Help with Trafford ( AGGS ) appeal for oversubscription

[eacb.2]

Thanks - have spoken to the schools admissions secretary whom I agree is very helpful. Given our daughters place on the waiting list though and our 100m out of catchment I'm not holding my breath though! What's really frustrating is the fact that daughter no. 2 did so much better than our 1st in the exam. Good luck with your appeal. Do you know where you are on the WL ?

[MrsB]

We had considered using a company as we thought they may present our arguments more clearly at appeal and also be more able to counter argue if required due to their experience of the subject.

See:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeals/general#a11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The key to presenting is to know your case really well - what you are saying and why. Prepare a logical structure for your key points and sketch out what you will say for each point. Then cut the words you don't need - be really ruthless about it and cut cut cut. You don't need to do anything special to make the key points shine - just say them in plain English, and don't over egg them, or crowd them out with verbiage, legalese or weak points. Rehearse what you plan to say but don't worry about being word perfect. There is a phrase "be brief, be brilliant and be gone". My view is don't worry about the "brilliant" because you will have most impact if you are "brief and gone".

In terms of answering questions, the same applies - if you are really on top of your material, you will be able to deal with questions. Answer them with a straight bat, and if you don't have a killer answer, it should be fine to say "I do understand that point but nevertheless we feel x..."

[eacb.2]

Any idea how I can get hold of exam results for both AGGS and our local schools for the last at least 5 years in a format that makes sense?
Also does anyone know if AGGs has any expansions planned or has expanded over the last couple of years?

[TraffordMum]

AGGS has its results on the website. Front page - it's one of the tabs on the right hand side.

Have you tried googling league tables? To make AGGS look as good as possible (not that it needs any help) try and find one that doesn't use as its headline figure points scored at GCSE because an AGGS girl only does 9.

Re expansion do you mean buildings? They opened the revamped Fairlie and Breeze Hill sites in autumn 2011, which has certainly increased classroom capacity, but at the same time they got rid of the temporary classrooms at Fairlie and up at the 6th form centre (remember those green workmen's hut things?) that were covering the lack of space while the works took place. The new labs were opened when my eldest started at the school, so 2007 for those.