PARENTS told of their outrage today at changes to the controversial 11-plus exam in Trafford.
In September, thousands of primary school pupils will face tests lasting nearly three hours on Saturdays at new mass testing centres.
Pupils used to take the three parts of the exam on different days in their own schools.
But the government's new workload agreement with the unions means that, instead of doing administrative work, teachers can spend more time in the classroom with children.
It also means that teachers do not have to invigilate during exams in school time. Trafford's ruling Tory group will set up mass 11-plus testing centres, probably at secondary schools.
On a Saturday morning, up to 400 primary school pupils will do tests in verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and maths. Each test takes 45 minutes and five minutes' preparation time is allowed.
More than 2,000 children take the exam every year to decide which qualify to attend one of the borough's grammar schools. Gerald Ford, from Timperley has three children.
Two have already passed the exam and the third is due to take it in September. He was not aware of the change.
Strange
Mr Ford, who has campaigned for grammar schools as part of an organised group, although he has concerns about the 11-plus, said: "It's deplorable. Children are being taken out of a comfortable environment and being put in a strange environment. They are being forced to take three tests in one go. This is trebling the pressure."
Coun David Acton, leader of the Labour group, challenged Tories to reverse the decision this week and accused them of cost-cutting.
He said: "These changes will potentially cause massive disruption to the 11-plus. When we were in control, we worked hard to make sure the test was fair and convenient."
Coun Susan Fildes, Tory group leader, said: "The only other way, which would be prohibitively expensive, would be to employ agency staff."
She said that this year, children had taken the three elements of the exam at the same time.
"Under the new directive, teachers are not allowed to invigilate in their own schools.
Government legislation unfortunately has forced us to act." The Education Department said: "It is a matter for schools and LEAs to decide how best to organise exam invigilation."
What do you think of the changes? Have your say.
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The whole 11 plus system is a farce anyway.Totally unfair writing people off at 11 and thats from someone who passed it.
Simple solution , scrap the elitist system like most local education authorities.
The whole 11 plus is now a farce. My daughter is the oldest in the class and will just be 12 when she starts secondary school. This age group does not stand a chance of passing, because what parents do not realise is that because they are up to 9 month older than their class mates, they take this into consideration when marking the papers. I was told at first that this was true by the education dept, but when I questioned it further, I got so many different answers I gave up. They will deny it now, but I now know that several people have been upset because they knew that their child really should have passed but were down graded in some way. My daughter came into this category, and I was told it was rare for a child this age to pass, They were right. My daughter was heart broken. The same happened to a friends daughter last year. I was told that a child this age had an unfair advantage over the younger children. Its some sort of inane joke. Of course they will deny it, but someone did come out with the truth. If I had known prior, I would not have let my child sit it.
I agree with P. Taylor. The same thing happened to my daughter this year. It shold be scrapped. The way it works is unfair. I would love to have known my daughters true score. But I doubt I will ever be allowed to know. They simply dont want you know.
I too have heard of this. 4 years ago my son sat the 11 plus, He was expected to pass, but failed by about 12 marks. I appealed but got nowhere. It was a few weeks later I was told of the down grading. I too was told it was true that in some way they took marks off because of age, my son was 7 month older than the youngest in the class. Its so wrong, I would not any of my children sit it anymore. People should boycot this totally unfair test. It should be down to how well your child has done throughout his school, not by one off tests. Your child might not be feeling his best on the day. Get rid of the 11 plus is my opinion.
How can a slightly older child have an advantage, they are taught the same as the other children in the class, none of this 11 plus makes one bit of scence to me. I agree, scrap the thing. Too much pressure is being put on too young children. Get a petition going, I would be one of the first to sign it.
I don't agree with the 11 plus exam, both my children have taken it and failed (how can a child at 11 fail!). The school they went too separates all the children in Year 6 - one class are more able to pass then the other. So automatically the other class have failed before they have even taken the exam. If they children have to take this oldfashioned, archaic exam then let the children take it in a neutral environment which is far more fair.
Children in the Altrincham area are served with a double whammy. They have to take seperate exams to pass into the local grammar schools. Children are passing their 11+ which entitles them to a grammar school place, but failing the harder exams at the Altrincham Grammar schools which leave them with no grammar school place. This is wrong. If they pass their 11+ it should be their automatic right to go to a grammar school.
The 'one sitting' approach is no different to that used by the schools that also set their own entrance exams (eg Altrincham, Loreto), and arguably *less* stressful for the child - rather than dragging the exams out over a week or more.
Regarding the 'science' behind adjusting exam scores for age, NFER - who, as I understand set the papers Trafford use - have the explanation (which makes sense to me) at this link:
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/aboutus/amd762.asp
I'd be interested to hear an unambiguous statement from Councillor Acton supporting Trafford's Grammar schools. Assuming he does, of course.
the 'one sitting' approach is no different to the one used by some of the schools that set their own entrance exams (eg Altrincham, Loreto), and arguably less stressful for the child - one sitting rather than stretching it out over a few weeks.
Regarding the science behind adjusting for age, NFER - who set the Trafford papers, as I understand - explain it at this link:
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/aboutus/amd762.asp
I'd be pleased to hear an unambiguous statement of support for Trafford's Grammar schools from Councillor Acton.
Trafford MBC are always shouting from the rooftops about the so called success of their top schools but keep a very low profile about the schools at the other end of the scale.
My local high school ,which is not in Trafford. has twice as many students as schools in surrounding towns of a similar size because hundreds are bussed in everyday day of the week.
Why should other councils and ratepayers make up for Traffords inadequacies?
How can a system that labels children failures, at 11, on the basis of an exam, be anything else but 'deplorable', in the words of the prominent supporter. Ok for those who can afford some private coaching no doubt.