11 Plus Exams Forum

Our son has just failed his 11 plus by one point!
he scored 120 and 114 our main concern is that he had a big problem with his teacher (who has now left his school). We have flagged the concerns with the school and had several meetings regarding this.
We felt he was not producing what we knew he was capable of.
This has been reinforced by the improvment in the last few months (with a new teacher) he has a reading age of 14 and half and a spelling age of 13 and is well above his age group for all subjects.
The school are not prepared to support an appeal.
There are also extenuating circumstances including his mother and sole carer being attacked and assaulted earler this year which affected him deeply taking on a protective role.
He also met the school nurse after this incident and she discribed him as detached and distant.
He has sice revisited the same nurse who now states that he is a happy normal boy who loves going to school and enjoys going there.
Do you think we have good grounds for an appeal? I f so on what grounds? what is the best way of approaching this?
Please help
Neil

Dear Neil
Firstly, so sorry to hear of your news - what a dreadful time for you all.
You have certainly come to the right place for advice. I am not the right person for it - but tomorrow I am sure that someone will answer your query for you and point you in the right direction.
I am sure you have good grounds for appeal and good luck to you all; I hope things work out.
USA

Dear Neil

Can you prove that your son's routine work has improved with the new teacher in the last few months?

A single test is not reliable. Do you have more than one result showing a very high reading age?

Why is the school not prepared to support you?
What do they expect your son's KS2 level to be?
Was he above average at KS1?

Will the school nurse confirm in writing what you say about the effect of the incident?

It's usually worth appealing with a score of 120, but have a look at the "Letter of Appeal for Mary" elsewhere on this page. What sort of letter could you put together?

Best wishes

Etienne
Thank you for your reply.
The school had decided not to support my son long before he even took his 11 plus.
His sat 1 was average
The school are not helping at all with his prospective sat 2 scores our main cause for concern is that the head was completely unawere that he had improved so much! the problem is they had made their desicion not to support.
this might be due to the fact we highlighted that he was being held back on a regular basis.
I have requested evidence of his improvement 3 times now with no sucess, he has taken two tests this term both of which he has excelled, again support and help is very limited.
The school nurse has agreed to make a statment supporting the improvement.
His current teacher will also support his appeal as long as the school permits(she belives he will benifit from grammer school education).
We will construct the appeal letter as soon as we have the evidance from the school I just hope we get it in time.
do you think we should appeal just on extenuating circumstances given the absence of academic evidance?

Dear Neil

With a score of 120, the support from the nurse, and your description of the school's attitude, you might just have enough.

A letter of support from the class teacher would be a big help. And, even though the head may not be supporting you, you might find one or two points in his statement (e.g. test results) which you could use to your advantage.

You might also wish to consider the possibility of getting an EdPsych assessment. It would be expensive, and might not give you the results you want. But if it did, you would have some extra independent evidence. (EdPsych reports have been discussed in some of the other threads - you'll have to hunt around to find them.)

Regards