ePC

Chelmsford County High School for Girls

ePC mark the 11-plus entrance test for Chelmsford County High School for Girls (CCHS).

cchs-entrance-test

Background

CCHS is a selective, non-denominational girls’ school with Academy Status located in Chelmsford, Essex. Teaching some of the most able girls in the country, the academic pace is fast, and the school is one of the most successful girls’ selective schools in the UK.

To secure a place at CCHS, parents have to register their daughter(s) to sit an entrance exam. The competition for places is fierce with over 1,350 applications for 180 places.

The Admissions Office at CCHS manage the entrance exam, dealing with everything from managing enquiries and ordering test papers to ranking pupils and reporting results to the local authority.

Challenge

Historically, another supplier administered the entrance exam on behalf of CCHS. The Admissions Office would advise how many papers were required and whether the school needed any modified papers for children with Special Education Needs (SEN). They also supplied registration data with the supplier overprinting student information onto the examination papers before delivering materials to the school. Pupils sat the exam with completed test papers shipped back to the supplier for marking.

A significant challenge was the lack of communication.

The Admissions Office said: “We disliked the fact that we couldn't just get someone to talk to me. If we had a query, first of all, we didn't know who to ask and secondly, it was sent to a big mailbox, which automatically sent us a response saying that we would get a response within 48 hours which is not really what you want to hear when you need an answer urgently.”

Another problem was that the previous vendor was unable to cleanse the data before overprinting student data onto the papers.

At the same time, CCHS were very focused on the idea of social mobility and were uncomfortable with the levels of tutoring required for the exam.

“Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) and their ethos immediately appealed to us as it aimed to make entrance testing more accessible to children from a range of social and economic backgrounds.”

A short time later, the previous supplier decided to focus on digital assessments, notifying customers that they would end paper-based entrance test services.

“As we needed to find a new test provider, we immediately started talking to FSCE.”

We did have talks with other potential suppliers, but we decided against them both in favour of FSCE. We were concerned our experience with the previous supplier might be repeated with one potential vendor and another is heavily tutored, and you can buy their past papers online which encourages coaching. We also felt we would be losing control because they manage the process themselves, whereas we've got complete control over the registration process and answer all queries. It's very busy, but we know who's coming into our school, so that went against them as well.

Admissions Office, CCHS

Solution

FSCE works with several trusted suppliers to deliver the CCHS entrance test which consists of an English, Maths, and Creative Writing paper.

Test design

One of those suppliers is Stothard Education who create new questions for the CCHS entrance test.

The final questions are sent to ePC who design the answer sheet for the Maths and English components. The Creative Writing test uses a generic answer booklet.

Like many schools and trusts, the previous exam answer sheet was limited to multiple choice questions (MCQ) for marking by OMR readers. A big change saw the introduction of a more flexible, user-friendly form layout with the new answer sheet including short written responses.

The Admissions Office adds “Working with FSCE for the first time, we had lots of questions, and we always got the answers back quickly. Absolutely nothing was a chore. There was an 18-point question paper that we wanted enlarged for children with special needs which was dealt with very promptly. Nothing was too much hassle.”

Submitting candidate data

Once registration closes, CCHS populates an Excel template with details of the applicants. The spreadsheet is then sent to ePC who pre-print the information (candidate ID, name, date of birth, venue, session, etc.) onto the answer sheet. The information is also encoded into a 2D barcode to identify candidates and reconcile answer sheets to registrations.

The Admissions Office says, “We really liked the fact that there was a fresh pair of eyes looking at the data because We’d looked at it so many times, so it was reassuring to know that ePC would check it and let us know if they found a duplicate, an incorrect date of birth, or something else that I didn't spot.”

They added "With their withdrawal, we needed to look for another supplier, but we also wanted a fairer, more balanced assessment which was better suited to our school and ensured we were able to offer a more impartial evaluation of prospective students’ ability".

Delivery and collection of examination papers

The examination papers are printed by ePC and securely despatched to CCHS. Each box contains one component (Maths or English), sorted by room and candidate surname, plus 20 non-personalised (blank) sheets for contingency use should a candidate paper be lost or damaged.

“The delivery was on time and very organised. We had a box for paper 1 and a box for paper 2 and they were in numerical order, so we didn’t need to sort them. We had no issues at all with the answer sheets when they arrived.”

On the day, each candidate will sit three papers; Maths, English, and Creative Writing.

After the exam, the Maths and English papers are collected, sealed in polythene bags (to prevent water damage in transit), packaged up, and dispatched to ePC for marking. The Creative Writing paper is stored securely at the school.

“We arranged the delivery of papers with DHL, they got sent to ePC who confirmed receipt, so we knew that they had returned to them safe and sound.”

Examination paper marking

On receipt, the answer sheets are scanned and marked using handprint (ICR), checkbox (OMR), and barcode recognition technology. Any exceptions are queued for review by ePC’s verification team.

Data export

Once verified, the raw responses are exported and made available to FSCE who work with a statistics company to age-standardise the results. Additionally, ePC provided FSCE with an electronic archive of scanned answer sheets.

Eligible scores

At this stage, students with an eligible test score from the Maths and English elements have their Creative Writing paper assessed and their overall performance ranked.

Results

FSCE released examination results 56% quicker than previously possible.

ePC marked answer sheets and returned the raw scores in two days, contributing to FSCE getting age-standardised results back to CCHS in nine days. This compares favourably to the 16 days it took the previous year. The faster turnaround allowed CCHS to publish final results well ahead of the closing date for applications to be made to the local authority.

At the same time, the change of supplier has been seamless.

“We didn’t experience any challenges with FSCE. It was all so straightforward. The actual process has not changed from one day to another and that is exactly what we wanted.”

“FSCE ticked all the boxes, and we were impressed by their knowledge of the admissions process. They are the perfect antidote to entrance tests that are highly coachable and inaccessible to children from less privileged backgrounds, and I wholeheartedly recommend them to other selective Grammar Schools.”

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