1. Transfer 2010

2. Saint Andrews Agreement For a ban on academic selection to come into force there would have to be cross-party agreement at the Assembly. There has been no cross-party agreement and therefore it remains lawful to include academic selection within admissions criteria.

3. Unregulated System Since the Minister of Education has not put forward proposals on which the Executive can agree we now have an unregulated system.

4. DENI Guidance The Minister of Education has issued Draft Guidance to schools on Transfer in 2010. Boards of Governors are required to give due regard to the Guidance but they can decide not to follow the Guidance.

5. Guidance in Draft At present we have only seen the draft version of the Guidance which has been issued for a consultation to which we have responded. The final version of the Guidance may not be issued until the summer or later. Final decisions about admission criteria can only be made after Board of Governors have considered the final version of Guidance.

6. Down High School Having given due regard to the draft Guidance the Board of Governors have decided to: operate academic selection; use the Common Entrance Assessment (CEA) produced by the AQE.

7. CEA based on the NI (revised) curriculum English & Maths only (no Science) three 1 hour papers best 2 scores to count pupils may sit 2 or 3 papers available in English or Irish language

8. Dates November 14th November 28th December 5th October 17th (Familiarisation Morning)

9. Location The CEA may be sat in any one of the schools listed on the registration form. CEA does not need to be sat at a school to which the pupil will apply for admission. 3 locations can be nominated in order of preference.

10. Cost £35 (regardless of number of tests sat) waived if child receives Free School Meals

11. AQE The Association for Quality Education is responsible for setting and marking the tests as well as the registration process. For more information about the AQE and the tests please visit the website. www.aqe.org.uk

12. Registration May 18th to September 18th guidance notes provided with forms forms can be downloaded from AQE website and from our website forms available as you leave this morning

13. Registration Form to be returned to AQE submit with 3 passport photographs and a copy of birth certificate payment by cheque, postal order or bankers’ draft or ELB letter confirming receipt of free school meals

14. Access Arrangements indicate on the registration form if child will need access arrangements to sit the CEA AQE will send out Access Application Form AQE Access Panel will indicate to parents and the grammar school the arrangements to be made school will make these arrangements

15. Arrangements at Down High School

16. Special Circumstances Boards of Governors will continue to consider evidence of how special circumstances affected performance.

17. Special Provision in some exceptional cases pupils may not be able to sit the test in past Board of Governors have considered reports produced by ELB psychologists no indication that this will change

18. Statemented Children at present statemented children are outside the transfer process and are not included in admissions numbers placed in an appropriate school by the ELB no indication that this will change

19. You will be sent name of assessment centre child’s assessment number information about the tests details of familiarisation day

20. Marking marked by a panel of AQE markers overseen by a chief examiner scores are adjusted to take age into account

21. Results sent to parents and to schools Saturday 6 th February score out of 100 to 2 decimal places parents may apply for a re-mark

22. Admissions Criteria final decisions after consideration of final version of DENI Guidance published by ELBs as normal Open Evening will also take place as normal

23. Down High School Down High School Board of Governors have considered the Draft Guidance not possible to make a final decision at present currently it is their intention to use rank order in the CEA as the first criterion for all 128 places

24. Transfer Form completed by parents meetings with Primary School Principals held in February forms sent to ELB / ESA centralised admission procedure as at present

25. Completion of Process schools apply their admissions criteria parents informed by ESA of allocated school normal appeals procedure operates

26. Useful Websites www.downhighschool.org.uk www.aqe.org.uk www.deni.gov.uk