SOUTHEND’S grammar schools have dropped a key component of the 11-plus exam to encourage more local children to try for places.

Pupils hoping to start at one of Southend’s four grammar schools in 2015 will no longer face a verbal reasoning exam, designed to test children’s ability to analyse information logically.

The decision is a response to the widespread view the tests skewed candidates’ chances in favour of those whose parents were prepared to pay for expensive private tutoring.

Robin Bevan, headteacher of Southend High School for Boys, has analysed 11- plus test results for the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex for a decade. He says primary heads often feel they don’t have the time to offer help in verbal reasoning as part of normal classes.

He added: “When we talked to primary headteachers about the number of their pupils coming through to the grammar schools, they were very clear this perception about verbal reasoning papers was a barrier.

“Whether the perception is real or not, if it’s putting some people off it’s very important.

“It does the world of good to send a message grammar schools are not about providing places for children whose parents can afford private tuition.”

The verbal reasoning exam will be replaced with a new test which includes new word and maths puzzles which will fit better with what primary schools already teach.

Mr Bevan said: “Increasingly, primary schools teach a common curriculum. That was not true when verbal reasoning was first used.

“You couldn’t know for certain what pupils had been studying in primary schools. Now we have a strong assurance about the common curriculum in primary schools, it makes sense to align the 11-plus with the curriculum.

"Verbal reasoning did a good job, but it’s now time to recognise it isn’t necessary.”

Recent Echo stories have highlighted the reducing number of Southend youngsters who are getting places at the town’s grammar schools.

This September, grammar schools set aside 470 of their 608 Year 7 places for local primary school children – but just 197 were offered places.

At some Southend primary schools, four pupils out of five are put in for the 11-plus and half pass.

Other schools, however, enter fewer than a quarter of their pupils and get none of them through.

Gillian Marshall, chairman of the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex, which sets the 11-plus, said: “The decision has been taken to bring papers more in line with the expectations of Level 5, Key Stage 2, National Curriculum, for both English and maths, and better to reflect the educational experience of primary school pupils.”

 

COUNCILLORS in Southend have welcomed the change.

James Courtenay, the Tory member responsible for the borough’s schools, said: “The changes have been designed to reduce the likelihood of children having an advantage because of tutoring in verbal reasoning. It makes the test more accessible. It will also make it easier for teachers to encourage children for whom grammar school might be the right choice to take the test.

“I welcome the change as one aimed at encouraging access to grammar schools and the academic streams in other secondary schools.”

Ron Woodley, Independent councillor for Thorpe, who has long campaigned for more Southend children to go to grammar schools, said: “This gives children in primary schools an equal opportunity of getting into our grammar schools.

“If our primary schools step up to the plate, every child has an equal chance to get into grammar schools.”

Milton ward Labour councillor Julian Ware-Lane first highlighted the fact certain schools were entering vastly fewer children for 11-plus than others. He also welcomed the change, but asked if it was the right solution.

An opponent of selective education, he said: “Adjusting the test is just tinkering at the margins. I believe the data reveals education in Southend is in a poor shape. It’ll take more than minor alterations to the selection test to make a real change.”