Private school entrants (FOI)

​Request

I refer to a previously published Freedom of Information response at the following link:

Student transfers to fee-paying schools (FOI)

Please can I request some further clarity against the questions /  figures provided:

A

I understand that all fee-paying schools base their admissions on their own individual policies and that admission is based on reaching the academically selective criteria and ability to pay fees, but do you hold any data for the past few years on the total number of Year 7 admissions (surely there is a maximum number of places per year?) and the number or percentage of those children who came from non fee paying primary schools?

B

Please can you confirm if this figure (129 students) is a representative of transfers from non-fee paying schools to ALL fee-paying schools, or just JCG and VC? Also please advise on the total number of students in Jersey who moved from primary to secondary school so that I can understand the percentage that this figure represents?

C

Kindly confirm if the figures for JCG and Beaulieu are correct – the table appears to suggest that only 32% and 43% of students entering Year 7 at both schools came from JCG Prep and Beaulieu Primary / FCJ which seems extremely low given that many parents who can afford to send their daughters to the fee paying prep schools do so due to their strong links with the secondary school and automatic admissions policies in place.

Response

A

This table represents the maximum number of places in Year 7 that are available each academic year:

Beaulieu, De La Salle and St Michaels manage their own admissions and they can set their own numbers for Year 7 each academic year based on the number of applications.

The table below represents the total number and the percentage of the year group admissions to fee-paying schools (JCG, Victoria College, Beaulieu, De La Salle and St Michaels) from Government of Jersey non fee-paying schools for the past 3 academic years, 2017, 2018 and 2019:

B

In the last academic year, 129 pupils transferred to fee-paying secondary schools from Government of Jersey non fee-paying primary schools. The fee-paying schools included are JCG, Victoria College, Beaulieu, De La Salle and St Michaels.

The total number of children in Year 7 in 2019 across Government of Jersey schools and private schools was 1104.

C

The previous question was: ‘number or percentage of students at fee-paying secondary schools each year that came directly from adjoining or “feeder” fee-paying primary schools? (ie JCG Prep to JCG, FCJ to Beaulieu, and so on)

The table below represents the number and percentage of the year group of those that joined from their feeder schools, meaning that the rest of the Year 7 group was made up of children from other schools.

Although not an official feeder school for Beaulieu and De La Salle, it is recognised that a large number of students from FCJ do attend either of these fee-paying secondary schools. Therefore they have been included in these figures.