11+ nightmare

[albeck]

Hello Alan,

There seems to be a wide variation in primary schools' attitude to the 11 plus. I also wonder just how specific the instructions which are given to them by the GS's may be. There is definitely a problem when out of area primary schools which are not used to administering the tests are involved - thus poor Jimbo's school mistaking a practice paper for the real thing; my own daughter was in a similar position a few years ago and her school was originally planning to give her both practice papers and both exam papers all on the same day. In area primaries appear to treat the practices in different ways - some merely administer them to the kids then mark them with no further input; others, when they mark them go through the questions explaining why the correct answer is as it is.

If your particular primary is very anti 11 plus, your problem may be getting them to support you strongly enough for the appeal. In appeals for community schools a standard form is sent to the primary to fill in which covers most of the points about academic evidence and mitigating circumstances; some foundation schools have their own version, yet others rely on the primary to send whatever evidence they think is required. Appeals panels are looking for strong alternative evidence of academic ability so the primary report is crucial.

As for the practice test arrangements as mitigating circumstances - it may be worth a passing mention if your child was personally upset or confused by the way it was done, but it is not going to go far in itself as a reason for underperformance.

Best wishes

Morning Alex
Primary has already sent a favorable report into grammar, I have spoke with grammar and they seemed to encourage an appeal, they were very understanding and pointed out a few facts about the practice papers, which I don't really want to go into on this bbs. There are other factors to take into consideration for the appeal, again I don't want to damage my child's chances so I'll leave it at that.
Seems strange though, that different schools under the same LEA can have this much confusion, there's no level playing field.
So now it's a question of collecting evidence to present to the appeal, apparently the appeal papers can only be requested after the 3rd of March 2008. Thanks for your help Alan