Selection review chances of success

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bubblehead
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:25 pm

Selection review chances of success

Post by bubblehead »

Hi, this is my first time posting on here. I have learnt a lot already but would really appreciate any feedback on the chances of our dd's selection review being a success.

My daughter took the 11+ for Ripon Grammar School and missed out by 2 points (208/210)
Without going into too much detail she has a serious medical condition that has caused her significant problems in the last year. Her condition mainly affects her lungs and she has had several, two week courses of intravenous antibiotics over the last year and her different treatments can at times take up to four hours per day. The last course of iv antibiotics finished a couple of weeks before the 11+ exams and did not improve things as they should have and she was left feeling tired and run down. On both of the 11+ exam days she went into the exam after a poor nights sleep and she came out of the exam complaining of a headache and feeling very tired. All of these details can be confirmed by her specialist consultant.
I have spoken to my daughters head teacher about appealing and she is more than happy to support the appeal but as we are OoC the headteacher has never done this before.
I am not sure if the academic evidence is good enough for my daughter, but feel this is also down to a difficult year.
She has been predicted level 5 in Maths and Science for the end of year 6 (not sure of English). Her reading age is at almost 2 years ahead. Her head teacher is supportive and she only missed out by 2 points.

Do you think we have good enough evidence to succed at selection review?

I would really appreciate any advice on this as I don't know anybody who has gone through this process in our area.

Thanks

bubbleheadx
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by Etienne »

Welcome, bubblehead.

Difficult to answer your question because each admission authority that operates a review process has its own way of doing things. For example, there's at least one authority (not yours) that will not take into account extenuating circumstances at all!

As far as I'm aware, N. Yorks will consider any relevant evidence. What I can't be sure about is whether going for a review would then limit your rights at an independent appeal, so you do need to establish what their policy is.
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I could give you my own view of the academic evidence, but would need to know much more. Is there any indication of the sort of level 5 the school is expecting for Maths (5a, 5b, or 5c) and for teacher assessed Science? And what about English?

Have there been any optional SATs tests? What about academic evidence prior to year 5 - for example, what results were achieved at KS1? Looking at school reports in years 3-4, is there any mention of high achievement?

Does the school have the results of any CATs or NFER reasoning tests?

Has the school setted for maths or English at any point in time, and if so, which set was your daughter in?

It's good that the head is being supportive, but I would have thought the school would need to provide as much academic evidence as possible.
Etienne
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by hermanmunster »

Hi Bubblehead, welcome to the forum and I am sorry to hear about your daughter's experience with the exam and her illness.

Etienne is right about having to establish the local policy and I am sure North Yorks are keen to look at extenuating circumstances - I am in Skipton (same system) and they are well aware of the problems that some people have.

Just reading your message though it seems that you actually have to have a review for non qualification and then may well have to appeal for over subscription as Ripon has a larger catchment and for some unexplained reason a lower pass mark hence nearly all the places go to catchment or just outside.

Snowdrops is out resident expert :? :) :roll: on oversub for Ripon, though in the end the waiting list came through for her DD.... nevertheless she has lots of answers.... I'll pm her
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by Snowdrops »

Hi Bubblehead and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear you have to go through this, it's not a pleasant experience for anyone.

You may or may not need to make two appeals.

Firstly will be the appeal on qualification and then possibly for over-subscription. I'm not too sure how the LEA deal with OoC non qual appeals so you will need to check this with them, they may do them early or, being out of catchment may make you wait until after allocations day - possibly a more difficult scenario for you. Ring them up, it's the quickest way and they're very helpful, then come back and let us know so we can discuss the way forward.

If they do an early review and you're successful you may then need to do another appeal for oversubscription (this I know about :cry: :cry: ) all depending how far out you are? We live on the very edge of Harrogate and made it in by the skin of our teeth (literally) pm me your location if you don't wish to disclose it here. Looking at appeal numbers you would have a 1 in 4/5 chance of success, depending on how good a case you put together.
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bubblehead
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:25 pm

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by bubblehead »

Thank you all for your messages.

I am going to try and find out some more info and then come back to you. DD has to go for a short stay in hospital, so I will hopefully get back next week.

Thanks again. Your help really is appreciated! I feel lucky to have found this forum :D

bubbleheadxx
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by hermanmunster »

Good luck Bubblehead and hope you daughter gets on OK in hospital.

Sounds like you need to get some bits clarified about appeals and reviews and then collecting the info!

See you back on the forum

Herman
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by Snowdrops »

Hope dd feels better soon.

Get busy doing what you need to do (time is getting very short!) and then come back and let us know how it's going - we're all here for you.
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bubblehead
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:25 pm

Re: Selection review chances of success

Post by bubblehead »

I have been very busy gathering as much information as possible.

I phoned the LEA and spoke to a couple of very helpful people. They told me that they definately do take extentuating circumstances into account. I was told that I would be asked why my daughter sat the test if she was unwell. I explained that there was no guarantee that she would have felt better a week later or on any other day due to the nature of her medical condition. I was told that this was a good explanation and would probably be accepted.
I have also got a letter from dd consultant saying that she was unwell on the dates of the test. I am also going to ask them to write additional information about how her condition has affected her over the past year. All quite strong mitigating circumstances.
The LEA also said that even if we fail on selection test review, we can still appeal for a place.

I met with the headteacher the other day who has given me more info of academic evidence and is going to provide me with more by e-mail soon.
DD is predicted Level 5 for maths, english and Science. Headteacher says she won't provide sub levels as at the moment they are only predicting 5c's. She is going to mention that the last couple of months dd's performance has improved greatly (along with her health!)
Recently retested reading age is 13 1/2. (She is 10 years 4 months).
She is in top groups for maths and English.
I am not sure what the tests are called but she said that some tests they do with standardized scores are very good. (She is going to give me more info on this)

So things are looking at bit more promising than I thought. But I still have a few questions.

I have copies of most reports. However, even the ones which rank her above average in some subjects have no real mention of great ability. Non of the reports put her above average in all subjects, but they do vary from one year to the next which subjects she has done very well in.
Her year 3 & 4 reports aren't great, but during those years I had several meetings with the headteacher regarding my concerns of the standard of teaching. Ofsted agreed with my concerns when the inspected during year 4!
Year 5 report pretty much said she is capable of more, but they felt tiredness was causing her to not achieve what she was capable of. Despite this her results were average or above average in all areas.
So the question is do I include reports or not?
The headteacher is going to provide as much info as possible, so I am not sure if it is necessary.

I would really appreciate any advice about this or anything else that may be useful.

Thanks x x x
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