crossborder preferences
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crossborder preferences
Dear Mel1
I'm replying to your post in the Major Appeal Alert thread.
As a precaution, when making phone calls your friend must make a note of the date and time, what was said, and who she spoke to. She should try to get everything confirmed in writing or by email.
It sounds as if she didn’t keep a copy of her preferences but I was interested to hear that the school appears to have done so. She should follow up her phone call to the school by explaining to them that she now needs evidence. Could the school provide a copy of her preference form? Failing this, could they confirm in writing that Burnham GS was the first choice?
She should then contact Slough, refer to the evidence provided by the school, report to them what she has been told by Bucks, and ask what evidence they can provide that Bucks was indeed notified of the first preference.
We can then consider what steps to take next.
I'm replying to your post in the Major Appeal Alert thread.
As a precaution, when making phone calls your friend must make a note of the date and time, what was said, and who she spoke to. She should try to get everything confirmed in writing or by email.
It sounds as if she didn’t keep a copy of her preferences but I was interested to hear that the school appears to have done so. She should follow up her phone call to the school by explaining to them that she now needs evidence. Could the school provide a copy of her preference form? Failing this, could they confirm in writing that Burnham GS was the first choice?
She should then contact Slough, refer to the evidence provided by the school, report to them what she has been told by Bucks, and ask what evidence they can provide that Bucks was indeed notified of the first preference.
We can then consider what steps to take next.
Etienne
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Mel1
Crossborder preferences
Hello Etienne
Thank you for your reply. I will speak with my friend tomorrow and ask her to do as you suggest. She may not be able to come on line herself but I will suggest that she does if she can. Either way I will let you know the outcome. One other thing is she thinks there is another girl from our school whose situation is the same. I have suggested she try and talk to the parent concerned as if there is then perhaps there has been a mistake made by our school. You see our school kept the copies as the Deputy Head sent them off on our behalf.
I will let you know how she gets on
Many thanks
Mel
Thank you for your reply. I will speak with my friend tomorrow and ask her to do as you suggest. She may not be able to come on line herself but I will suggest that she does if she can. Either way I will let you know the outcome. One other thing is she thinks there is another girl from our school whose situation is the same. I have suggested she try and talk to the parent concerned as if there is then perhaps there has been a mistake made by our school. You see our school kept the copies as the Deputy Head sent them off on our behalf.
I will let you know how she gets on
Many thanks
Mel
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Mel1
Hi Catherine
Yes my friend is in the Slough LEA and I think you may be right.
I feel awful for my friend as our sons and us have gone through this whole thing together and now we have the school we wanted and they haven't. We were hoping to celebrate the whole end to it on Saturday just gone, I had invited my friend and her family over for the eve and was going to have champers etc as we really assumed all would be well.
I really think there has been a big cock up somewhere, trouble is I guess she is going to have to convince soemone to do something about it.
I will tell her what you said.
Actually Catherine your son passed both, did you just put Slough Grammar on your wish list or did you also put a Bucks school and if so did you get a seperate offer??
Mel 1
Yes my friend is in the Slough LEA and I think you may be right.
I feel awful for my friend as our sons and us have gone through this whole thing together and now we have the school we wanted and they haven't. We were hoping to celebrate the whole end to it on Saturday just gone, I had invited my friend and her family over for the eve and was going to have champers etc as we really assumed all would be well.
I really think there has been a big cock up somewhere, trouble is I guess she is going to have to convince soemone to do something about it.
I will tell her what you said.
Actually Catherine your son passed both, did you just put Slough Grammar on your wish list or did you also put a Bucks school and if so did you get a seperate offer??
Mel 1
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Sally-Anne
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- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Mel1
I still wouldn't rule out the Bucks end of things either! I have come across some administrative issues with both the Appeals and Admissions team there, so I suggest that she writes to the Admissions team asking them to actively
review the case from their side and confirm their view in writing. If the child has passed the Bucks 11+ they DO have some record of him somewhere! (It may not be of an application for a school, of course.)
However, names can be entered into systems wrongly, files can be mis-filed and people can just mess up.
I think the fact that the school has kept a copy of the preferences is quite interesting. Perhaps it is standard procedure in Slough, but it certainly isn't in Bucks. We get a "yellow reply card" to send off, that wings its way back a while later.
