A Series of Unfortunate Events - Appeal Advice Needed
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A Series of Unfortunate Events - Appeal Advice Needed!!
Hi
We live in Worc and are unable to put six options on our LEA form. They only allow us three options. Because of certain sensitive issues regarding our local comp we decided not to put this school on the list.
First we put KE Fiveways, KE Camphill Girls and KE Handsworth. Then at the last minute I emailed the admin section of KE and asked them to take Handsworth off and I then put Sutton Girls 3rd on the list instead, as our daughter prefered this school (she was worried about the surrounding area of Handsworth, as insensitive members of the family openly critized it's reputation!).
Subsequently, she only scored high enough to gain a place at KE Handsworth, but was not eligable bcause it wasn't on our list! To make matters worst she scored 321 for Sutton which was the last entry score, but she has not gained a place but put on the list with other girls who scored the same (down to distance from home). We would have taken the place at Handsworth and reassured her it was a secure safe enviroment.
She has recently scored the higest marks (out of 60 children) in her mock SATS in Maths and Science scoring 5a's, she scored a 5c in English.
As well as this 'Series of Unfortunate Events' (our daughters favourite books!), we feel that she has underperformed in the exams (which would have been o.k. if she had just managed to scrape a pass), due to mitigating circumstances that are very personal.
Is it possible to get some advice from anyone on a private basis in regard to these circumstances, as we don't really want to drag them all up in Appeal, if it would be pointless anyway!?
Thank you to anyone who can reply.
We live in Worc and are unable to put six options on our LEA form. They only allow us three options. Because of certain sensitive issues regarding our local comp we decided not to put this school on the list.
First we put KE Fiveways, KE Camphill Girls and KE Handsworth. Then at the last minute I emailed the admin section of KE and asked them to take Handsworth off and I then put Sutton Girls 3rd on the list instead, as our daughter prefered this school (she was worried about the surrounding area of Handsworth, as insensitive members of the family openly critized it's reputation!).
Subsequently, she only scored high enough to gain a place at KE Handsworth, but was not eligable bcause it wasn't on our list! To make matters worst she scored 321 for Sutton which was the last entry score, but she has not gained a place but put on the list with other girls who scored the same (down to distance from home). We would have taken the place at Handsworth and reassured her it was a secure safe enviroment.
She has recently scored the higest marks (out of 60 children) in her mock SATS in Maths and Science scoring 5a's, she scored a 5c in English.
As well as this 'Series of Unfortunate Events' (our daughters favourite books!), we feel that she has underperformed in the exams (which would have been o.k. if she had just managed to scrape a pass), due to mitigating circumstances that are very personal.
Is it possible to get some advice from anyone on a private basis in regard to these circumstances, as we don't really want to drag them all up in Appeal, if it would be pointless anyway!?
Thank you to anyone who can reply.
To tell your child or not -That is the question!
Hi All
I suppose the majority of us in this appeals section have all had a very upsetting week!
Our daughter was really upset, because she now fears having to go to our local comp, where her former Bully will also be going (she moved schools in year five to escape her!).
We have a lot of decision making to do (her dad and I), and the only thing we have said to our daughter is - not to worry because we wont be sending her to a school where she will be bullied or unhappy. We have a few options flying aorund, but whether they are feasilble is another question!
In anyones opinion, whether you have already been through this, or are going through it now.........
Would you tell your child that you are Appealing, to give them some sort of hope OR would you not tell them at all and let them dread the first day of term at a school they are scared of going to (but at least they may have a chance of residing themselves to it?)????
Lottie
I suppose the majority of us in this appeals section have all had a very upsetting week!
Our daughter was really upset, because she now fears having to go to our local comp, where her former Bully will also be going (she moved schools in year five to escape her!).
We have a lot of decision making to do (her dad and I), and the only thing we have said to our daughter is - not to worry because we wont be sending her to a school where she will be bullied or unhappy. We have a few options flying aorund, but whether they are feasilble is another question!
In anyones opinion, whether you have already been through this, or are going through it now.........
Would you tell your child that you are Appealing, to give them some sort of hope OR would you not tell them at all and let them dread the first day of term at a school they are scared of going to (but at least they may have a chance of residing themselves to it?)????
Lottie
Re: To tell your child or not -That is the question!
If you tell them that you're appealing, and you loose the appeal, then they may feel even worse. So I would appeal in private, whilst reassuring the child that I was exploring as many options as I can (if they'll swallow that).lottie wrote:In anyones opinion, whether you have already been through this, or are going through it now.........
