Appealing an appeal...?
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Confused Dad
Appealing an appeal...?
Hopefully someone may be able to offer us some advice on this, as we are at our wits' end....
Our daughter took both the Berks and Bucks 11+ last year. As we live in the borough of W&M, we could only select 3 schools for our common application, so chose Herschel, Burnham and Newlands, in that order, to cover all bases.
She passed the Bucks paper with 126, but failed the Berks by 1 mark, with 110. She has since been offered a place at Burnham, but we appealed the Berks decision on the basis that she simply didn't perform as well on the day as had been expected.
We attended the appeal hearing last week, providing letters of support from her current headteacher, as well as all her key subject teachers indicating a consistently high level of performance. She has predictions of level 5 in all key subjects and has already proved her ability with the Bucks pass. There were no extenuating circumstances as such, we simply put her case to the appeal panel as it stood. At the end of the hearing the panel commended her on her Bucks pass and us on our honesty in putting forward an appeal case that was based around fact, rather than excuses.
We have now been informed that the panel have decided not to uphold our appeal, on the grounds that:
a) the school had correctly and impartially applied its admission criteria
b) the panel was satisfied that our daughter's admission would be 'incompatible' with its admission arrangements
c) the school's case for not offering a place was not outweighed by the information we presented at the appeal
Obviously we feel that the last few months has been a complete waste of time now. Our daughter's result was right on the borderline, but the appeal panel seemed to focus on the fact that she had already been offered a place at another grammar school - which makes us feel that our appeal has not been considered impartially.
What options, if any, are there for us to appeal this decision? Do we have to complain to the ombudsman? What should our next steps be?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice...
Our daughter took both the Berks and Bucks 11+ last year. As we live in the borough of W&M, we could only select 3 schools for our common application, so chose Herschel, Burnham and Newlands, in that order, to cover all bases.
She passed the Bucks paper with 126, but failed the Berks by 1 mark, with 110. She has since been offered a place at Burnham, but we appealed the Berks decision on the basis that she simply didn't perform as well on the day as had been expected.
We attended the appeal hearing last week, providing letters of support from her current headteacher, as well as all her key subject teachers indicating a consistently high level of performance. She has predictions of level 5 in all key subjects and has already proved her ability with the Bucks pass. There were no extenuating circumstances as such, we simply put her case to the appeal panel as it stood. At the end of the hearing the panel commended her on her Bucks pass and us on our honesty in putting forward an appeal case that was based around fact, rather than excuses.
We have now been informed that the panel have decided not to uphold our appeal, on the grounds that:
a) the school had correctly and impartially applied its admission criteria
b) the panel was satisfied that our daughter's admission would be 'incompatible' with its admission arrangements
c) the school's case for not offering a place was not outweighed by the information we presented at the appeal
Obviously we feel that the last few months has been a complete waste of time now. Our daughter's result was right on the borderline, but the appeal panel seemed to focus on the fact that she had already been offered a place at another grammar school - which makes us feel that our appeal has not been considered impartially.
What options, if any, are there for us to appeal this decision? Do we have to complain to the ombudsman? What should our next steps be?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice...
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Confused Dad
Apologies, wrong forum
Have now put this in Appeals forum. If you have any useful information, could you please post in there.
Many thanks
Many thanks