Bucks Appeal -119

heartmum · Post by **heartmum** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:43 am

Wishing you the best of luck in the appeal x x x

Midget Man · Post by **Midget Man** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:27 pm

Good Luck for your appeal today xxxxxxxxxxx

Shelly8 · Post by **Shelly8** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:22 pm

We had our Appeal this afternoon and it was really strange - it only lasted 10 minutes!...and they took another 10 minutes to look through the school books and reports after we had left the room.
We are very worried, had they already made up their minds?

Our presentation was about 5 minutes, add the introductions and the LA Reps. statement and that leaves about 3 or 4 minutes of questions.

Questions: all i can remember

- what books is she reading
- why do we think she did not get the required mark
- any siblings

and 2 filler questions:
- does she do any sport and does she play any musical instruments.

They were all polite and friendly - but quite businesslike!

Hope · Post by **Hope** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:46 am

Thanks for putting notes up about your appeal, we don't have ours til 11/2.

Fingers crossed for a good result for you, you are in for a very tense weekend waiting for the all important letter next week.

Shelly8 · Post by **Shelly8** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:45 am

Thanks Hope.

Good luck with your appeal

Shelly8 · Post by **Shelly8** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:08 pm

Some more info.

We had taken copies of our speech, we offered a copy to the members of the panel, the Chairwoman said "no that will not be necessary", only the Clerk accepted a copy. My wife was so nervous, she read the speech and her voice was shaky and barely audible - i was going to stop her and ask the panel if they could follow what she was saying, but was not sure if i should interrupt proceedings. I'm not sure if they heard it all, she missed out one whole paragraph and the Clerk pointed this out at the end of the speech and she read it out.

My wife is used to doing presentations at work and that is why we decided she would do the speech - i've never seen her like that before, poor thing, i really felt for her.

As suggested elsewhere on this forum, practice and practice your speech!!!
I'll post any more info as i remember it.

Sally-Anne · Post by **Sally-Anne** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:56 pm

Hi Shelly8

My commiserations to your wife, but good for her for getting through it, and well done to the Clerk for having prompted her on the missing paragraph. Panels are always very kind in that respect when people are so nervous.

People really do under-estimate the difference between a school appeal hearing and a presentation in another environment. The hearing is deeply personal and involves so much emotion that it is hardly surprising that parents are so nervous. Panels see it 7 or 8 times a day and they fully understand how you feel. Some of them may even be parents who have appealed for their own children in the past, and then become panel members as a result of that experience.

Sally-Anne

Post by **Etienne** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:01 pm

I think clerks will always welcome a copy of the presentation. It's much less certain whether the panel will want one. It might be useful in a very complicated case, but otherwise they might well prefer to listen and take notes.

i was going to stop her and ask the panel if they could follow what she was saying, but was not sure if i should interrupt proceedings.

You could have done. Another possibility - when someone cannot carry on - is for the partner to take over the reading of the script.

Don't worry, though. If the panel weren't sure of anything, they would have asked questions, or checked with the clerk.

We are very worried, had they already made up their minds?

No!

Shelly8 · Post by **Shelly8** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:13 pm

Thanks S-A.

Etienne,

I am even worse than her, more than 2 people and I cannot say a word, i suffer from Social Anxiety!
What you said is reassuring, it just seemed to finish too soon, so we assumed our case was quite poor....hopefully that is not the case.

Post by **Etienne** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:47 pm

more than 2 people and I cannot say a word, i suffer from Social Anxiety

I realise it's not something that you may have felt comfortable doing, but if you were able to tell the clerk before the hearing, the panel could have taken it into account. They may have been wondering whether to intervene to help ("Would you like to take a break?"), but thought to themselves "The partner doesn't seem too worried about the situation, and hasn't offered to take over the script".

The problem, of course, is that many people don't realise how stressful the hearing can be until they're in there.

Another point which may help future appellants (and it's not a comment on ShellyB's case) is that most presentations are far, far too long. If the facts are already all in the paperwork, the panel just need a very brief reminder what the case is about - they don't need to hear the whole of the written submission all over again. A short presentation is easier for everyone. If the panel want more information, they will ask during the Q&A session.

Thank you ever so much for sharing, ShellyB, and good luck!