Briefing on Secondary School Places Allocation SSPA System

1
Briefing on Secondary School Places
Allocation(SSPA) System
2
Requirements for Participation

• Being a Hong Kong resident
• Studying in a primary school participating in the
  SSPA System
• Never been allocated a Secondary 1 (S1) place

3
Two Stages

• Discretionary Places (DP)
• Central Allocation (CA)

4
Discretionary Places (DP)

• All secondary schools participating in the SSPA
  System are allowed to reserve not more than 30
  of their S1 places as DP
• Application is not subject to restriction on
  districts
• Each student may apply to NOT MORE THAN TWO
  participating secondary schools, otherwise
  his/her chance of acquiring a DP will be forfeited

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Admission Criteria and Weightings

• Schools must make public their admission criteria
  and weightings, and adhere to these criteria in
  student admission
• Criteria should be fair, just, open and
  educationally sound
• Schools may arrange interviews, but no written
  tests should be conducted
• If interviews are required, schools may interview
  all or some of the applicants. This will be
  announced in the schools application notes

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Application Form for S1 Discretionary Place
(Sample)
Two Application Forms to each student (only
applicable for applying to participating schools,
not applicable for applying to non-participating
schools)
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• Parents should write the name of the school they
  wish to apply for according to their order of
  preference in all parts of the Application Form

• Parents should tear off the part containing the
  order of preference before submitting the
  application (There is no need for parents to
  indicate their order of preference to the
  school.)

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• Parents should submit the remaining three parts
  of the Application Form intact to the school
  direct. They should bring along the original of
  their childrens identity document for checking
  by the secondary school

• If the information provided is in order, schools
  should enter the school code and school chop
  (showing the name of the school) in the spaces
  provided in all parts of the Application Form

• Parents will be given the Parents Copy as
  acknowledgement

Once submitted, the Application Form cannot be
cancelled or retrieved and no change can be made
to the order of school preference
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Allocation of DP
Submit only ONE school choice
Scenario 1
Successful
First choice allocated
First choice allocated
Vacancies arise
Reserve
Scenario 2
Participate in CA
No vacancies arise
Not accepted
Scenario 3
Participate in CA
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Submit TWO school choices
First choice Successful
First choice allocated
Scenario 1
Second choice Successful
First choice Successful
First choice allocated
Scenario 2
Second choice Reserve
First choice Successful
First choice allocated
Scenario 3
Second choice Not accepted
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First choice Not accepted
Scenario 4
Second choice allocated
Second choice Successful
First choice Not accepted
Second choice allocated
Scenario 5
Second choice Reserve
Participate in CA
First choice allocated
First choice Reserve
Second choice allocated
Scenario 6
Second choice Successful
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First choice allocated
Vacancies arise
First choice Reserve
Second choice checked
No vacancies arise
Scenario 7
Second choice allocated
Vacancies arise
Second choice Reserve
Participate in CA
No vacancies arise
First choice allocated
Vacancies arise
First choice Reserve
Participate in CA
Scenario 8
No vacancies arise
Second choice Not accepted
First choice Not accepted
Participate in CA
Scenario 9
Second choice Not accepted
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Central Allocation (CA)

• After the deduction of repeater and discretionary
  places, the remaining places in a secondary
  school are used for CA
• 10 for Part A Unrestricted School Choices
  (choose one to three schools from any school
  nets)
• Remaining 90 for Part B Restricted School
  Choices (choose a maximum of 30 schools in the
  school net to which a student belongs)

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Example on Calculation of S1 Places
While 2 repeater places will be reserved per
class at S1 level, the maximum repetition rate at
the whole school level should not exceed 5 of
the total enrolment of the school
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Demarcation of School Nets
In line with district administration boundaries,
the whole territory is divided into 18 school
nets for the allocation of restricted school
choices in Part B of CA. The school net to which
a student belongs is determined by the physical
location of the primary school he/she attends.
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Schools in Own District and Other Districts

• To ensure all the nets have sufficient S1 places
  to meet the demand for CA, each school net
  comprises
• participating primary and secondary schools
  located in own district and
• secondary schools in other districts providing
  school places for the net
• (secondary schools and school places from
  other districts may vary from year to year )

