Last year we changed the entrance procedure to reflect the challenges students had faced during the previous year and we know that the last academic year has also been difficult with some students missing learning time due to Covid-19 isolations. We have therefore thought long and hard about the best and fairest way to assess our applicants for JCG and we have decided to keep the procedure we used for entry September 2021.

Students will not be invited to take an entrance examination. The decision for admission will be based on the primary school's reference, including recently sat CATs data, and the student’s attitude to learning. All students with a CATs Mean score of 100+ will be considered for entry. The final decision will be based on the CATs score plus information contained within the Primary School reference. Please note that the reference remains confidential between the Primary school and JCG until the decision by JCG is made. Any student with less than 100+ Mean CATs score can opt to sit an Entrance Assessment if they wish to continue with their application. Any student who did not sit the recent Year 6 CATs tests will be asked to sit an Entrance Assessment instead.

I know that many students will have been preparing for the entrance exam, however, I hope you understand and agree with our decision to change our approach this year. Our decision was very much based on what we thought was best for our young people.

At the time of writing, we still have a small number of places available on our Year 5 Experience Days, which take place in June. Please contact Mrs Nicola Hughes if you wish to take one of these places – [email protected].

Please do contact myself or Kate Robertson, our Registrar, if you have any questions.

Yours,

Mr Carl Howarth

Principal