Governors that they are unable to sit any test on the appointed day because of illness or other exceptional reason. The School cannot make allowance for examination performance which may have been adversely affected by illness. The nature of the special arrangements and the circumstances in which they are to apply will be at the sole discretion of the Governors. In such circumstances parents should telephone the School for advice at the earliest opportunity prior to the examination.
Admission Criteria (How Places Will Be Offered)
The admission number for entry to Year 7 in 2008 is 96 pupils.
Places in Year 7 of the School from the first day of the Autumn Term 2008 will be awarded on the basis of the results of examinations in Verbal Reasoning and Non Verbal Reasoning. Raw scores will be standardised to take account of differences in ages. An order of merit will be drawn up, based on the aggregate standardised marks in both tests.
If more than one candidate obtains the last qualifying score then priority will be given to any such candidate(s) who are in Public Care. If none of the candidates obtaining the last qualifying score is in Public Care then aggregate positions in the two papers will be taken into account and the candidate(s) with the lowest aggregate position will be offered the place(s).
Places will be offered to candidates with reference both to their rank order in the Entrance Examination and the rank order of Queen Mary’s Grammar School stated by applicants on their home LEA Preference Form until the published admissions number is reached.
The Walsall Scheme, applicable to residents in Walsall, states that “where a child meets the admission criteria for two or more schools named on the Walsall Preference Form then Education Walsall will allocate a place at the highest ranked of those schools”. Places will be allocated to applicants who do not reside in Walsall in accordance with the admission arrangements determined by their home LEA.
The offer of a place may be withdrawn if it is subsequently discovered that either the Preference form or the Registration Form contained fraudulent or intentionally misleading information resulting in another candidate being denied a place at the School. Before the first day of the Autumn term 2008 parents will be required to provide evidence of the date of birth of their son in the form of an original birth certificate or other document acceptable to the Governors.
Decisions about the allocation of places at the School will be posted to parents by their home LEA on the notification date,
1st March 2008.
Late Applications Received after the Closing Date but on or before 31st January 2008
It is essential that the School’s Registration Form and the home LEA’s Preference Form are both received by the closing date. The closing dates for the receipt of Preference Forms by different LEAs may not be the same: applications will be treated as late if they are received after the home LEA’s closing date. In exceptional circumstances, as determined by the Governors, late applications received on or before 31st January 2008 will be dealt with as if the application had been received by the closing date. (Exceptional circumstances are those beyond the control of the applicant, e.g. prolonged illness of the parent in a single parent family, or moving into the region after the closing date for the receipt of applications.) Such applicants will be tested and their names will be included in the order of merit derived from the results of the Entrance Examination: they will be eligible to receive offers of places on the Notification Date. In the case of late applications where exceptional circumstances do not apply the candidates will be tested but their names will not be added to the order of merit derived from the results of the Entrance Examination until after the Notification Date: they will not be eligible to be offered places on the Notification Date. Such applications and all applications received after 31st January 2008 will be considered in accordance with the procedure for “Applications Received after the Notification Date”, as set out below.
Applications Received after the Notification Date (after places have been offered)
All applicants for entry to Year 7 whose forms are received after 31st January but on or before 30th June will be tested and, after the Notification Date, their names will be added in rank order to the waiting list for admission to Year 7. Applicants whose forms are received after 30th June cannot be tested for administrative reasons so their names will be added to a new waiting list for admission to Year 7 which will come into existence on the first day of the Autumn Term 2008. The waiting list policy for admission to Year 7 is explained below.
Waiting Lists for Entry to Year 7
The order of merit derived from the results of the Entrance Examination will form the waiting list for admission to Year7 until the first day of the Autumn Term 2008, when it will cease to exist. Before this date, if offers of Year 7 places are declined then the vacant places will be offered, with reference to the rank order of the School on the Preference Form, to those candidates coming next in the order of merit, until the admission number is reached. If more than one candidate obtains the last qualifying score the place will be allocated as described above under “How Places will be Offered”. Candidates who have taken the Entrance Examination but are not offered a place in Year 7 of the School before the first day of the Autumn Term 2008 because their total standardised score is below that of the last candidate admitted will not be eligible for a place in the School below Year 12 (the Sixth Form).
From the first day of the Autumn Term 2008 a new waiting list will be compiled. Those whose applications for admission to Year 7 were received after 30th June 2008 will be eligible for inclusion on this list, as will those late applicants who were tested and found to be within the ability range of those admitted to Year 7 of the school at the beginning of the Autumn Term but not offered a place because the school was full. If on or after the first day of the Autumn Term the number of pupils in Year 7 falls below the published admission number for that Year group, the academic attainment of all those on the new waiting list will be assessed. Prior attendance at another selective school does not give a right of entry to the School. Applicants will be tested in English, Mathematics and such other subjects as the School considers necessary at the time. An order of merit will be drawn up based on the results of these tests. Applicants on the waiting list whose academic attainment is judged to fall within the ability range of those admitted to Year 7 of the School at the beginning of the Autumn Term will then be offered places in order of priority. Top priority will be given to children in Public Care followed by the other applicants in strict order of merit. Offers of places to those on the Year 7 waiting list will cease when the admission number is reached.
