Appeal Dates

[dissapointed mum]

Panic over!!! I got my letter in the post this afternoon. 4 PM can you believe it. I dont know what happened to the morning post!! Anyway Ive got it now, and my date is also the 22nd Jan at 11.45am. All I need to do now is get the night shifts I have on the 20th and 21st off, and get everything prepared and be in a fit state to sit in an appeal!
Any extra advise from others who have been through this ordeal will be greatly recieved,not just by me Im sure, but by everyone else in this same position.
Best wishes to all
DP

[guest1]

Got our date through today 25/1 posted our letter on the Wednesday of second week. Is there any disadvantage with having a later date? Do they approve appeals up to the limit of spaces available and then it is sorry but no??

[Guest]

No, all appeals heard within this first wave - early Jan to mid/end Feb -have exactly the same chance.

Sally-Anne

[dissapointed mum]

To all panel experts!
If you hear within 7 to 10days of your appeal whether you are successful or not, does it not decrease the chances of later dates of people who have a hearing, of getting a place, and vice versa, as an early appeal date they may think yes suitable for a place and give it, then later in Feb find someone with a more deserving case, but find there arent any spaces left. or it can work the other way round whereby they turn somebody down as there MIGHT be someone with a stronger case, but then find no other people suitable and have spaces left over. Is this possible? Hope you undestand what Im trying to say!
DP

[Erica]

Don't panic! As the booklet from Bucks CC says - no school allocations are made by Admissions until all the timely appeals have been heard. As Sally-Anne and others have said, it makes no difference when your appeal date is - beginning of Jan or five to six weeks later.

[GUEST55]

Each case is looked at on its own merit - there is no 'tally' up of places. The appeal is for a Grammar school place, not a particular school. It would be impossible [and unfair] to keep track when several appeals are heard simultaneously.

[Guest]

Those in Bucks are lucky. See "Timing of Appeals", 28 October, below.

When the 1st March national allocation day was introduced, Bucks to their credit brought everything forward (a major task, because they have around 900 11+ appeals to cope with!). 11+ results are issued late November, appeals are submitted during the first half of December, and hearings take place January/February.

On the whole it's worked very well, and successful timely appellants have been included in the first round of grammar school allocations.

Disadvantages?
1. The internal review of borderline and other cases had to be abolished because there wasn't time.
2. Some parents of children who had qualified immediately felt a bit aggrieved that they didn't have priority over those qualifying via appeal. (In my view if you're qualified, you're qualified!)
3. Some parents have found it difficult to focus on submitting an appeal at such a busy time of year (end of term/lead-up to Christmas).

This year the Bucks results have been issued a week earlier, which has helped.