11 Plus Exams Forum

A big thank you for all those who have posted and provided my wife and I with much valued information for our successful appeal. I have posted more information under Gloucestershire for anybody who wants it.

Can I wish all of you the best in the future?


Thank you

We today have also had a postive outcome to our appeal. While I am very happy for our daughter, I take little or no joy from the situation.

The selective school my daughter wished to attend required 105 in both tests, she scored 104 in the second test and was originally deemed as being not upto the required standard.

After the second round of school place allocations, the school she wanted to attend had 91 pupils. The number the school wishes to accept is 116 but the number based on past years is around 122. Therefore, this year the school had a short fall of approximately 30 pupils.

The school received a list of approximatley 28 girls who had scored 100 or more in the second test, with my daughter being in the top seven girls who all scored 104.

In past years the LEA had operated a border zone, whereby children who were very close to the pass mark were looked at and a decision made before the appeals process kicked in. This year this border zone was not in operation and everything went to appeal.

During the whole process my mind was telling me, "When was some common sense going to be applied". Instead the LEA stuck to their polices and made people go to appeal. The school was screaming out for pupils as they were a class short!

While I appreciate there has to be rules, common sense needs to be applied. The LEA need to get beyond rules and think about the trauma they are putting children and their parents through.

Hi Piper and Bronco

Very well done to both of you. Having read your excellent and informative post on Glos Piper, and your comments here Bronco, I can only agree that the system in Glos appears to be in need of a dose of humanity and common sense. Not to mention a large dollop of transparency!

However, I hope you are able to sit back and enjoy the feeling that you have beaten a system that has more ways to trip you up than the Grand National!

Good luck to both your children. Please stay around the Forum if you can to advise future appeal parents in Glos - they could certainly use your help.

Sally-Anne

In a moment of madness, based on this forum and my experiences, I am currently looking into becoming invovled in the appeals process as a panel member!

My wife thinks I am going through a mid-life crisis or male menopause!

Well done Piper and Bronco. Just out of interest, which schools did you appeal for and which did you finally choose?

I think Bronco and I have been in the same boat.

91 places offered. The seven year average was 123 pupils per year. I heard there were 30 appeals.

Common sense would have been lovely. However, to give some credit to the AT, the whole process is open to legal challenge. Any cutting corners would, I believe, have opened the flood gates.

In being happy for our daughter, I feel sad for those on here who must envy our position. To some extent despite my hoping we had a very good appeal put together, I sense a nod and a wink has seen all appeals allowed. However, I suppose if the tests had been more appropriate this year, those 30 girls would have been in without appeals being necessary.

Great news Piper and Bronco ...