11 Plus Exams Forum

We are appealing in an attempt to get our daughter into Lincolnshire grammar school.

The school in question was substantially oversubscribed this year, partly, in my opinion, because the 11+ results were made available before the deadline for the CAF.

However, according to the School Admissions Code of Practice 2003, the results should NOT be available before the deadline for the CAF.

The new Code of Practice, which came into effect in February 2007, states the opposite, but this wasn't applicable in October last year when the results were posted.

Had the Code of Practice been followed, we believe there would have been substantialy less people placing the school as their first choice.

Does this sound like reasonable grounds for appeal?

If the school in question is Bourne Grammar, it has been oversubscribed for the past several years. The overall population of schoolchildren in the area has risen steadily and the the surplus capacity for secondary school places is very low. The non selective school in the town is oversubscribed as well.

I think that most people were happy to know the results before making a choice. Yes, it jumped the gun a bit on the Code of Practice, but I do not think that it would make very much of an impact in an appeal.

For a start I do not think appeal panels are supposed to consider local arrangements for admissions in general terms (Etienne is probably the person who would know best about this). Secondly it would be very difficult to prove that this had disadvantaged your individual child in any way, or that it was unfair in any sense. I am assuming that your child missed out on a place on distance criteria. I think that the LA thinking would be that the new system allows places to be allocated more fairly according to the school's admission policy with people able to express their genuine preferences rather than having to place a lower choice first "just in case" and then make a hurried new application after allocations.

I do not think, therefore, that it will help your appeal case much to argue this point. However, I am quite ready to be corrected if others think differently.

Alex wrote:I do not think, therefore, that it will help your appeal case much to argue this point. However, I am quite ready to be corrected if others think differently.

Like Alex, I am doubtful about this. Strictly speaking, you would have to show not only that the authority had made a mistake in its admission arrangements, but that you were therefore denied a place to which you would otherwise have been entitled. Whether or not you have been denied a place for this reason seems somewhat speculative.

The current code of practice has no legal force (LAs should "have regard to it"), and it is not clear to me whether an Adjudicator has ever made any ruling on this matter in relation to Lincolnshire.

I think you could quite reasonably ask the IAP to consider whether the admission arrangements have been properly applied, bearing in mind section 7.3 of the current code of practice, but I would then move swiftly on and focus on your case for prejudice.

The current code of practice has no legal force

Ahh. That's what I've been trying to find out. If this is the case, then obviously it won't form a major part of our appeal. It was a long shot anyway.

Thankfully, we've got oher stuff to focus on.

Thanks for the advice.