Would you tell your child that you are Appealing, to give them some sort of hope OR would you not tell them at all and let them dread the first day of term at a school they are scared of going to (but at least they may have a chance of residing themselves to it?)????
What other options do you have? Any other schools within commuting distance, on bus or train routes? Even if they have a 'worse' reputation that bully-school, you may be surprised. A 'rough' school near me does very well with the brighter & musical/artistic pupils, despite being a sports specialist school.
Capers
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Appeal Mum
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Re: To tell your child or not -That is the question!
Hi Lottie,lottie wrote:
In anyones opinion, whether you have already been through this, or are going through it now.........
Would you tell your child that you are Appealing, to give them some sort of hope OR would you not tell them at all and let them dread the first day of term at a school they are scared of going to (but at least they may have a chance of residing themselves to it?)????
Personally I didn't tell my daughter I was appealing. I felt she needed to come to terms with the fact she wouldn't be going to the school everyone told her she would be going to.
After the devastation of not getting into the school she wanted, I couldn't afford to put her through that turmoil again.
When we told her she had gained a place at her chosen school her face said it all. If we hadn't got through she would have been none the wiser and already on her way to accepting the first decision.
You do have other issues though that we didn't have.
Can you tell her that you will look into seeing what other schools are available?
Good luck and I wish you all the best..
AM
Thanks for advice
Thanks for advice Cappers 123 & Appeals Mom
My initial feelings were not to tell her, but you have reinforced this with your advice.
The problem we are faced with is 'living in Worc'! On the very border of B'ham might I add! Her primary school is even in B'ham but is under the Worc LEA.
Before we entered her into the test, we did look at all the other options and schools available to us. But the part of Worc we live in only has high schools that start at year 9, there is only one other comp in our area (but we are outside of its catchment), but this school is heavily over subscribed and there was no chance our d would get a place.
So our only option was the 11 plus test.
The few options we have now are.......
to send her to private school for the two years untill she can attend a comp high school - cons= we could just about afford this, no more holidays and fear Molly would feel inferior to other children who have horses, expensive cars, huge houses etc etc
pack up and move abroad for a couple of years and come back when she is in year 9 - Cons= how we would earn a living is a major flaw with this option!
look across the Uk and see if we could find another school in a totally different area, where we could still run our business from Con= is it possible to find a half decent school at this stage where all the places haven't gone?!
They are our options! Extreme, I know, but we have always said that our d's happiness is the most important thing to us (as it is with most good parents).
At the moment, because we couldn't fit the local comp in our choice of three, our d, hasn't been offered a school anywhere!
Does anyone know what will happen officially before Sept, if her appeal is unsucessful? Does the LEA have to offer her a place somewhere?
Thanks
Lottie
My initial feelings were not to tell her, but you have reinforced this with your advice.
The problem we are faced with is 'living in Worc'! On the very border of B'ham might I add! Her primary school is even in B'ham but is under the Worc LEA.
Before we entered her into the test, we did look at all the other options and schools available to us. But the part of Worc we live in only has high schools that start at year 9, there is only one other comp in our area (but we are outside of its catchment), but this school is heavily over subscribed and there was no chance our d would get a place.
So our only option was the 11 plus test.
The few options we have now are.......
to send her to private school for the two years untill she can attend a comp high school - cons= we could just about afford this, no more holidays and fear Molly would feel inferior to other children who have horses, expensive cars, huge houses etc etc
pack up and move abroad for a couple of years and come back when she is in year 9 - Cons= how we would earn a living is a major flaw with this option!
look across the Uk and see if we could find another school in a totally different area, where we could still run our business from Con= is it possible to find a half decent school at this stage where all the places haven't gone?!
They are our options! Extreme, I know, but we have always said that our d's happiness is the most important thing to us (as it is with most good parents).
At the moment, because we couldn't fit the local comp in our choice of three, our d, hasn't been offered a school anywhere!
Does anyone know what will happen officially before Sept, if her appeal is unsucessful? Does the LEA have to offer her a place somewhere?
Thanks
Lottie
Hi Lottie
We had the same problems as you when it came to preferences 3 years ago.
We too live in Worcs and only had 3 preferences compared to B/Ham who have 6.
The problem we faced was that Woodrush (our local catchment Comp) is always oversubscribed, so unless we put this down as 3rd choice we wouldn't have a backstop.
