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Pace N.Ireland Education Weblog

Monthly Archives: February 2011

The AQE letter by Sir Kenneth Blomfield

21 Monday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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AQE, AQE test results, AQE tests, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield

Notes from the AQE letter of February 3rd, 2011 to parents and guardians signed by Sir Kenneth Bloomfield.

To view the entire document click here AQE
The first point is that Sir Kenneth Bloomfield uses the term “robust” to describe the AQE system, a term he used on 1st September, 2008 while calling for locally-elected politicians to reach crucial decisions about the future of our education system. https://paceni.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/bloomfields-latest-tragedy-of-errors/

Bloomfield’s affinity for a Pupil Profile remains intact and has not been rejected by him.

“A pupil profile, if meaningful and reliable, could provide for parents and potential receiving schools a useful summary of a pupil’s performance in primary education and facilitate the informed matching of pupils to schools.”

Sir Kenneth Bloomfield of the GBA and AQE

On P2 of the letter Sir Kenneth announces detail of the AQE CEA re-mark scheme. Parents will recall that disadvantaged pupils (those on Free School Meals) did not pay the £35 fee for taking the tests. However, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, on behalf of AQE announced the imposition of a £10 charge for those on FSM for requesting a re-mark. It is understood that the motivation behind creating further disadvantage for those already disadvantaged was to prevent members of the local community from flooding the AQE office with requests for remarks.

So to be clear – the AQE proclaims equality of opportunity for the disadvantaged in applying for grammar school entrance tests but effectively removes it by denying them equality in seeking a re-mark. PaceNI blog readers will hardly need reminding that Sir Kenneth Bloomfield’s school, Inst refused FOI requests from PACE seeking disclosure of the number of bursaries provided to disadvantaged pupils at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The exemption claimed by Inst was on the groulnds of cost to provide the information. While some member schools in AQE make claims of their desire to assist and support disadvantaged pupils Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, chair of governors of only one of two category B schools, destroys such claims by imposing charges for “free” tests.

Ken Bloomfield then goes on to claim in his letter about the help and assistance that primary school principals will provide during interviews for completing the transfer forms. Perhaps he should have read his own document,The Statistics from the Questionnaires of January 2011 which clearly indicate that only 67% of primary schools provided information on the AQE tests. Even those of limited mathematical ability can covert that figure to a fraction. One in three primary schools, led by principals, refused parents the information on the transfer tests. How can Bloomfield suggest with any expectation of credibility, that parents trust primary school principals to ” assist you in the application process”.  Sir Kenneth Bloomfield clearly wants to attract attention to himself and his incoherent agenda. His signature on the letter to parents on behalf of AQE juxtaposes sharply with all the work diligently carried out by William Young, former headmaster at BRA,  the CEO at AQE Ltd. Unfortuantely it seems that Bloomfield is determined to destroy AQE from within. How else can one explain the gross ineptitude found within his letter to parents. Specal circumstances, special provision and special cases are highlighted by Bloomfield as a basis for parents who feel that the mark obtained after three tests does not reflect their child’s “true ability” to challenge the result.

Bloomfield suggests that parents might wish to obtain comparative educational evidence from the primary school (including the third of schools who provided no information on the AQE CEA tests). Did he stop to consider that this is instantly recognised as another effort on his part to push for the Pupil Profile. After all, if equivalent information on attainment exists in the primary school what is the point of testing for grammar schools? That question will confuse and confound the 21% of parents from the middle classes who entered their children for entrance tests while claiming they are also against academic selection.

Finally Sir Kenneth Bloomfield KCB reveals the ultimate misunderstanding of differentiation in schools and schooling by stating that

“AQE believes strongly that Northern Ireland is blessed with excellent schools, Primary, Grammar and secondary, and is confident that, in whatever school your son or daughter is enrolled in September 2011, he or she will have an educational experience of high quality.”

Perhaps he was regressing and thought he was writing a letter in his former role as head of the N.I. Civil Service seeking to deliver everyone in an equality of result outcome.

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Information on AQE tests

18 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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11-plus and admission procedure, AQE test results, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, transfer from primary school, Transfer tests 2011

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DENI warned of major CCEA problems in 2006

18 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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CCEA, DENI, Numeracy and Literacy Strategy, PACE, poor numeracy and literacy, Will Haire

 

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Problems at the N.I. exams body; CCEA

16 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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CCEA, ESAIT, Gavin Boyd, Incas

CCEA spends inordinate amounts of money on communications, PR and catering as part of a longstanding effort  to convince the public, in Northern Ireland and further afield, that it as a unique organisation, entirely fit for purpose. £2,003,357 was spent in 2007 and £2,518,681 in 2008. for advertising, printing and stationeryAs promised in the article from last week PACENI will provide an analysis and expose of how this organisation, under the control of Gavin Boyd, has morphed into a bloated, expensive yet unreliable and unaccountable public body that sees itself modelled on best business practice.

