Appeal possibly...maybe...?oh i dunno!

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muminTewkes
Posts: 266
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:57 am

Appeal possibly...maybe...?oh i dunno!

Post by muminTewkes »

Well,this is really just thinking aloud as you all have been great in the past!

DS1 passed for Pate's but no.134 and also,Im presuming will get Tommies come March-all happy here,wasn't REALLY desparate for Pate's,but the route to school/cost is A LOT eaiser and more than happy with STRS.
DS1 LOVED Pates but did with Tommies too-so no biggie.

Yesterday,totally out of the blue at an eye test we found he needs glasses(contacts for sport which he plats a lot of)pretty much all the time.

So,question is...should we not get Pate's anyway is this appeal worthy?can we even be bothered as it seems pretty scary :shock: ?what do we need to start gathering IF we go for it?(should we need/want/be able to)
I have his CAT scores from last year they were VR and NVR of 133 and the other one(?!)was 128 i think off the top of my head?level 5's at end of yr 5.

Just thinking so would appreciate any thoughts...
Thanks :D
cairo
Posts: 276
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:09 pm

Re: Appeal possibly...maybe...?oh i dunno!

Post by cairo »

Hi MuminTewkes,

First of all - relax (yes, I know it's easier said than done) but at no.134 he may well get a place at Pates in March anyway. :D

If he doesn't and at that time you think you'd rather he went to Pates, then you can definitely tick the box for him to be on the waiting list and/or submit an appeal without jeopardising your place elsewhere, so that takes the pressure off quite a bit.

As for an appeal, in your case you would be making an "over-subscription" appeal rather than a "non-qualification" appeal (i.e. your DS reached the pass-mark, there just weren't enough spaces.) In theory over-subscription appeals are easier to win than non-qualification appeals, but in practice it does seem that any type of appeal is pretty tricky to win at Pates, although not impossible. This is because Pates offers places for 4 classes of 30, so anyone winning an appeal has to have strong enough reasons to outweigh the disadvantage to the school and other pupils of having 31 or 32 in a class.

In theory, as your son reached the pass-mark, his suitability for Pates is not in question, so you should base your argument around why this school is particularly suited to his needs, rather than saying effectively "I know he passed, but there are reason to suppose he should have scored higher." From my own personal experience however, I feel that the mitigating circumstances I gave for my DS are what swung it for him. So you might be best advised to cover both issues. There may be things about Pates that would particularly suit him (co-ed, particular courses on offer, logistics etc) and I would recommend you include those in any appeal, rather than just relying on the glasses issue.

As for the glasses, you should try to gather evidence of this issue and to what extent it has affected him. So you will already have a prescription from the optician with a relevant date on it and I would keep that somewhere safe. If your optician is also willing to write a letter explaining in lay-man's terms the extent to which your DS would be disadvantaged in not wearing glasses that might also be helpful. But perhaps the best thing would be a letter from his school from the class-teacher or Head detailing any change / improvement in his work over the next few weeks/months after starting wearing them. So I would ask them to look out for any changes, saying you might want them to draft something in due course. What would be great of course would be if there were SATs levels pre and post glasses showing a huge difference in the before and after positions. As you are saying your son was level 5s at the end of Y5, it could be difficult to demonstrate much improvement. Some primary schools are happy to give level 6s, some aren't.

Hope that's food for thought. There is masses of really helpful info in the "Appeals" section you might want to look at. There, you'll see that it is difficult to predict who will win an appeal and who won't. Panels are made up of three individuals after all, and they have to assess your case in relation to the school's case and in relation to all the other appeals they hear that year. So there's no certainty in it, but it is worth going down the route if you strongly feel your DS would do better at a school other than the one he is allocated to.
muminTewkes
Posts: 266
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:57 am

Re: Appeal possibly...maybe...?oh i dunno!

Post by muminTewkes »

Cairo-thanks for taking the time to reply-very valuable advice.
Can always rely on someone to have a clear head here when mine goes all fuzzy for an hour or two! :wink:
I realise Pate's appeals are tricky anyway...so we will see,in any case Ill keep everything and think about the possibility just in case.
turtleglos
Posts: 455
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:04 pm

Re: Appeal possibly...maybe...?oh i dunno!

Post by turtleglos »

Hi mumintewkes,we are also probably going to appeal should ds1 not be offered a place. From what I can gather it is incredibly difficult to win an appeal for Pates but it has been done before. Im not sure that there is a lot we can really do at the moment,although I have been finding out how I get hold of medical notes and making sure we have good pieces of level 5 work(apparently ds1 has these from last year and I didnt know :shock: ). I assume we find out more information about the exam day when we fill in the form for appeal.
I am still keeping everything crossed in the hope that we get a place though as we feel that Pates matches ds1 better than our second choice-even though that is a very good school.
Good luck
Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will think it is stupid.
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