Pate's Top 120 Places Being Turned Down

[Chelt_Dad]

muminTewkes
Will do! Oh hang on, that will now make you think .. sorry! Better stop now before I get a scolding!
Chelt_Dad

[capers123]

The LA report also stated that there were 16 appeals last year, two of which were successful.

Another thought on number of appeals being successful is that the panel does (or should) regularly change - I think 3 years is the maximum one person should remain on a panel for a school.

Therefore it is entirely possible that a new panel could allow more appeals - or less - than have been allowed in the past.

For instance, say another panel swapped to Pate's - they might suddenly find themselves with 8 (or more - sometimes a panel might think that there's a high chance of children not taking up their places by the start of the new term, so cross their fingers and hope) appeals allowed.

It's always worth putting in an appeal. The worst that can happen is that you don't win, and if you don't tell the child you're appealing, then there's no upset.

[Milla]

sometimes a panel might think that there's a high chance of children not taking up their places by the start of the new term.

how could they possibly know, or guess at, the likelihood of a random list of names not taking up their places??

[capers123]

how could they possibly know, or guess at, the likelihood of a random list of names not taking up their places??

They can't. The problem is unlikely to arise, but has done so on a panel I was on a long time ago. We knew that the school could take 2 extra pupils per class without prejudice to the existing pupils. However, there was a crop of quite exceptional appeals that year, that made it very, very hard for us to have distinguished between the ones we were minded to allow. We therefore decided to allow one more than we felt it fair for the school to cope with because for all of those appeals the prejudice against the child outweighed the prejudice against the school. The result would have been that one class would have had 3 extra pupils in it - they'd never had to fit that many in before. We just had to hope that some children would not take up their places

Looking at the admissions numbers for the school when the following years docs came out, two pupils had not started at the beginning of term for whatever reason. Phew!

Note, however, that just because a school can take an extra 2 pupils per class, a panel will not allow (2 x classes) appeals. Some years it works out that way for some schools, other years it may not do so, especially if the panel decides that the mitigating circumstances don't outweigh the school case. Each individual appeal is different, as is each school & each panel!

[turtleglos]

just found this link, its quite interesting regarding appeals. I cant seem to find any for last year though.

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index ... leid=12086

[img]2007/8 appeals withdrawn heard refused upheld
crypt 23 2 21 10 11
hsfg 59 4 55 30 25
marling 8 1 7 1 6
pates 10 1 9 6 3
str 34 0 34 29 5
stroud high 28 4 24 16 8
ribston 38 0 38 32 6
[/img]
(Sorry,it was supposed to be a table but this is the best I can do)

[capers123]

just found this link, its quite interesting regarding appeals. I cant seem to find any for last year though.

That's quite interesting. I remember hearing some of those for one school, and I even remember why some didn't win! If the appeal is heard in term time, is sending a relative to the appeal because you've gone on a foreign beach holiday (with your child taken out of school), really showing your commitment to the child's education? Especially when you've not got much of a case on paper and the relative knows nothing about the childs education background, predicted SATs, problems on the day of the exam, or has any mitigating circumstances to give the panel... Doh!

Anyway. I think the following year SHG & Ribston more or less swapped in the number of appeals allowed, and that continued last year.

Don't forget, though, panels change, and what one panel finds a strong case from the school, another panel may find less convincing. And vice-versa.

[livviloo]

On a negative note, for all you waiting, my son heard from another child that "the exam was easier this year and there were more kids in the top 120".

[capers123]

On a negative note, for all you waiting, my son heard from another child that "the exam was easier this year and there were more kids in the top 120".

That can happen. Did you not notice the scales & ruler when the children checked in for the exam? They use these measurements as part of the weighting process (why else would it be called that).

The 120 refers to average sized children, but Pates prefers smaller ones, so they can fit more into each years intake. There's probably 140 small children in the 'top 120' this year.

[livviloo]

I did not notice because my DH took him and he never said! My son is quite small, perhaps this helped.

[muminTewkes]

Ahhh...that explains it..he is no.134...my ds1 is rather tall for his age..