Skinners' appeal

[mystery]

It's a funny question isnt' it - why weren't the scores higher? How would you know unless you had been on your child's shoulders during the exam, and even then how would you have know what wasn't going through their head that should have been?

Hope I don't ever have to go to appeal as my answer "how should I know but here's my evidence of their academic ability in some areas closely related to that test" might be viewed as rude.

[twinkles]

Well I was asked the same sort of question at my appeal two years ago by one appeal panel member. He kept asking me the same question over and over - "why do you think he didn't pass (maths) on the day"?

I didn't know did I. I have no idea what he was trying to get me to say but after about the 4th time he asked me this question I replied - I have no more idea than you as to why he didn't perform on the day, he was expected to pass, all the indications were that he would, but for some reason he didn't - he had an off day. You have all the information in front of you to back this up from his CAT results, predicted SATS levels etc etc.

My appeal was not upheld, yet my son left primary with high level 5s and didn't just scrape a level 5 in any of the three subjects either and has just got a level 7c in maths in year 8 at the local comp.

[Peter]

Well, we had our appeal today. The panel had our score breakdown in front of them and when they asked questions, they went through the nvr, vr and maths and pretty much asked us to justify why each one wasn't higher! Although we had some evidence to support high ability, I can now see why the successful appeals are those with higher scores. I'm not feeling particularly hopeful, but I'm glad we went through with it as we certainly did as much as we could. Good luck to all those waiting on appeals

I hope that the Panel had the same information as was in your package from the clerk, with regard to scores. Last year they had different info and this was one of the reasons why the Ombudsman recommended a fresh appeal (even if it hasn't taken place yet).

[janeya]

That's strange, my sons score was no where in my pack and certainly not the breakdown of it. I hadn't mentioned it in my evidence either

[Just1-2go]

It's a funny question isnt' it - why weren't the scores higher? How would you know unless you had been on your child's shoulders during the exam, and even then how would you have know what wasn't going through their head that should have been?

Hope I don't ever have to go to appeal as my answer "how should I know but here's my evidence of their academic ability in some areas closely related to that test" might be viewed as rude.

People who have been successful at Skinners' appeals that I know have answered for example: "His scores weren't higher because there was a death in the family"
They seem to look for specific extenuating circumstances coupled with evidence of high ability

[Peter]

That's strange, my sons score was nowhere in my pack and certainly not the breakdown of it. I had mentioned it in my evidence either

Nothing strange - its called maladministration *****

[janeya]

Hi,
I hadn't mentioned my sons score in my appeal evidence, as I thought that as we were appealing it was obvious he hadn't got the score necessary, otherwise he'd have a place! My evidence was based around his academic ability, if i'd known otherwise, i would have focussed much more on the 11+ score. I also thought the new code stated that mitigating circumstances did not carry as much weight/influence as they used to?
It looks like Skinners' make up their own rules and criteria hence all the previous complaints to the ombudsman and one still outstanding from last year!

[tigger2]

Hi Janeya,

I think that it is 5 outstanding from last year and 1 or 2 before that I feel very sorry for every family still waiting.

Tigger
x

[Redrobyn]

Because of Skinners status (And Judd) then can more or less set things up as they see fit as long as it complies with The Schools Code.

The outstanding appeals through the LGO may be to do with other issues experienced before at both the above named schools, and it is quite possibly that further ones will take place this year for similar reasons

[tigger2]

The problem is RedRobyn is that the amount of complaints that the LGO decides to investigate year after year show that they don't comply and the Governing Body have very little regard for the Appeals Code or the LGO come to that. If they were complying then LGO would take up far fewer complaints to investigate. There is no reason whatsoever why they should consider themselves exempt from following these procedures to the letter.