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Criteria for Allocation
Part A Unrestricted School Choices
Part B Restricted School Choices

• Allocation Band(Territory Band)
• Parental choice
• (a maximum of 3)
• Random number

• Allocation Band(Net Band)
• Parental choice
• (a maximum of 30)
• Random number

The random number is generated by the computer
before CA. It is used to determine the order of
allocation within the same allocation band. If
the demand for school places of a certain
secondary school exceeds the supply, the student
possessing a smaller random number within the
same allocation band will be allocated a place
first.
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Internal Assessments (IA)

• Schools submit students IA at the end of P5,
  both in mid-year and at the end of P6
• A students marks for all subjects are
  standardised with weightings and added together
  to arrive at a total. The marks of all students
  will be put into an order of merit to determine
  their positions in the school
• The Pre-Secondary 1 Hong Kong Attainment Test is
  used as the scaling tool
• Students get their allocation bands according to
  their scaled IA results

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Illustration on Division of Allocation Bands
School Net X
School Net Y
Territory Band 1
Net Band 1
Students scaled IA results are put into an order
of merit
Net Band 2
Territory Band 2
Net Band 3
Territory Band 3
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Secondary One Choice of Schools Form (Sample)

• Irrespective of whether application for DP has
  been made, the Secondary One Choice of Schools
  Form duly completed should be submitted in early
  May
• Computer will first process school choices in
  Part A. If students cannot be allocated, their
  choices in Part B will be processed
• Parents can repeat the same school choice in both
  Part A and Part B if it is in their childs
  school net
• DO NOT repeat the choices in the same part
• DO NOT choose only a few favourite schools in
  Part B. This will not increase the chance of the
  student being allocated to the school

Part A are Unrestricted School Choices (Parents
should refer to the Handbook for Unrestricted
School Choices, choose a maximum of 3 secondary
schools)
Part B are Restricted School Choices within a
students own net (Parents should refer to the
Secondary School List of the net to which your
child belongs, choose a maximum of 30 secondary
schools)
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Reference Materials for Parents Secondary School
Profiles

• Published by the Committee on Home-School
  Co-operation
• Include information of participating and
  non-participating secondary schools of all
  districts in the 2008/09 school year (including
  class structures and subjects offered)
• Chinese version to be distributed to parents of
  P6 students in mid December through primary
  schools
• Chinese and English versions to be uploaded at
  the same time onto EDBs Homepage
  (www.edb.gov.hk) (Choose Home gt Kindergarten,
  Primary and Secondary Education gt Education
  System gt School Places Allocation Systems gt
  Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System)

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Reference Materials for Parents Handbook for
Application for Secondary 1 Discretionary Places

• Published by the School Places Allocation (SPA)
  Section of EDB
• Include information of participating secondary
  schools in all districts
• To be distributed to all participating primary
  schools in mid December. Parents may borrow the
  Handbook from the primary schools
• Parents may also visit EDBs Homepage
  (www.edb.gov.hk) (Choose Home gt Kindergarten,
  Primary and Secondary Education gt Education
  System gt School Places Allocation Systems gt
  Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System)
  or call EDBs 24-hour Automatic Telephone Enquiry
  System (Tel [phone]) (Press 2 (English) gt 5
  (fax service) gt 04 ( SSPA System School Lists)
  to obtain the lists

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Reference Materials for Parents Secondary School
Lists and Handbook for Unrestricted School
Choices

• Published by the SPA Section of EDB
• The Secondary School List of a school net, which
  contains information of secondary schools located
  in the district and schools in other districts
  providing school places for the net, will be
  distributed to parents of P6 students through the
  primary schools in late April. The Lists will
  also be uploaded onto EDBs Homepage
  (www.edb.gov.hk) (Choose Home gt Kindergarten,
  Primary and Secondary Education gt Education
  System gt School Places Allocation Systems gt
  Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System)
• The Handbook for Unrestricted School Choices,
  which contains information of all participating
  secondary schools, will be distributed to all
  participating primary schools. Parents may
  borrow the Handbook from the schools. They may
  visit EDBs Homepage (www.edb.gov.hk) or call
  EDBs 24-hour Automatic Telephone Enquiry System
  (Tel [phone]) (Press 2 (English) gt 5 (fax
  service) gt 04 ( SSPA System School Lists) to
  obtain the lists