Applicants who are not offered a place as a result of these procedures but whose academic attainment is judged to fall within the ability range of pupils admitted to the School at the beginning of Year 7 may opt to remain on the waiting list for admission to the Year group. If the number of pupils in the Year again falls below the admission number for the Year group their academic attainment will be re-assessed in order to establish the order of merit of those on the waiting list at that time. Applicants whose academic attainment is judged to fall outside the ability range of those originally admitted to the Year will not be eligible for admission to the School below the Sixth Form.
The waiting list for admission to Year 7 of the School will cease to exist on the first day of the Autumn Term 2009. A new waiting list for admission to Year 8 will come into existence on that day and those previously on the Year 7 waiting list may opt to join it.
Appeals
Parents whose children are refused admission to the School have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel. The procedures for submitting such an appeal are set out in the final section of this document.
Admission to Years 8 to 11
Those seeking admission to Years 8 to 11 should obtain an application form from the School and return it to:
- Admissions Office, Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Sutton Road, Walsall, WS1 2PG.
There is no deadline for the receipt of applications to enter the School in Years 8 to 11. All applications will be considered upon receipt.
The Coordinated Admissions Scheme being operated by Education Walsall for transfers to Year 7 in September 2008 does not apply to admissions to Years 8 to 11. Only the application form provided by the School has, therefore, to be completed.
Admissions Criteria (How Places will be Offered)
The admission number for each of Years 8 to 11 is 96 pupils.
Applicants who have taken the Entrance Examination for admission to Year 7, or have taken tests of academic attainment for admission to the School but have not been offered a place because they fell outside the ability range of those pupils admitted to Year 7 of the School on the first day of the relevant Autumn Term, are not eligible for admission to the School below the SixthForm.
If the number of pupils in any Year between 8 and 11 falls below 96 the academic attainment of all applicants on the waiting list for entry to that Year of the school will be tested. Tests will be conducted in English, Mathematics and such other subjects as the School considers necessary at the time to determine whether or not the applicants fall within the ability range of those pupils admitted to that Year group at the beginning of Year 7. The procedures set out in the Waiting List Policy below will then apply.
Waiting Lists for Entry to Years 8 to 11
All who apply for admission to Years 8 to 11 of the School will be placed on a waiting list for admission to the appropriate Year group until such time as the number of pupils in the Year falls below 96. Those on the waiting list will then be considered for admission to the School in accordance with the criteria stated above. An order of merit will be derived from the results of the tests. Applicants on the waiting list whose academic attainment is judged to fall within the ability range of those admitted to the Year Group at the beginning of Year 7 will then be offered places in order of priority. Top priority will be given to children in Public Care followed by the other applicants in strict order of merit. Offers of places to those on the waiting list will cease when the admission number for the relevant Year Group has been reached.
Applicants who are not offered a place as a result of these procedures but whose academic attainment is judged to fall within the ability range of pupils admitted to the Year Group at the beginning of Year 7 may opt to remain on the waiting list for admission to the Year. Applicants whose ability is judged to fall outside that ability range will be refused a place in the School and will not be eligible for admission to the School below the Sixth Form.
Although applicants will be offered places in Years 10 and 11 of the School on the basis of the above criteria no guarantee can be given that the GCSE courses a new entrant would wish to study will be available.
The waiting list for admission to each Year group will cease to exist on the first day of the Autumn Term. Applicants whose names have previously been added to a waiting list to enter the School may re-apply in the next school year.
Appeals
Parents whose children are refused admission to the School have the right appeal to an independent appeal panel. The procedures for submitting such an appeal are set out in the final section of this document.
Admission to Year 12
The School admits both girls and boys to the Sixth Form.
Pupils will be considered for admission to Year 12 of the School on the basis of their academic attainment in GCSE or equivalent examinations and the availability and suitability of courses offered by the School.
Those seeking admission to the Sixth Form should obtain an application form from the School and return it to:
- Admissions Office, Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Sutton Road, Walsall, WS1 2PG.
The Coordinated Admissions Scheme being operated by Education Walsall for transfers to Year 7 in September 2008 does not apply to admissions to Year 12. Only the application form provided by the School has, therefore, to be completed and Education Walsall does not have to be informed.
Admission Criteria (How Places will be Offered)
The admission number for entry to Year 12 in September 2008 is 50 pupils. This is the maximum number of pupils not already attending the school which will be admitted to Year 12, subject to maximum set sizes not being exceeded in individual subjects.
Priority for admission to Year 12 of the School will be given to pupils progressing into the Sixth Form from Year 11 of the School.
A minimum of six passes at grades A* to B at GCSE, with at least grade C in English and Mathematics, will be required.