The claims illustrated in the frame above highlight the CCEA view that they are a top notch organisation.

Note the reference in the paragraph above to a change in emphasis located around the mid 1990s. This shift came about because of a compalint surrounding the awarding of marks in Biology examinations. Failed process is the term used by CCEAs PR and spin experts. The chief executive at the time Catherine Coxshead was dismissed by the Council as a result of what amounted to a clerical error.

Zero defects in all its works-  CCEA have a developed sense of  humour. It must come from all that “Thinking about Thinking” and an overdeveloped interest in neuroscience.

Blog readers will have an opportunity to read all the details of the 11-plus, Incas and Chemistry marking debacles in due course.

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CCEA and ethics for the disadvantaged redux

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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Belfast Telegraph, CCEA, enriched curriculum, Fade or Flourish, QUB school of psychology, Robert McCartney QC, Stephen Elliott

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Notice for Parents not satisfied with GL Assessment mark/grade

05 Saturday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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Ballymena Academy, CCEA, GL Assessment test results, Ofqual, OMR, Optical Mark Reader, PPTC, Remark of transfer tests, Ronnie Hazzard

The Parental Alliance for Choice in Education wish to draw attention to parents of an alternative mechanism for requesting a re-marking of the GL Assessment tests conducted by the PPTC  schools. The tests are multiple choice and marked by inserting the answer sheet into an Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

Instructions on remarking are provided by the PPTC as demonstrated via the  Ballymena Academy website.

Parents may wish to contact CCEA, the Northern Ireland Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment and request that the official regulator of exams put their child’s test paper through their “Chemistry Exam Special” OMR machine. After all there is no independent body utilized by the PPTC to verify the work of GL Assessment.

Ofqual in their reports into the latest blunder by CCEA made the following information available on how Caitriona Ruane’s specialist organisation treated computer-marked tests last year.

Now since the PPTC fail to  explain to parents on behalf of GL Assessment (a) that the computer can only produce an exact same response every time the answer sheet is fed into it and (b) any adjustment to a score can only represent an intervention by a human and would therefore require an explanation of how the error was not detected in the first instance – there is little point in requesting a remark. However it seems that CCEA adjusted the grades and marks of some pupils in an upward direction but no mention is made of the treatment of those pupils who were awarded marks incorrectly.

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AQE & GL Assessment Exam results – a cautionary tale

04 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by paceni in Grammar Schools

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11-plus tests, AQE test results, CCEA, DENI Press Releases, GL Assessment test results, Ofqual

Tomorrow thousands of pupils from throughout Northern Ireland will be awaiting the results of their tests for a place in a grammar school. As predicted the BBC Nolan Show gave a platform for the Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane to emotionally terrorize young listeners and their parents. Having abdicated responsibility for measuring attainment in numeracy and literacy at primary school she has taken to venting her spleen at those who have demonstrated her irrelevance.  It is clear that demand for places at grammar schools is as strong as ever and an equality of opportunity still exists for all who wish to do so to compete in a fair competition based on their numeracy and literacy attainment. Good luck to all those pupils.

 As many parents will know there are two different tests offered by different schools (except for Victoria College, Belfast). One is marked as a script by teachers [AQE], the other is marked by a computer [GL Assessment] There has been no published information on which test is more valid and reliable but one must be. Last September PACENI highlighted a story on yet another series of errors by the Northern Ireland examinations body CCEA in which computer-based marking is used. The Education Minister must take responsibility for the failures of her regulated system that swallows £30 million per year while at the same time spending an inordinate amount of time and resources criticizing the unregulated tests.

https://paceni.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/ofqual-investigates-ccea-failure/

This week Ofqual published two reports into the reasons behind mistakes which resulted in 935 out of 1024 candidates being awarded wrong scores.

http://www.ofqual.gov.uk.news-and-announcements/83/544

PACE will be publishing an in-depth analysis of the Ofqual reports into CCEA. Please revisit the site for regular updates.

CCEA the subject organisation are not so keen to communicate the Ofqual reports.

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