Unsuccessful and devastated
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I feel for you all - it is so upsetting when you KNOW your child can thrive in a GS and your opinion seems to be backed up by others.
The target should be now to aim for ereally high KS2 levels - at least two 5s - to support a 12+ application.
My child is thriving in Y9 - after 12+ entry received an achievement award for excellence!
The 11+ does not always get it right and appeal panel are only human and make mistakes.
The target should be now to aim for ereally high KS2 levels - at least two 5s - to support a 12+ application.
My child is thriving in Y9 - after 12+ entry received an achievement award for excellence!
The 11+ does not always get it right and appeal panel are only human and make mistakes.
I am so sorry Cookie, Elaine67, Lise, Dejavu and Sharone. I am still logging in to see how everyone has done and I have been thinking of you all and trying to think of what to say. I guess you can feel that you did the best you could and take a small piece of comfort that you could have done no more. Best wishes for the future - whatever that may hold for you.
MelW
MelW
angry
Now after spending the whole day mulling it over I am getting more and more annoyed. How come the unsuccessful appeal letter said that the panel did not feel that the evidence was not strong enough for it to be satisfied that my daughter is academically suitable for grammar school education at this time , when as the hearing came to a close the "chair" actually said "it is obvious that you daughter is very bright and we are well aware of her capabilities" der.....But would that statement actually be on record? And the fact that "the parents noted that they feel she is a high performer in a high performing school that had an outstanding Ofsted report recently". Well, we didn't "feel" that she was, we gave them all the records that she was - top 25%, ranked ninth (eight above her passed, three below her did, and the one at eleventh passed on appeal). Reading age nearly four times her chronological, predicted sats all5s, and achieved 5 in writing at end of year 5, 4a in maths and working at level five in science, and still being the youngest girl in the class! What more evidence do they want?!!!! Sorry, but I haven't got any more blood left!
many thanks
dejavu
dejavu
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Sally-Anne
- Posts: 9235
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Hi Cookie
I am so sorry to hear your news, especially with scores of 120/119 and such strong support. I am afraid that this is one of those cases where I am hard pushed not to call the whole process a lottery.
When you receive them you are welcome to send me a PM about them. I don't mean to raise your hopes, because Ombudsman appeals are rare in Bucks, and virtually never successful, but I think that you need to see that the case was handled properly.
The 12+ is there precisely because of children like yours. Take some breathing space and then make your application in the Autumn. If it is of any consolation to you at the moment, I know of a child who scored 120/120 on the 11+ a few years ago, and the Appeal was inexplicably refused. She went on to take the 12+ and scored 141. As her Mum said to me, "Take That, those who doubted!" She is doing fantastically well at her GS - awards and accolades all over the place.
I am always happy to answer your questions about the 12+ over on Bucks. Do read my "Sticky" about it first though!
Best wishes
Sally-Anne
I am so sorry to hear your news, especially with scores of 120/119 and such strong support. I am afraid that this is one of those cases where I am hard pushed not to call the whole process a lottery.
Yes, I would. It will give you peace of mind, and for such near miss scores I think you need to find out what the panel were saying.Cookie wrote:Advice please…
Is it worth sending off for the clerks notes, or am I just torturing myself?
When you receive them you are welcome to send me a PM about them. I don't mean to raise your hopes, because Ombudsman appeals are rare in Bucks, and virtually never successful, but I think that you need to see that the case was handled properly.
The 12+ is there precisely because of children like yours. Take some breathing space and then make your application in the Autumn. If it is of any consolation to you at the moment, I know of a child who scored 120/120 on the 11+ a few years ago, and the Appeal was inexplicably refused. She went on to take the 12+ and scored 141. As her Mum said to me, "Take That, those who doubted!" She is doing fantastically well at her GS - awards and accolades all over the place.
I am always happy to answer your questions about the 12+ over on Bucks. Do read my "Sticky" about it first though!
