What should I be doing now?

[katel]

Don't worry, Sally-Anne- we'll play the game. Our line is going to be basically that there's is a system for deciding which child goes to which of our two good but different schools. On this occasion for no reason that anybody has been able fathom the Sorting Hat put this particular child in the wrong school and we are asking the panel to put that mistake right.

I do care very much that he isn't going to the grammar school, by the way, it is a fit for him in a way that the high school isn't. But the high school is good, and is perfectly fine for most other people's children. What right have I got to say it's orderly fine for mine?

[mystery]

Hope you took it in the spirit in which it was intended.

What I was really meaning was that it should just be taken as expected that there will be some clever children who flunk the test on the day (or both days). I get the feeling that the the overwhelming majority of appeals that succeed have:

- strong academic evidence
- marginal fail
- extenuating circumstances to explain why the clever kid did not pass on the day.

I don't personally think points 2 and 3 should be necessary. A child who flunks on the day is probably going to really flunk, so to expect a marginal fail is a bit confusing.

Of course one would not want to knock the system during one's own appeal, or make the panel feel like they are doing a bad job. Why however is this the system?

[Amber]

everyone in the hearing was in tears, male and female, panel members and appellants.

But don't let this put you off, Katel

[katel]

Well, as we have no extenuating circumstances at all we will be spared the tears!

[Sally-Anne]

This thread risks becoming a general discussion on the rights and wrongs of the appeal system, and that could become upsetting or worrying for those currently preparing appeals.

katel has therefore kindly agreed that it should be moved to General 11 Plus Topics instead.

[mystery]

Ooops, my fault!!

But it's interesting isn't it? When the 11+ was mostly phased out many decades ago one of the reasons was because of it being quite unfair to decide a child's future on one day of their life. Even then, as I understand it, children who sent to secondary mods had a later chance of some sort to transfer over to grammar school if they were doing super well (so my mother tells me, but that could be a very unreliable piece of info). If you live in an authority like Kent which has no true comprehensives, it is still a tough system for clever kids who flunk on the day unless they flunk marginally, and have extenuating circumstances, and are lucky at appeal.

[katel]

It is such a mind bogglingly awful system- it has no redeeming feature whatsoever. And as the level of coaching and preparation increases exponentially, the only possible justification - that it offers a step up for clever children from disadvantaged homes- becomes even more of a myth.

[mystery]

This was indeed one of the original intentions of grammar schools in the 1944 Act. I do not know much about the political history of Kent, but was this really the motivation behind Kent retaining the selective system when the majority of the country went comprehensive?

I struggle here with my own motivations. I would like my own children to go to grammar school but I don't think the Kent system is one I would arrive at if I was devising a system to give the most children the most benefit.

[katel]

Our small town really sums up everything that is wrong with the 11+ system. We have a good high school qt one side of the town, and a grammar school qt the other. The head of the high school is fantastic, and the school is improving rapidly,. The grammar school is also fantastic, but In my opinion resting on it's laurels.

The kids meet regularly as they walk through town- and there is often hassle coming from both sides equally. Kids who were friends at primary school suddenly become on "opposing sides" in Year 7. It is nothing but destructive, and it's heartbreaking to think that we hqve the perfect setting for fantastic comprehensive school and a fantstic 6th form college, when what we have is a source of conflict, a breeding ground for low self esteem, inflated egos and general argy-bargy.

[Camphillian]

Our small town really sums up everything that is wrong with the 11+ system. We have a good high school qt one side of the town, and a grammar school qt the other. The head of the high school is fantastic, and the school is improving rapidly,. The grammar school is also fantastic, but In my opinion resting on it's laurels.

As I'm sure you are aware, Katel, a lot of people would say that a rapidly improving high school under a fantastic head might be a better place for a bright child than a grammar school which may be resting on its laurels (despite my stage-name I do speak from personal experience as well as anecdotal). Bright DCs are often more appreciated and encouraged at the former, and may be taken for granted at the latter, and at the uni application stage would get the kudos and extra brownie points of applying from a non-grammar state school. However only personal knowledge of the two schools concerned can help you make the choice, so my comments here are purely generic, of course.