Non-qualification for Berks but highly qualified for Bucks.

[munch]

We received the results from Langley today and are absolutely stunned. DS did not qualify - score was 104.
NVR was never his favourite and we expected his NVR would be less than the VR however there doesn't seem to be much difference in the 2 scores and we are totally stumped! Particularly as VR is his real strength and he scored very very high in the Bucks test.
Is it worth appealing and relying on the Bucks score?
I have sent a message to the appeals box.
Thanks.

[Sally-Anne]

Hi munch

Nothing has turned up in the Appeals Box, I am afraid. Please could you re-send, being careful to get the address right.

I will wait until I see the email before commenting.

Thanks,

Sally-Anne

[munch]

Sorry I sent the messages in the wrong order, to the forum first and then the appeals box.
You should have it now.

[Sally-Anne]

Hi munch

The problem you have is that you would need to provide the Bucks qualification letter as evidence, and although one score is very impressive, the other is less so, as you will know. If both scores had been of a similar level it would certainly have been of some help in demonstrating that the VR result for Langley did not fully reflect his ability. Unfortunately you are not really able to argue that now.

In the end I am afraid that the panel would almost certainly take the view that their test is different, not least because it also tests NVR, and that is the hurdle that he needed to jump. Your case would need to focus on why he was unable to do that.

If you have the battery of very strong academic evidence you can appeal, by all means, but as you have seen, the statistics are very heavily weighted against success. That is one of the problems with appeals against both non-qualification and over-subscription - a successful appeal places an additional burden on the school, forcing them over PAN, so panels are much tougher on those cases.

In Bucks, where the two are separate, a panel can put through as many deserving cases as they wish for qualification, knowing that any over-subscription problems will be sorted out through the admissions rules and the further process of transfer appeals.

Your 2nd choice school was under-subscribed this year, and yoru ultimate fallback school really should be copper-bottomed, but we expect to know the numbers for preferences for each school well before 1st March (probably this month), and that will hopefully allow me to reassure you!

Sally-Anne

[munch]

Thanks S-A, all valid points. Would be keen to see those preferences as and when..
Will need to think on the very strong academic evidence aspect - is currently a 5C in Reading and (I think)Writing and 4A in Maths. Class teacher has singled him out for his writing ability which has 'creative flair in buckets'.
Does that sound like it's worth pursuing?

[Sally-Anne]

Will need to think on the very strong academic evidence aspect - is currently a 5C in Reading and (I think)Writing and 4A in Maths.

They are on the low side for a Slough appeal, I'm afraid. With the odds weighted so heavily against you, he would probably need to be on 5a for both, or at the very least 5b and predicted 5a.

I don't know if Langley will provide a remark in the way that Bucks does - perhaps someone from Berks will pop in to advise? That might at least give you some idea where he went wrong.

[munch]

Thanks again S-A.
Those levels were from parents eve at the start of Y6 so not aware of the most recent ones. I was wondering about the remarking too - as you say it may some light on what happened.
Will see if anyone from Berks comes along to answer that one otherwise I will contact Slough LA.
Thanks again for your prompt assistance.

[Looking for help]

I think you can request a remark - we did many moons ago, it didn't change anything, but they were happy enough to do it, what they wouldn't do is let us see the paper.

That was St Bernard's.

[Sally-Anne]

Those levels were from parents eve at the start of Y6 so not aware of the most recent ones.

That suggest that he could be in the region of 5a/5b by the end of Year 6. However, looking at the cut-off scores for Langley (117+) in recent years, you have an absolutely huge mountain to climb. It is the equivalent of an appeal in Bucks on 108, and I would frankly never advise anyone to appeal on a score that low unless they had a shed-load of academic evidence showing exceptionally high ability, plus very credible extenuating circumstances.

The only person to pull off an appeal on a similar score in recent years (possibly even in living memory!) was Morning Glory, and the case she put together was simply astounding.

I am afraid that Langley is off the menu for him, munch. What a shame, because the high Bucks score does show what he can do on a good day.

[munch]

Thanks LFH and S-A.
Langley is out of the mix but can you appeal to a school within the Slough consortium even if it was not one you put on the CAF? I was considering St Bernards and did in fact submit their supplementary forms but switched to a different school on CAF in the end.