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Feeder and Nominated Schools

• After the deduction of repeater and discretionary
  places, a feeder secondary school may reserve a
  maximum of 85 of the remaining places for its
  feeder primary school(s), and a nominated
  secondary school may reserve a maximum of 25 of
  the remaining places for its nominated primary
  school(s)
• P6 students of a feeder or nominated primary
  school should be in Net Band 1 or 2 and choose
  the feeder/nominated secondary school as their
  first choice within the net they belong to for
  the Restricted School Choices
• Some schools may accept students of all three Net
  Bands

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Through-train (TT) Schools

• TT secondary schools, in principle, are required
  to reserve not less than 15 of their total
  number of S1 places, after the deduction of
  repeater places, for admitting students of other
  primary schools
• After admitting all P6 students of the TT primary
  school, half of the remaining places or 30 of
  the total number of S1 places (whichever is
  smaller) will be reserved as DP
• After the deduction of the number of P6 students
  proceeding to the linked secondary school, DP and
  repeater places, all remaining places will be
  used for CA

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S1 Admission Arrangements for P6 Students
Studying in TT Schools
Proceeds to the linked secondary school direct
OR
A P6 Student of a TT School
Applies for S1 places of non-participating DSS
schools and/or Applies for DP of participating
schools and/or Participates in CA
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Central AllocationAllocation Process

• The Unrestricted School Choices in Part A will be
  processed first, to be followed by the Restricted
  School Choices in Part B

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Part A Unrestricted School Choices

• After processing the choices of all Territory
  Band 1 students, the computer will not
  immediately process the choices of those who are
  not allocated a place in Part A.
• The computer will continue to process the choices
  of students in Territory Band 2 and finally those
  of Territory Band 3 students
• After processing the school choices of all
  students in Part A, the computer will proceed to
  process the school choices in Part B

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Part B Restricted School Choices

• After all the students in Net Band 1 have been
  allocated school places, the computer will follow
  the same procedure to process the choices of
  students in Net Band 2 and finally those of Net
  Band 3 students

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2007/2009 Schedule
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Late Oct 2008 Distribution of Information
Leaflets and VCDs on the SSPA System Mid
Dec 2008 Distribution of Application Form
for S1 Discretionary Place and related

documents 2 to 19 Jan 2009 All
participating secondary schools accept DP
applications within the
same period Mid March 2009 All
participating secondary schools
collect the Rank
Order Lists, which
are compiled based on students
scaled IA results at the end of P5
and in mid-year of
P6

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Late April 2009 Distribution of
Secondary One Choice of Schools
Form and related documents Early
May 2009 Submission of Secondary One
Choice of Schools Form by the
parents through primary schools 7 July
2009 Release of allocation results 9 and 10
July 2009 Students register with the
secondary schools allocated 14
July 2009 Pre-Secondary 1
Hong Kong Attainment Tests

Note The date for primary schools to collect
the allocation results is 6 July. If EDB has
announced the closure of schools in the morning
on that day owing to the issuing of the Tropical
Cyclone Warning Signal Pre-No.8/No. 8 or above,
the collection of allocation results will be
postponed to 7 July. The announcement of
allocation results will be postponed from 7 July
to 8 July accordingly. If in the morning on the
day of the announcement of allocation results
(i.e. 7 July), EDB has announced the closure of
schools owing to the issuing of the Tropical
Cyclone Warning Signal Pre-No.8/No. 8 or above or
Red or Black Rainstorm Warning Signal, the
announcement of allocation results will be
postponed to the next school day.
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Enquiries

• Telephone
• General Enquiries 2832 7740 or 28327700
• Address
• Room 203, 2nd Floor, Lui Kee Education Services
  Centre, 269 Queens Road East, Wan Chai, Hong
  Kong
• Website
• Education Bureau (www.edb.gov.hk) Home gt
  Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary Education gt
  Education System gt School Places Allocation
  Systems gt Secondary School Places Allocation
  (SSPA) System