I think that if your friend can pursue all three elements of this - school, Slough LEA and Bucks simultaneously, she may get to the truth more quickly, which will put her and her child out of their misery sooner. (Sorry - can't remember from the other thread if it was a boy or girl - I suspect girl?)
Sally-Anne
I still wouldn't rule out the Bucks end of things either! I have come across some administrative issues with both the Appeals and Admissions team there, so I suggest that she writes to the Admissions team asking them to actively
review the case from their side and confirm their view in writing. If the child has passed the Bucks 11+ they DO have some record of him somewhere! (It may not be of an application for a school, of course.)However, names can be entered into systems wrongly, files can be mis-filed and people can just mess up.
I think the fact that the school has kept a copy of the preferences is quite interesting. Perhaps it is standard procedure in Slough, but it certainly isn't in Bucks. We get a "yellow reply card" to send off, that wings its way back a while later.
I think that if your friend can pursue all three elements of this - school, Slough LEA and Bucks simultaneously, she may get to the truth more quickly, which will put her and her child out of their misery sooner. (Sorry - can't remember from the other thread if it was a boy or girl - I suspect girl?)
Sally-Anne
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Mel1
Thank you Sally-Anne
I shall pass on your comments. It is all so easy for organisations to blame each other and I suspect as you say something has been lost somewhere.
It is interesting to hear that it seems it is not such a surprise that this could of happened and I am hoping this will give her hope. Her main dillema now is whether she should accept Herscel anyway.
thanks again oh and he is a boy
Mel
Ps
Loved the burning letter thing and I can just imagine your husbands face but then we are from different planets Venus, Mars!!
I shall pass on your comments. It is all so easy for organisations to blame each other and I suspect as you say something has been lost somewhere.
It is interesting to hear that it seems it is not such a surprise that this could of happened and I am hoping this will give her hope. Her main dillema now is whether she should accept Herscel anyway.
thanks again oh and he is a boy
Mel
Ps
Loved the burning letter thing and I can just imagine your husbands face but then we are from different planets Venus, Mars!!
Mel1, we only got one offer for Slough because we put all the Slough grammars first. If it had been the contrary, we would have received an offer for Burnham from Bucks, and also a separate offer from our first choice in Slough. The Slough grammars are all foundation and more independance regrading admissions.
Just a question: does your friend live within the 4.5 miles from Burham where places have been offered?
Just a question: does your friend live within the 4.5 miles from Burham where places have been offered?
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Guest
Mel1, I also live in berks but my son is going to BG. We also had a problem understanding the cross county thing.Prior to filling our form out our school had an evening wherby a member from the admissions team from SBC came as did the head of Herschel. My group of friends all interpreted the advise the same way - put your 1st choice school 1st (be it Grammar or Comp) then in order of preference EG: If you had a child lucky enough to pass both and you lived in Berks and you put BG then Hershcel you would get offered BG by your LEA. However if you live in Berks and put Herschel then BG your local LEA (Slough) would offer Herschel BUT you should also get anoffer from Bucks as you passed their entrance exam. If this is correct and your friend has had her offer from SBC (herschel) an offer from Bucks should come from their LEA. I would start with BUcks LEA and go from there. Hope this makes sense and if im wrong then so were about 10 of us when we all helped each other fill our forms out last year!!
Good Luck
Susie
Good Luck
Susie
guest
hi, mel1
i am new to this site. i am surprised to know such thing happened to your friend. if the information was missing between the LEAs, surely that's their responsibility to correct the mistake and offer the boy a place at his 1st choice school. what will your friend do - appeal or sue the LEA? what will be the outcome, can she definitely get the place she want? i just don't understand how the system works and am not sure if to put my son through this next year. good luck to your friend and her son.
i am new to this site. i am surprised to know such thing happened to your friend. if the information was missing between the LEAs, surely that's their responsibility to correct the mistake and offer the boy a place at his 1st choice school. what will your friend do - appeal or sue the LEA? what will be the outcome, can she definitely get the place she want? i just don't understand how the system works and am not sure if to put my son through this next year. good luck to your friend and her son.
