Bucks Appeal - 113 / 109

[Peejay]

Firstly, can I just say what a great site this is!

After a bit of advice...As with several others on here our DD achieved far lower results than expected and we are completely shocked. Her acedemic results have been consistently good thoughout her schooling, including 3s at KS1 and improving to her last report at the end of Yr5 - 5C in writing plus mainly 4As and a VR score of 125. The school are 100% behind us appealing and are preparing her report after my wife's meeting with the Head today. He wasn't sure of her predicted grades but going on past improvements, told us that he would expect them to be mostly 5s. He also gave us her score as 2:1.

In the last few months before the tests, her home practice paper scores were nearly all within a few marks of 100% correct and some with all answers correct. She also passed easily her three school practice papers.

We have some extenuating circumstances but having read the Q&As are not sure how best to include them. Firstly, and most importantly, we lost our elder, severely disabled daughter in December last year. As our DD was part-carer to her for most of her life they were incredibly close, so this has, understandably, had a profound impact on her life. Despite all this our DD has continued to perform well until it seems, she came to take the real tests, but we're not sure how much this will be taken into account in the appeal process or how we can prove any link to the pressure suddenly getting the better of her.

Other, less significant factors include her not sleeping well before each test and waking at 4:30 am on the day of the second test with a sore throat. As we sent her into the tests, we don't believe this will have much relevance as we didn't make the school aware until the day after. We also made them aware that the boy next to her kept asking to borrow her eraser and kept giggling with another boy near them. Our DD obviously found this very distracting and hard to concentrate when checking her answers.

We think we have a fairly strong appeal but would really appreciate any comments to help us in formulating our appeal.

Many thanks in advance.

[Etienne]

Welcome!

Her acedemic results have been consistently good thoughout her schooling, including 3s at KS1 and improving to her last report at the end of Yr5 - 5C in writing plus mainly 4As and a VR score of 125. The school are 100% behind us appealing and are preparing her report after my wife's meeting with the Head today. He wasn't sure of her predicted grades but going on past improvements, told us that he would expect them to be mostly 5s.

This looks quite good - and it helps to have the VR score of 125!

He also gave us her score as 2:1.

That could be good too (depending on how the panel view his overall recommendations).

In the last few months before the tests, her home practice paper scores were nearly all within a few marks of 100% correct and some with all answers correct. She also passed easily her three school practice papers.

Reassuring, although I'm afraid practice papers won't count as evidence.

We have some extenuating circumstances but having read the Q&As are not sure how best to include them. Firstly, and most importantly, we lost our elder, severely disabled daughter in December last year. As our DD was part-carer to her for most of her life they were incredibly close, so this has, understandably, had a profound impact on her life. Despite all this our DD has continued to perform well until it seems, she came to take the real tests, but we're not sure how much this will be taken into account in the appeal process or how we can prove any link to the pressure suddenly getting the better of her.

Words seem so inadequate. My heart goes out to you. I'm sure all our 'regulars' on the forum will feel the same way and will be supporting you.

The difficulty, as you realise, is that there doesn't appear to be any obvious link between December 2010 and September/October 2011 - but I do think the panel need to be made aware of the background.

Other, less significant factors include her not sleeping well before each test and waking at 4:30 am on the day of the second test with a sore throat. As we sent her into the tests, we don't believe this will have much relevance as we didn't make the school aware until the day after.

It's worth a mention.

We also made them aware that the boy next to her kept asking to borrow her eraser and kept giggling with another boy near them. Our DD obviously found this very distracting and hard to concentrate when checking her answers.

I'm afraid this is not usually a strong argument at appeal, but it does help that you reported it.

My advice would be to say little or nothing about extenuating circumstances in your written submission or in your presentation. Someone is bound to ask you during the Question & Answer session. Let them gradually draw the information out of you.

The way you have worded things above makes me immediately sympathise with your case. If you were to say to the panel "We're not sure how much this can be taken into account or how we can prove any direct link to the pressure suddenly getting the better of her ......... As we sent her into the tests, we don't believe this will have much relevance as we didn't make the school aware until the day after ........ We did report this to the school, but we do understand that some distractions in an exam room full of 10 year olds is inevitable," I'm sure there will be a lot of sympathy for you on the panel. The mistake most people make with extenuating circumstances is to overplay them - much better to underplay them!

It's inconceivable to me that no one will ask whether you can think of any reasons why your daughter might have underperformed, but in the unlikely event that this should happen, and you sense that the hearing is drawing to a close, then you would need to take the initiative and say "We weren't sure whether to mention this, but .........."

