Appeal with 7 marks below pass mark.

[RTR123]

Hello,

This is my first time using a forum and I hope somebody can give me some advice. My son recently sat the St Ambrose entrance exam in Trafford and missed the qualifying mark by 7 points. He is a catholic but not from the catchment area and he doesn't have any older brothers at the school. I'm not sure whether our situation is worth an appeal. I have no excuses really as to why he didn't pass other than nerves and inexperience with exams. He is working at a high standard at school, his behaviour and conduct is outstanding and he has high achievements in extracurricular sport.

My first question is, can anyone advise if our situation is worth an appeal?

Does conduct and sporting achievements carry any weight at an appeal?

I have read somewhere on a forum that St Ambrose review children scoring within 15 marks of the pass mark, without informing the parents, by contacting the child's school. I'm not sure how true this is.

I would be very grateful if anybody can offer some advice or if there is anyone is in the same situation as we are with this years entrance exams.

Many thanks.

[Amber]

I am so sorry that I can't say anything worthwhile to you - it is a shame that sometimes posters outside Bucks tend not to attract the expertise needed to help them, sadly. The Bucks system builds in appeals and that means lots more people appeal, or seek review, I think, than in other areas, so the forum tends to have a lot of stuff for them (i.e. I don't think it's personal!).

I think there are quite a lot of general links to read through on here, or perhaps if you posted again in the region where the school is, someone might help you. Maybe also search the appeals threads as someone in the past might have appealed for the same school.

To the Lawrence Sheriff poster below - same applies. Sorry!

[Tinkers]

First of all welcome to the forum.

We have a FAQ for appeals, which you should read through first. Please come back if you have any questions or need additional help.

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

I'm not from your area, so have no knowledge of the success rate for appeals. You will need to put the school on your CAF, as you can't appeal until you have been turned down for the school on allocations day.

[JamesDean]

To the Lawrence Sheriff poster below - same applies. Sorry!

Thanks Amber, have just spotted it and replied. Don't tend to come here very often, as, as you say, it's mostly posters from Bucks.

JD

[Pinecone]

Hi RTR123

Sorry for your disappointment.

I don't know anything about appeals at SA but do know that appeals for non religious state grammars in Trafford are notoriously difficult to win.

I think you should contact the school and ask them for details of how many appeals for non-qualification, were successful in, say, the last five years - that will give you an indication of whether you have any chance.

Check the school's Admissions Policy as that should tell you whether they conduct an automatic review of near misses before the results are given out (if they have already done a review then this might possibly make winning an appeal more difficult as you may then have to prove that that review was not done fairly in order to be able to appeal).

Go speak to Head Teacher of primary school and ask if they will support your appeal and provide you with a letter of support (I believe that unless you have their support it would be difficult to win an appeal).

Focus should all be on academic evidence and not conduct/sporting achievement.

You will need strong evidence of high academic ability, and (although the code does not say it is necessary) they might expect you to give a reason why you think he might have not done as well as he could have.

However, even if you could prove the academic ability to them, you would then need a good reason to explain why you want that school in particular rather than whatever school you get allocated as they will then go on to weigh whether it would be more prejudicial to your son not to allow him a place there or more prejudicial to the other children in the year having extra bodies above PAN.

Good luck.

[Catseye]

First still put SA first on your caf form

Second,appeal

Third, what are your local comps?I will compare value added(progress) for you.

SA is catholic, so you already have the most important qualification in the bag-and will be put above some others in the waiting/appeal game.

Is the grammar or the Catholic aspect most important to you?

PM-Tiddymum-who could perhaps help more than me.

But continue to get expert help from the appeals section-the specialists mods don't mind God bless them.

[Mandy21]

You could maybe post on the Trafford forum - I remember there was a parent in the same boat as you last year (if I remember correctly it was a few marks short of the SA score - I think the poster was called Oliversmum or something similar) - she was asking advice about appealing.

[Mandy21]

P.S. The Trafford forum will be able to give you some advice - certainly the academic hurdle is there and is the most important, but if your DS can demonstrate any achievement in rugby you can definitely argue why SA is the only school that would fit - it has a massive reputation for rugby success.

[Mandy21]

Found this

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... St+Ambrose" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RTR123]

Thank you to everyone for the advice. I will appeal next year, fingers crossed!