So we orginally put this down as 3rd choice (behind KE Camp Hill boys and KE 5-Ways) - then I changed my mind and put KE Aston as 3rd choice (via online) - but was prepared to appeal to Worcs LEA if we didn't get any of these schools and they allocated a school 20+ miles away in South Bromsgrove!!
Fortunately we got our 2nd choice so everything turned out ok, but I sympathise with you situation.
Interesting I have written to Worcs LEA, my County Counciller and the KE Foundation after the event complaining that Worcs should have 6 preferences. No response from the LEA or the Councillor (he won't be getting my vote again), but I did get a response from the KE Foundation saying that they were extremely sympathetic to the situation of Worcs parents and the Foundation had formally requested on a number of occasions that Worcs increase the number of preferences from 3 to 6 to bring them into line with Birmingham. I believe that Worcs LEA have refused.
I suspect that if you talk to the KE Foundation and appeal for KE Handsworth you may have a sympathetic ear! Worth a few phone calls.
Drop me a PM if you want more information.
Regards
Ken
We had the same problems as you when it came to preferences 3 years ago.
We too live in Worcs and only had 3 preferences compared to B/Ham who have 6.
The problem we faced was that Woodrush (our local catchment Comp) is always oversubscribed, so unless we put this down as 3rd choice we wouldn't have a backstop.
So we orginally put this down as 3rd choice (behind KE Camp Hill boys and KE 5-Ways) - then I changed my mind and put KE Aston as 3rd choice (via online) - but was prepared to appeal to Worcs LEA if we didn't get any of these schools and they allocated a school 20+ miles away in South Bromsgrove!!
Fortunately we got our 2nd choice so everything turned out ok, but I sympathise with you situation.
Interesting I have written to Worcs LEA, my County Counciller and the KE Foundation after the event complaining that Worcs should have 6 preferences. No response from the LEA or the Councillor (he won't be getting my vote again), but I did get a response from the KE Foundation saying that they were extremely sympathetic to the situation of Worcs parents and the Foundation had formally requested on a number of occasions that Worcs increase the number of preferences from 3 to 6 to bring them into line with Birmingham. I believe that Worcs LEA have refused.
I suspect that if you talk to the KE Foundation and appeal for KE Handsworth you may have a sympathetic ear! Worth a few phone calls.
Drop me a PM if you want more information.
Regards
Ken
Hi Lottie
Further to my previous posting please see the following section from the KE Foundation Governors Annual Report:-
http://www.kingedwardsfoundation.co.uk/ ... counts.pdf
Hope this helps
Further to my previous posting please see the following section from the KE Foundation Governors Annual Report:-
A copy of the full report can be found at:-Improvements to the co-ordinated admissions procedure would be sought to aid the expression of parental preference. In particular
improved explanatory wording was required to clarify the fact that under the new Statutory Admissions Code it was no longer possible
for schools to require parents to put those schools first on the LA preference form to be considered for entry. It was also hoped to persuade
all neighbouring authorities to follow Birmingham’s lead and allow six schools to be listed in preferred order on the form.
The number of admission appeals was 164, compared to 165 in 2005, which had been nearly half the previous year’s figure. The number
pursued to a final hearing increased from 65 to 83. Four appeals were agreed.
http://www.kingedwardsfoundation.co.uk/ ... counts.pdf
Hope this helps
Can you decode that for me Ken R!
Hi KenR
Thanks for digging that out for me. But to be honest I don't really undestand what it means!!!
Could you possibly put it in lay mans terms?!
Was it from the most recent report (2007)?
Thanks again
Lottie
Thanks for digging that out for me. But to be honest I don't really undestand what it means!!!
Could you possibly put it in lay mans terms?!
Was it from the most recent report (2007)?
Thanks again
Lottie
Hi Lottie
This was from the latest KE Foundation Governors report for 2006-2007, think it demonstrates that although it's difficult to win Appeals to get into Foundation Schools, there is a good chance that they will be sympathetic to the situation that parents such as yourself are in due to living in Worcs and only having 3 preference choices.
It might be helpful if you could let me have a few more details (e.g. pass marks etc and conversations with the Foundation Office) either on the forum or by PM so I can advise further.
Regards
Ken
This was from the latest KE Foundation Governors report for 2006-2007, think it demonstrates that although it's difficult to win Appeals to get into Foundation Schools, there is a good chance that they will be sympathetic to the situation that parents such as yourself are in due to living in Worcs and only having 3 preference choices.
It might be helpful if you could let me have a few more details (e.g. pass marks etc and conversations with the Foundation Office) either on the forum or by PM so I can advise further.
Regards
Ken
