This Quibans is built around a news article from the Cambridge News headlined: “The top 10 hardest primary schools to enrol your children into in Cambridgeshire”.
Unusually, this Quibans starts with a discussion. The article will appear later.
School A has 30 places and 44 applications.
School B has 25 places and 38 applications.
Which school is harder to get a place at?
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School A: 14 pupils were declined.
School B: 13 pupils were declined.
So School A is harder to get a place at.
But:
31.8% of applicants to School A were disappointed.
34.2% of applicants to School B were disappointed.
So School B is harder to get a place at.
We could also work out that for each place at School A there were 1.47 applications and for each place at School B there were 1.52 applications. This means that School B had to disappoint a larger proportion of their applicants.
Which is the most appropriate version to use?
Here is the data from the article, with the schools listed
in alphabetical order. Rank them
according to each method.
|
|
Applications |
Places |
|
Fourfields Community Primary School |
93 |
60 |
|
Godmanchester Bridge Academy |
38 |
25 |
|
Middlefield Primary Academy |
44 |
30 |
|
Park Lane Primary and Nursery School |
75 |
60 |
|
Peckover Primary School |
76 |
60 |
|
Ridgefield Primary School |
50 |
30 |
|
Spinney Primary School |
74 |
30 |
|
St Alban’s Primary School |
58 |
30 |
|
Trumpington Park Primary |
80 |
60 |
|
University of Cambridge Primary School |
151 |
90 |
Which school is the hardest to get into?
Here is the article:
The
top 10 hardest primary schools to enrol your children into in Cambridgeshire
The high number of applications these schools received to the places
that were available, made them harder to gain a place.
20 NOV 2021
University of Cambridge Primary School, in
Cambridge, had the highest number of first preference applications to the
number of spaces it had available for children due to start in September 2021.
The hardest primary schools to gain a place in Cambridgeshire have been revealed.
Primary school preference data from Cambridgeshire County Council shows which schools were the most popular with parents and had more first place applications than spaces available.
In Cambridgeshire, the University of Cambridge Primary School is the
hardest school to enrol a child at.
It received 151 first place preferences for children to start in
September 2021, while the school only had an intake of 90 spaces available.
Top 10 primary schools that were the hardest to get children into in
Cambridgeshire
1.
University of Cambridge Primary School,
Cambridge
Rated outstanding by Ofsted, the school received 151 first preference
applications, while it had 90 spaces available.
2.
Spinney Primary School, Cherry Hinton,
Cambridge
Also rated outstanding by Ofsted, the school received 74 first preference
applications, while it only had 30 places available.
3.
Fourfields Community Primary School,
Yaxley
Rated good by Ofsted, the primary school received 93 first preference
applications, while it had 60 places available.
4.
St Alban’s Primary School, Cambridge
Rated outstanding by Ofsted, this primary school received 58 first preference
applications from parents, and had only 30 spaces available.
5.
Ridgefield Primary School, Cambridge
Rated good by Ofsted, it received 50 first preference applications, and had 30
places available.
6.
Trumpington Park Primary, Trumpington,
Cambridge
This primary received 80 first preference applications, and could offer 60
places.
7.
Peckover Primary School, Wisbech
Rated good by Ofsted, this primary school received 76 first preference
applications and had 60 spaces available.
8.
Park Lane Primary and Nursery School,
Whittlesey
Rated good by Ofsted, the school received 75 first preference applications, and
had 60 places available.
9.
Middlefield Primary Academy, St Neots
Rated outstanding by Ofsted, the primary school had 44 first preference
applications, and had 30 spaces available.
10. Godmanchester
Bridge Academy, Godmanchester
Rated good by Ofsted, this school received 38 first preference applications and
had 25 places available.
Here is my table:
|
|
Applications |
Places |
number declined |
rank based on number |
%age declined |
%age accepted |
Applicants per place |
rank based on %age |
|
University of Cambridge Primary School |
151 |
90 |
61 |
1 |
40.4% |
59.6% |
1.68 |
3 |
|
Spinney Primary School |
74 |
30 |
44 |
2 |
59.5% |
40.5% |
2.47 |
1 |
|
Fourfields Community Primary School |
93 |
60 |
33 |
3 |
35.5% |
64.5% |
1.55 |
5 |
|
St Alban’s Primary School |
58 |
30 |
28 |
4 |
48.3% |
51.7% |
1.93 |
2 |
|
Ridgefield Primary School |
50 |
30 |
20 |
5 |
40.0% |
60.0% |
1.67 |
4 |
|
Trumpington Park Primary |
80 |
60 |
20 |
6 |
25.0% |
75.0% |
1.33 |
8 |
|
Peckover Primary School |
76 |
60 |
16 |
7 |
21.1% |
78.9% |
1.27 |
9 |
|
Park Lane Primary and Nursery School |
75 |
60 |
15 |
8 |
20.0% |
80.0% |
1.25 |
10 |
|
Middlefield Primary Academy |
44 |
30 |
14 |
9 |
31.8% |
68.2% |
1.47 |
7 |
|
Godmanchester Bridge Academy |
38 |
25 |
13 |
10 |
34.2% |
65.8% |
1.52 |
6 |
My favourite column is “applicants per place”. What will happen if you find the reciprocal
of the numbers in that column? (1
divided by each of the numbers)
If you decided to use the percentage ranking version, why
might Park Lane not actually be number 10 in the county?
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(Because other schools that don’t appear in the article
might, using the percentage version, be in the top 10.)
Source: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/top-10-hardest-primary-schools-22203950
