Sixth form admission data
Dear Reading School,
Please could you provide the following admission information for applicants from other schools residing within the designated catchment area who applied for a sixth form day place in 2021, 2022 and 2023, in a tabular format:
Year of entry | Subject combination | Number of applications that met the predicted points score | Number of students offered places
For example:
2022 | Maths, English, Biology | 34 | 9
2022 | Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics | 23 | 4
Yours faithfully,
Ritu Music
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SENT ON BEHALF OF MR AM ROBSON, HEADMASTER
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
A response to your request for information will be sent to you promptly; and in any event not later than 29th September which is 20 school days from your request.
Please note for schools, the standard time limit for responding is 20 school days, or 60 working days if this is shorter. Working day means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or public holidays and bank holidays; this may or may not be the same as the days you are open for business or staff are in work.
Yours sincerely,
On behalf of Mr AM Robson
Headmaster
Caroline Mole
Executive Assistant with responsibility for Admissions and HR
Reading School
[email address]
01189 015600
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Old Redingensians are welcome to join the Reading School Alumni Society
Please find attached response to your FOI request.
Kind regards
On behalf of Mr AM Robson
Headmaster
Caroline Mole
Executive Assistant with responsibility for Admissions and HR
Reading School
[email address]
01189 015600
Donate to help build an even better Reading School
Old Redingensians are welcome to join the Reading School Alumni Society
Thank you for your FOI request.
Please find attached response.
Kind regards
On behalf of Mr AM Robson
Headmaster
Dear Ms. Mole,
I am sorry, but my request relates to external applications only (i.e., excluding applicants from Reading School). Please could I kindly request you to provide the revised data.
Apologies for not having been clear.
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Music
Thank you for your email.
Please find attached amended letter.
Kind regards
On behalf of Mr AM Robson
Headmaster
Dear Ms. Mole,
Many thanks. I do not believe data in one of the columns for request (A) is quite right. The column "Predicted points score (mean and range) of applicants offered a place" should also consider only EXTERNAL DAY applicants not with special criteria, so the data must be "Predicted points score (mean and range) of EXTERNAL DAY applicants (not LA/PP/SP) offered a place".
Once again, many thanks for your response.
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Music
Thank you for your email.
My colleague who collates this information is on annual leave and as such we will respond on her return.
Kind regards
Dear Caroline Mole,
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Music
Further to our recent communications, I can confirm that the information you have requested is not held.
The information held confirms that all external applicants admitted to the school qualified for entry.
I hope this clarifies the position for you.
Kind regards
On behalf of Mr AM Robson
Headmaster
Dear Sir / Madam,
The response that you had provided seems inaccurate.
Let me try to explain once again using the data you provided. For example, for Sep-23, a total of 118 external applicants applied from within the catchment, having a minimum score of 56 points from 8 GCSEs. However, only 38 places were offered to these applicants. We know from the school admission policies that applicants are ranked based on their predicted GCSE point scores. Therefore, you must have used a cut-off score to decide who gets an offer. It appears that the cut off was 56 points in 2023. This is implausible, because then all the 118 applicants must have been made an offer, which is not the case. Therefore the column labelled "Predicted points score (mean and range) of applicants offered a place" must have a range that is narrower.
Alternatively you can simply indicate the threshold or cut-off used to determine which external DAY candidates from within the catchment area that DID NOT meet any special criteria [such as looked after child, or in care, student is in receipt of pupil premium] got an offer in 2023, 2022 and 2021.
I hope this clarifies.
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Music
Thank you for your email. Please see detailed response below which I hope helps answer any outstanding questions you might have:
We have revisited our Sixth Form information for 2021, 2022 and 2023 entry.
For September 2023, we admitted 2 external applicants with 56 points from their top 8 GCSEs.
In September 2022, the lowest accumulative score from an external applicant was 59 points.
We no longer hold results data for September 2021 entry.
We believe that you are assuming that we have a cut off, say 60 points for example, and we offer to everyone who is predicted that point range. The offers are not selected on a points cut off basis. The offers are based on how many qualifying students we can accommodate for the subjects that they want to study. For the past two years we have been able to offer more places because we added extra sets for the most popular subjects as well as offering some new subjects such as PE and Philosophy. A qualifying external student wanting to study Maths, Economics and the Sciences is less likely to be offered a place due to the popularity of those subjects, in comparison to a student wanting to study the Arts, Humanities and MFLs, were we have availability on most courses. In a typical year, many qualifying applicants will not receive an offer because we simply cannot accommodate everyone who applies.
We would also like to refer you to the admissions policy which states the following:
The school offers 180 places for entry into the Sixth Form each year. In a typical year about 145 internal students will qualify to enter the Sixth Form, leaving a minimum of 35 further places for external students.
As there is no admissions point score cut off (apart from the 56 point minimum standard), offers are made based on the minimum GCSE points score criteria being fulfilled and highest points score students given priority, but with space availability in subjects being the other driving factor.
Please see below a worked example:
A student with 72 points wanting to study Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Economics would be offered a place, as they would be top of the points score list and would fill one of the available spaces in this subject.
This may well be true for this points score until we reach students with 68 points, at which point these subjects may be full.
However, a student on 56 points may be offered a place, if they have selected History, Music, French and English Literature, as there are still spaces available in these lower uptake subjects.
As a result, the data "cut off score" is 56 points, as the points score is the main criteria for prioritising students, but availability of subject choices determines whether spaces can be offered to students and consequently students with 56 points and lower uptake subject choices can be admitted ahead of students with 67 points who have selected over-subscribed subjects.
I trust this clarifies the position for you.
Kind regards
Caroline Mole
Dear Sir / Madam,
Thank you for your reply, which helps. In this case, the information I would require is the threshold score for pupils with the following subject combination for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023: Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Economics.
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Music
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