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What kind of questions do I ask at the appeal

Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 1:51 pm
by cassidy
Hi,

We are appealing for my daughter and we live in the SW Herts area. I was wondering if anybody had any advice on what type of questions I should be asking the appeal panel and the HT.

My appeal is coming up soon and I am feeling quite stressed as what to ask.

Cassidy :?

Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 3:18 pm
by PJ
I think it all depends on what you want to achieve through your questions.

So, for example, if you want to stress to the panel that they have taken students over PAN in previous years without prejudice I would ask:

Could the School confirm that the Self Evaluation Form for the School indicated that in 2009 there were Y pupils in year nine (Z over the PAN) .

We appreciate it must be very challenging for the school and careful lesson preparation is needed, but is there any evidence to suggest that the education of the students in year group 9, where there are Z student over PAN, has been prejudiced?

What evidence has been introduced to satisfy the panel regarding the impact of one additional child on staff resources, time, attention and also equipment?

These questions have been borrowed from other threads :)

Its always useful to ask questions where you know the answer :D just to reinforce the point you want to make - so make sure that you have an evidenced answer to hand. I wouldn't recommend asking a question where the answer could come as a nasty surprise!

Oh - one of the key lessons that I learnt in my panel (to my cost) is that even if the answers seem self evident - repeat them in your summary.

More importantly keep your answers to the questions you are asked short and to the point - give them the basic information they ask for in a polite way and evidence all your answers. Oh and don't be led by the panel.

You will be nervous - so keeping to a script of questions and thinking about potential areas where they will question you really will help out on the day!

We had one question where they asked about a document - the chair suggested we may have misplaced it (with a benign wave of his hand) then in the notes we found out that he dismissed this as an inadequate excuse - highly unlikely he said. I almost choked on my coffee when I read that! So stay focused - stick with your script and you will be fine :)

I am fairly new at this, therefore, this is my viewpoint. I am sure that other will come in with more detailed answers.