11 Plus Exams Forum

My child is due to sit the 11+ in October. In a passing conversation with the head teacher I mentioned that I would not bring her in if she had a cold. However, the reply was to bring her in anyway because if it came to appeal, her health on the day would be taken into consideration.

Is this true?

Thank you for any advice.

think you will find the head is wrong about that - am pretty sure that saying they were ill on the day is no help at appeal .. parents are advised not to take them if they are ill.


http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/sites/faq/ite ... flush=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ETA a bit from the FAQ on here:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b25" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

B25. The main argument in my case will be that my son was not well when he sat the 11+.

Unless your son became unexpectedly unwell during the test, and told the teacher supervising, then this will not impress. If you decided to send your child in to school, the assumption has to be that he was in a fit state.

Too often panels hear the argument “With the benefit of hindsight we shouldn’t have allowed him to take the test, but he pleaded with us not to postpone it. He desperately wanted to be with his friends. We had to let him do what he wanted.”

A child who is not fit to attend school must NOT be allowed to sit the test. If parents want to abrogate their responsibilities, and then appeal on this basis, they should not be surprised if a panel perceives this to be an abuse of the system.

Since when is it acceptable to have a day off school because of a cold?

Oh, I know, lets just choose the day the child is feeling at his/her best and then take the test then.

How many would choose a day just after the majority of his/her friends had sat the test and could remember the types of questions that were going to come up?

Yes, if your child is really unwell then they shouldn't do the test, but for a cold? After signaling to the school in advance that you were going to do this?

Cynical?

I reckon "colds" vary - many times people can plough on and work / study normally but if they are struggling with a fever / congestion and counting the minutes to the next dose of analgesia / decongestant etc etc it is pretty awful.

I have some sympathy with ian35mm's view here, and reckon that 'a cold', which at least one of my kids seems to have at any given time between October and March, would not generally make a child unwell enough to miss school and therefore, an exam. DD sat GCSEs last year and was pretty poorly for a couple of them, but missing them wasn't an option.

I also think that if it came to an appeal for an unsuccessful candidate, a pretty dim view would be taken of 'a cold' or attempts to make said cold look like a fulminant chest infection by exaggerating the extent of the child's malaise. Plus I don't think it is great to teach a child that any minor ailment is an excuse for missing school and therefore later, work.

Of course, if a child does indeed have a fulminant chest infection, or anything feverish, infectious or involving vomiting, they shouldn't be in school.

Surely you just have to judge it on the day and if you feel they are ill for whatever reason and that their level of illness will significantly affect their performance then don't take them to school because of the reasons mentioned above the difference is that for a normal day with nothing much important on then even if they are equivalently poorly you might think they may as well be at school as at home, but 11 plus day is a special circumstance.

If a child is genuinely ill on the day are they able to take the test at another time? Also, is a doctors certificate required? How does one go about getting a doctors certificate if the child is ill on the weekend of the exams as most doctors are closed? Is he likely to believe you on a Monday morning if the child is recovering?

I think the idea is that if you think that the child is so ill that it would affect their performance then you are supposed to keep them off as they won't accept their feeling ill as a mitigation for unexpectedly poor performance.

My experience was this; my daughter really was very unwell on the day of the second test. Ill enough that I would not have sent her to school. But I had a real dilemma, my DD is very anxious by nature and I strongly suspected that she would be much more comfortable and relaxed doing the test with everyone else at the same time in the same room etc. I was very concerned that having to test separately in the head's office would completely freak her out and overwhelm her. I did not share this worry with her at all.

But I felt I had no choice, I kept her home. And, lo and behold she completely lost it on the second test doing it on her own in the head's office - she told me that she felt totally overwhelmed, dissolved into tears and missed out whole sections having gotten into an anxious tizz (and this was what everyone agreed was a significantly easier test). The scores bore this out, an easy pass on the first test and failed the second.

So, if you think your child would be badly affected by testing separately then be careful. The same goes for extra time. An extra 5 minutes really might not be worth it if they then are tested separately and that adversely affects them.

Pumpkin Pie wrote:If a child is genuinely ill on the day are they able to take the test at another time? Also, is a doctors certificate required? How does one go about getting a doctors certificate if the child is ill on the weekend of the exams as most doctors are closed? Is he likely to believe you on a Monday morning if the child is recovering?

you can always discuss it with an out of hours doctor (signed an out of hours doctor)

Agree totally with Drummer.

My son broke his arm (his writing hand) the day before his 11+ exam a few years ago, on balance we still decided he would be better taking the test with his friends the next day rather than delay it and probably get him to take it alone in the head teacher's office. The school made it clear that we would not be able to use it as an excuse in case of appeal even though he filled in the answer sheet with his other hand due to his writing hand aching. Thankfully he passed and got a higher score on this paper than when he was fighting fit the following week and used to the plaster cast. It was my call and I would certainly have done the same thing if my child had a heavy cold.

I think most children would be happier taking it with their classmates on the correct day then having to wait and take it at a later date. I must admit though that I still believe children can remember many of the harder vocab. questions and would happily tell their friends the questions so it might be advantageous to some to play the sick card.