I would be less than honest if I didn't say that, with scores of 113 and 109, it's uphill all the way, and the panel will need a lot of convincing. However, the academic case you've outlined could be a good one, depending the total picture - e.g. the exact words used by the head to support you, the KS2 predictions, and on how the panel view his overall recommendations (details of the latter will be made available in the appeal papers a week or so before the hearing).

Good luck - and please let us know if we can be of any further help.

[Peejay]

Thank you very much for your advice Etienne

Still very unsure about how we will write our appeal letter but I think, once we have the full report from the Head, we will have a clearer picture. We have a couple of friends who have appealed successfully in the past so we are seeking their advice as well. We don't doubt it will be an uphill struggle but we will never know unless we try.

A couple more things - would it be worth mentioning that our DD is grade 3 in violin? One of the big reasons we chose the particular Grammar school is that they have a superb performing arts centre. Secondly, she is one of two Junior Road Safety Officers at her school - could this be a point to mention to the appeal panel?

As well as this she is a great signer (BSL and deafblind) as her sister was deafblind. She also helps my wife at a deaf charity youth club. Presumably, from reading other threads, the latter 2 points aren't going carry much weight?

Talking with my DD this evening, she is as bemused as we are about her results - especially the first paper. She had done enough practice papers to gauge when she had done well and was convinced she had done enough to pass. As her birthday is mid-September we assume she would have had to have a relatively high mark to achieve a pass?

Thanks again for your help

[Etienne]

would it be worth mentioning that our DD is grade 3 in violin?

Worth a very brief mention - grade 4 or 5 would have carried more weight!

One of the big reasons we chose the particular Grammar school is that they have a superb performing arts centre.

It's starting to sound like a transfer appeal!
At a selection appeal no reasons for wanting a particular grammar school will be considered. Keep the focus on high academic ability and any extenuating circumstances.

Secondly, she is one of two Junior Road Safety Officers at her school - could this be a point to mention to the appeal panel?

Not relevant!

As well as this she is a great signer (BSL and deafblind) as her sister was deafblind. She also helps my wife at a deaf charity youth club. Presumably, from reading other threads, the latter 2 points aren't going carry much weight?

I'm afraid not! If the panel ask about her 'as a person', you'll have an opportunity to answer. This would be just part of a friendly conversation, however, and is unlikely to have anything to do with their decision.

As her birthday is mid-September we assume she would have had to have a relatively high mark to achieve a pass?

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Thanks again for your help

You're welcome!

[Peejay]

Pretty much as I thought on all counts! Thanks for the confirmation - better to get things clear now rather than wasting words in the appeal

[Y]

As you suggest that your DD's marks are uncharacteristically low, I wonder if it might be worth getting an analysis of the papers? Perhaps she managed to get her answers out of alignment in one or more sections?

[Peejay]

As you suggest that your DD's marks are uncharacteristically low, I wonder if it might be worth getting an analysis of the papers? Perhaps she managed to get her answers out of alignment in one or more sections?

That's something we hadn't thought of actually. Could be worth a shot, but not sure how easy it would be to figure out if it were the case. Added to the list of things to consider - Thanks

[Sally-Anne]

As you suggest that your DD's marks are uncharacteristically low, I wonder if it might be worth getting an analysis of the papers? Perhaps she managed to get her answers out of alignment in one or more sections?

Could be worth a shot, but not sure how easy it would be to figure out if it were the case.

A remark won't necessarily prove that point categorically, but if she got almost every answer wrong on a single section, but achieved a very high level of accuracy on every other section - especially on similar question types in other sections - it could suggest that something went wrong with her marking of the question paper.

A few question types only require the child to mark one option from "A B C D E". If they miss an answer box for the first question, then simply continue to mark the next box in turn, they could lose 7 marks very swiftly. If they then got to the end of that section and panicked because of their mistake ...

[Yummiemummie]

Just wanted to wish you good luck Peejay. Your daughter sounds amazing!

[Peejay]

Just wanted to wish you good luck Peejay. Your daughter sounds amazing!

Thanks very much Yummiemummie! We concur

A little update ... Had a bit more info back from the school today - sadly not the head's full report yet though and we need to clarify some dates/figures that are obviously incorrect

Predicted SATs:
Maths 5B
Reading 5A
Writing 5B
Should we have one for Science too?

VR Scores:
Autumn '08 - 108
Summer '10 - 116
Summer '11 - 125
Should we include all of these to show progression of just the latest one?

The head told us he is writing a glowing report including her strength of character working so hard through a traumatic year, so it sounds like its really going to assist in our appeal Should be available to collect on Monday.

Will be sitting down to write our letter this weekend so may well be on here again for moral support!