We have a proposition for Trafford Council that will save them money, reduce congestion on roads across the borough and help young people sitting their entrance examinations for Trafford’s grammar schools.
Sounds interesting? Read our letter to the Stretford and Urmston Messenger:
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Chris Smith of Sale suggested last week that Trafford’s entrance exam system could be reorganised as a single examination for every school, to be held in the familiar environment of each child’s junior school.
We couldn’t agree more with this sensible suggestion. As Urmston’s leading tutors, we prepare several dozen children each year for entrance examinations, and the stress of sitting up to five long examinations in unfamiliar schools can be extremely upsetting for children and parents alike. Up to 1,000 children and their parents descending on these schools on examination day make this an intimidating experience. We need to remember that the young people sitting the entrance examinations are aged only 10 or 11: these are long, tough examinations and we need to look at how to make them less nerve-wracking.
Furthermore, we believe that if one single entrance examination was in operation, more children would attend their local grammar school. At the moment there are children from Urmston who travel to grammar school in Altrincham every day and vice versa because they failed one examination but passed the other. We could reduce congestion on the road and bring down the borough’s carbon footprint by reintroducing a single entrance examination. The chances of passing the examination would not be reduced because the total number of places available would remain the same.
Finally, in the current economic climate, we have to look at costs: at the moment, seven schools set seven examinations and appoint invigilators for the many hundreds of children who attend each school’s examination. Each school must allocate administration staff for the examinations and organise and pay for marking of the examinations. Each school sends out up to 1,000 registration forms and results must be posted out by each school. If the examinations were centrally administered and marked, and invigilated by school staff, the savings could be huge.
We know that many, many teachers, parents and children agree with us on this. Our question: is Trafford Council listening?
Yours faithfully,
Christine McLaughlin/ Paul Syrett
Directors of Teaching and Learning
www.bettertuition.co.uk
1, Crofts Bank Road, Urmston, M41 0XH
Directors of Teaching and Learning
www.bettertuition.co.uk
1, Crofts Bank Road, Urmston, M41 0XH
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