Best wishes
Sally-Anne
I'm afraid that the decision letter seems to want to provide reassurance that the arguments put forward were indeed considered, when what you really want to know is exactly why the appeal didn't succeed.
Let's not make the mistake of saying that generally there is no rhyme or reason to a panel's decisions. In most cases the clerk's notes, however brief, should make things clearer. When a selection appeal fails, there is something missing, or something in the evidence that raised a serious doubt in the minds of the panel. It may be that extenuating circumstances were not enough to explain the shortfall in marks. It may be that some very good academic evidence was contradicted or undermined by something else.
Nothing I can say is going to console those of you who have been so bitterly disappointed, but remember:
Let's not make the mistake of saying that generally there is no rhyme or reason to a panel's decisions. In most cases the clerk's notes, however brief, should make things clearer. When a selection appeal fails, there is something missing, or something in the evidence that raised a serious doubt in the minds of the panel. It may be that extenuating circumstances were not enough to explain the shortfall in marks. It may be that some very good academic evidence was contradicted or undermined by something else.
Nothing I can say is going to console those of you who have been so bitterly disappointed, but remember:
- It is no reflection on you - you did your very best for your child. The odds are against most appeals succeeding.
It may be that the clerk's notes will help you find "closure".
Sally-Anne, Guest55 and Lynsey are proof that things often work out well in the longer term.
Etienne
Case notes
Hi!
our appeal was held on the same day as yours, with the same panel!! We too weren't successful. We had 120/117 and past history of 123, predicted KS2 results at 5s and a strong head support. Our issue was a 3:1, which came about because of a 'difference of opinion' of our son's academic capabilities by two of his teachers. We were told by our son's head of this, but she gave us a strong letter. We would like to see case notes and a copy of his papers if it's possible, so that we too can move on in a positive manner. He came out of 2nd paper in which he scored 117 saying it was easy, 25 minutes to spare etc etc so we were shocked at his results. I know there is no hope of GS this year. So many things are up in arms, private then 12+, upper school then12+ or complete relocation to get away from it all??!
Please could you let us know how we get copies of papers, or sight of them and copies of the case notes?
Thank you for your support.
our appeal was held on the same day as yours, with the same panel!! We too weren't successful. We had 120/117 and past history of 123, predicted KS2 results at 5s and a strong head support. Our issue was a 3:1, which came about because of a 'difference of opinion' of our son's academic capabilities by two of his teachers. We were told by our son's head of this, but she gave us a strong letter. We would like to see case notes and a copy of his papers if it's possible, so that we too can move on in a positive manner. He came out of 2nd paper in which he scored 117 saying it was easy, 25 minutes to spare etc etc so we were shocked at his results. I know there is no hope of GS this year. So many things are up in arms, private then 12+, upper school then12+ or complete relocation to get away from it all??!
Please could you let us know how we get copies of papers, or sight of them and copies of the case notes?
Thank you for your support.
My panel finds this quite a problem when we're writing letters to say appeals have failed.Etienne wrote:I'm afraid that the decision letter seems to want to provide reassurance that the arguments put forward were indeed considered, when what you really want to know is exactly why the appeal didn't succeed.
Now, please remember I'm not in Bucks where the appeals are before allocation. When we're hearing the appeals, we're looking for reasons why we should allow the appeal, but the letters require reasons why we didn't allow it; often I couldn't actually tell you why I didn't allow an appeal, just that it wasn't as strong a reason as those I did allow.
A truthful letter from us would say "We didn't allow your appeal because some of the other appeals had stronger reasons to allow them than yours. You had quite strong reasons, including academic ability, headache on the day of the exam, good predicted SATS, but the appeals we did allow had better academic reports, granny dying the night before the exam, and meningitis developed the afternoon after the exam".
Obviously we couldn't write that in a letter, partly out of concerns for privacy. But if we could, it would often help the failed appellants understand why they didn't succeed.
Capers
