Hi All, Looking for some advice and help please.

DS qualified for Crypt and Marling.

He ranked 412 with Tommies and the school closed the qualifying score at 383.

My son was really looking to get into Tommies.

Is there any way that I could appeal this ? His rank isn't far off from the qualifying score at all.

Any advice or suggestions to appeal is please welcome.

Thanks

I would suggest you list Tommies as 1, 2nd choice honestly & 3rd as the backup with a good local comp as 4th. You could then ask to go on the wait-list for Tommies. Or just celebrate his success. He’s done brilliantly & waiting to March is hard, but after may be even harder.

If you really think there is a reason that he underperformed on the day, there may be further options to appeal, but I’m really not sure how/when you do these. The support of your school will help as they can share CAT scores or progress/attainment information that you won’t have as well as experience with the appeals process.

You can't appeal for a school until you have applied and been turned down, so after March 1st. Put your schools down in your genuine preferred order & consider appealing next March, if you have sufficient academic evidence.

His rank will not come into any appeal decision - you may be asked why he didn't perform better on the day ie. were there any mitigating circumstances, but as has been said, you cannot appeal until you have been refused a place.
Put STR first on your CAF - it will not affect him getting a place at Crypt or Marling (if his rank is high enough) by putting those 2nd and 3rd. Use 4th option for his preferred comp.

If you plan to appeal, you need to put STR on your CAF, but you can't go on the waiting list (mentioned above) as your DS didn't reach the qualifying score. Although he wasn't far off the qualifying score, he was quite far off the rank that would have gained him a place. If you have strong academic evidence and a very good reason why he underperformed, then consider appealing. If not, I would try and focus on the 2 great schools he has qualified for. I wouldn't put yourself through the trauma of an appeal when you have two excellent alternatives.

Although they closed the rank at 383, the lowest successful rank to secure a place at Tommies last year was 293. So even if the had qualified an extra 40 pupils to qualify your son, he would have been over 100 places out last year.

The appeals are known to be tough and stressful.
Do you have very strong academic evidence that he underperformed or had extenuating circumstances?
What does Tommies offer that Crypt/Marling don't? Or is it just because it's "Tommies"?

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I am so grateful for your help and tips.

As many of you have mentioned yes I do agree that Crypt and Marling are two great schools.

My son is very keen to go to Crypt as he liked the school last year when we went on Open day and stated that he wants to go here if he doesnt get into Pates.
He also likes the idea of being in co-ed rather than surrounded by boys only .

I would also like some clarifications on below please?
Generally it was my understanding that after Pates, it is Tommies and then comes Crypt and lastly Marling . This is purely based on the GCSE results over last fw years.
is my understanding correct? This is the only reason why i am keen for my DS to get into Tommies although he hasn't had a qualifying rank .Could someone please clarify this for me ?

Once I have convinced myself, we might not even think of appealing to Tommies .

Thanks again and I look for inputs from parents please.

GCSE results are affected by the ability of the kids when they start year 7. If you look at the progress 8 scores, which is a better indicator, Crypt is 0.66, Tommies 0.59 and Marling 0.56, so there is not a lot between them.

I couldn't agree more with Glos18. Pates get the highest GCSE results, for example, purely because they only take the brightest children. Progress 8 is all about how much progress children make while at a school and actually Crypt's score is the highest (0 being no progress). Your son will do well as any of the schools - they are all selective schools and the expected standard is therefore higher. Your son won't get higher GCSE results simply because he's at Tommies, but he will do best where he's happy.
My son has the choice between Tommies and Crypt and we are almost certainly going to pick Crypt because he had exactly the same reaction as your son when he went (he had a Taster Day there). I hope that helps.