Admissions Policy

Posted on 31/03/2011

Admission Policy for Year 7 in September 2013

Torquay Girls’ Grammar School is a selective girl’s school with Academy status and is therefore responsible for managing its own admissions. This is done in co-operation with the Local Authority to ensure that as many parents as possible obtain a place for their daughter at the school of their choice. Admission is based on academic ability and this is determined through a number of tests. The Planned Admission Number (PAN) for Year 7 in September 2013 is 120 girls and is determined by a number of considerations including the physical space available for teaching.

Open Day and Tours

An Open Day and Evening for entry to Y7 will be held on June 26th 2012 and September 10th 2012. On both occasions there are two possible sessions; one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The admissions procedure will be explained and you will have a chance to tour the school, meet the staff, speak to the girls and ask questions. Times will be posted on this website in the summer term. If you are unable to make this date then please contact the Headteachers' PA to organise an individual tours which take place fortnightly.

Applicants

Candidates will be female.
Candidates will be girls in Year 6 at the time of taking the test:

(Applicants for September 2013 will be born between 1 September 2001 and 31 August 2002)

Candidates qualify to take the tests by virtue of her chronological age not the year of their school placement.

The admissions tests take place at Torquay Girls’ Grammar school on consecutive Saturdays;

the 15 and 22 September 2012

Applicants must complete the Test Registration Form issued by the School and return by 11 September 2012. The Form can be accessed from the school website or by contacting the school in the summer term 2012. It enables us to inform you of all the test arrangements.

The Selection Tests

The current test setup is as follows:

Saturday 15th	Saturday 22nd
Verbal Reasoning Test 1	Verbal Reasoning Test 2
English Test	Mathematics Test

There will be two Verbal Reasoning tests, one Mathematics paper and one English paper. Girls who are achieving in the top 25% of their age group at Primary School should be able to cope with the tests. For example if a girl's teacher believes she is likely to achieve Level 5's in her KS2 English, Maths and Science SATs at the end of Y6 then this would be a good indicator that she will be of a sufficient standard.

Verbal Reasoning Tests are supplied by GL Assessment, and will be marked in accordance with their regulations. These are multiple choice tests. The higher Verbal Reasoning Score attained, of the two papers, will be regarded as the final mark for that element. Results will be standardised to take into account age differentials.

The English and Mathematics tests will be set by Torquay Girls' Grammar School in collaboration with Churston Ferrers Grammar School and Torquay Boys' Grammar School in accordance with the Attainment Targets of the National Curriculum Key Stage 2. The English paper has both reading and writing components. The Maths is a free response paper. These tests will be marked internally.

Children who are unable to take the tests on either of these dates, due to illness or other significant acceptable reason, will be offered the opportunity to take the tests at the catch up test date of 1st & 2nd October. The reason must be discussed with the school at the earliest opportunity.If the parent chooses to name the school on the CAF for a child who has not taken the test, this
preference will be treated as invalid because the child will not have met the entry criteria.

Allocation of Places

Category A :

Places will be offered to those girls who meet the required standard in all 3 tests, ie

· NFER Verbal Reasoning (the selective score being that achieved by the 120th candidate.)

· A minimum of 50% of available marks in Mathematics

· A minimum of 50% of available marks in English

Should more than 120 girls meet the required standard in all 3 tests places will be awarded by rank order of total score.

Category B :

· If less than 120 girls meet the required standard in all 3 tests: those who are successful in meeting 2/3 conditions will be offered places in rank order of total score up to the 120th place.

Category C :

Candidates are considered unsuccessful if they pass fewer than two of the three tests. Places will not be offered to students in this category.

Notification of Guidance

Parents will be provided with a guidance letter about the suitability of an application to the selective schools in Torbay before the deadline for submission of the CAF (October 31st 2012). At this stage of the process this will not be an offer of a place at a selective school, it will give an indication of whether an application is likely to be successful.

The Guidance letters will be issued on 18 October and parents must then apply for a school place using a Common Application Form from the Local Authority in which they live (deadline 31 October). They can make up to three ranked preferences.

Allocation of Places

At the conclusion of the allocation process the Local Authority will be sent a ranked list of the children. Parents of successful candidates will be informed in the first instance by the Local Authority on National Allocation day (March 1st 2013) and then by letter from the school. The scores of the successful candidates will not be revealed.

Post Allocation

Parents have the right to appeal against this decision to an Independent Panel, whose decision is binding on the parents and the school.

Application should be made to the Democratic Services Department of Torbay Local Authority. The School can assist with contact information.

Timetable for Admission for Year 7 in September 2013

26th June 2012 10th September 2012	Open Day and Evening at the School Open Day at the school
11th September 2012	Deadline for receipt of the Test Registration Form by the School.
Saturday 15 September 2012	Verbal Reasoning Test 1 English Test
Saturday 22 September 2012	Verbal Reasoning Test 2 Mathematics Test
1 October and 2 October 2012	Tests arranged for children unable to take the examinations in September
18 October 2012 31 October 2012	Guidance letters sent to parents Deadline for receipt of the Common Application Form by the LA
December 2012	Admissions Panel meets to determine the rank order of candidates
1 March 2013	Local Authority advise parents of results
3 April 2013	Deadline for parents to submit an Appeal Request to Torbay LA Democratic Services
Summer Term 2013	Independent Appeals Panel meets to discuss Parental Appeals

Late Admission Procedures

1. For Y7 from ‘National Allocation Day’ to the end of the Autumn term of that year

After places have been allocated the 11+ results will form the waiting list until end of the autumn term of the admission year. If places become available during this time the next girl on the list will be contacted and offered a place.

After this time girls who have satisfied the following criteria can apply for any places that become available at the end of the Spring and Summer terms. Please contact the school for place enquiries and dates of tests or view the website.

2. Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9):

· achieved levels 5,5 and 4 (in any combination) in the English, Mathematics and Science SATs at Key Stage 2 or equivalent.

· made demonstrable progress in National Curriculum subjects since leaving primary school in line with that achieved by girls already in the relevant year group at TGGS. This will assessed through selection tests in English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning.

The highest scoring student who passes this exam suite will be offered a place.

3. Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11):

· achieved levels 7,7 and 6 or above (in any combination) in English, Mathematics and Science at Key Stage 3 or equivalent.

· made demonstrable progress in National Curriculum subjects at KS4 in line with that achieved by girls already in the relevant year group at TGGS. This will assessed through selection tests in English, Maths and Science.

The highest scoring student who passes this exam suite will be offered a place.

SEN

Children with a statement of Special Educational Need, where Torquay Girls’ Grammar School is named on the statement, have an entitlement to attend.

Tied places

For ties in both 120th place in Y7 and in the late admissions tests the order of priority will be;

· A child in care or an adopted child

· Children Eligible for Free School meals at the time of the test

· Children of staff working at the school at the time of the test (subject to meeting the criteria in the Admissions Code)

· A girl with a sister at the school

· By direct line distance from home to the school at the time of application.