11 + appeal

[dorothy]

Dear Etienne
My Son was ranked as position 2 in the school to pass his 11+ with a grammer school potential of 1 (I understand from the headmaster that the child in position 1 passed). He scored 117 & 120. His predicted SATS are 5 across the board and he has infact already achieved 5s in Maths/English and Science in year 5. According to his headmaster his case is by far the strongest of the appeals at his school.
What's your opinion? Can you offer any advise on presenting his case as we do not have any mitigating circumstances other than his academic abilities?
Kind regards Dorothy

[Etienne]

Dear Dorothy

It does look like a very strong case, although I'd need to see the O. of S. as a whole to judge how much weight to give to the head's support..

With such good scores I wouldn't worry about the lack of extenuating circumstances. Be quite honest with the panel: "We really don't know what happened .... perhaps it was a case of nerves on the day ....."

Do you have any CAT scores from the school? It would have been interesting to see how your son had previously coped with reasoning tests.

Encouraging!

Kind regards