ANY BRIGHT IDEAS

Eleven Plus (11+) in Lincolnshire (Lincs)

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jasonbs
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 4:58 pm

ANY BRIGHT IDEAS

Post by jasonbs »

We are in a real dilemma.Our third child is in reception at the same primary as our elder two.The eldest scraped a pass at 11 plus but has done fantastically well at Bourne Grammar.The second had a truly torrid time at primary and missed the 11 plus.Our third seems to be getting on ok and the class teacher is full of praise. The catchment of the school is a difficult one and our child is witness to a fair amount of anti-social behaviour -we are fearful that this could impact on her education and we dare not risk a repeat of last time.The teacher puts the behaviour down to the change of intake but says the school is powerless to act.We are concerned that our child is picking up inappropriate language and comes out with words she has certainly never heard in our home.
We now realise that we should probably have placed her elsewhere, but her school is the only one in the area with any spare places. The really good alternatives are all full. We were wondering what our chances would be of appealing for one of the other schools.
The other worry is that the schools' performance at 11 plus is weakening by the year. We are desperate to do our best for her but feel caught in a cleft stick.
Any ideas?
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

I am afraid that as your child is in reception it may be that appeals to full schools could be "Infant Class Size" appeals, and these are well nigh impossible to win as the only grounds the appeal panel may take into consideration are the wrong allocation of places or a decision by the admissions authority which is "unreasonable" in the strict legal definition of the term.

You need to establish whether any appeal would fall under this category. If a school has a class PAN (published admission number) of 30 or a multiple of 30 then it will usually mean that it would be an ICS appeal because 30 is the maximum number allowed in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes. Where a school has mixed year classes or PANs other than multiples of 30 you may need to enquire of the school how the classes are organised and whether any appeal would be ICS.

It is worthwhile keeping a watch on the numbers at a school by ringing up every so often as some schools do have a turnover of pupils. Some may operate a waiting list.

Is the school performing badly in relation to other schools in the area? You can take a look at the KS2 results for the past few years and judge. All the schools will be listed on the Directgov site with links to ofsted and KS2 result tables. It is possible to home prepare for 11 plus if it is only in this area that the school seems to be underperforming.

Sorry not to be giving any firm answers. Please post again if we can help further or if you want to know anything more specific.
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