Feedback from todays' 11+ appeal
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:58 pm
My husband and I arrived 20mins early into the main reception at BCC (Aylesbury) and were asked to take a seat. All around us were 'appealers' and we were all chatting (not many seats though). There were many appeal teams (10+???) and some were running very late, the clerk from each appeal team appears from time to time to tell you how late your particular appeal is (put maximum money on your car park ticket).
Ours was about 15mins late in the end which wasn't too painful. Our clerk was very nice and escorted us from the main buiding to our annexe quite a distance away in the wind and rain. On the way we handed her our two school books (for the end of the appeal) and asked her if she wanted copies of what my husband was about to say, (he just read off a set script) She seemed grateful for this.
We entered a small room and around a table which fitted 8 max were the three panel, the LEA person and the clerk. The clerk handed out our speeches to everyone and they immediately disregarded the original paper work and studied the new script whilst the LEA guy went through the legalities as to why our son is not currently being offered a place at a selective grammar school.
The panel then asked us to present our case and my husband, quite slowly for once, read his script, I had a horribly dry throat on his behalf and a real heavy beating heart!!! They all followed the script as he read it and he read the whole thing without being interrupted.
There were two men (retired) and one woman (retired but also a school governor). They were fine.
The questions....
No-one told me about this one...
Did your son have tuition????
Or this one..
What did you think of the catchment upper/secondary schools in your area when you visited them?????
Then the questions were ok-ish and the panel questioned us in turn...
Why didn't the head supply a letter about a particularly distressed child during the first exam (which formed part of our mitigating circumstances)
How nervous was our son before the first exam, before the second exam, what was his reaction after the exam
(My son is head boy and represents the school in its anti bullying stance so they asked...)
What does the school do with regard to anti bullying and how does your son support this issue??????
Are any of his friends going to the grammar?
(We moved from another area into Bucks two years ago)
How did he cope with this transition and were there any differences in teaching etc.
(A strange one...)
In our speech we spoke about our rankings, 11 ranked which included our son, 7 passed and 2 passed who were not ranked, but none of the three had noticed or could find the relevant page until I pointed it out, that this was the scenario - good or bad - aren't they the experts ????
General extra curriculum questions about what he does outside of school.
Well, that's it, done and dusted...if its not to be well so-be-it!!
xx
Ours was about 15mins late in the end which wasn't too painful. Our clerk was very nice and escorted us from the main buiding to our annexe quite a distance away in the wind and rain. On the way we handed her our two school books (for the end of the appeal) and asked her if she wanted copies of what my husband was about to say, (he just read off a set script) She seemed grateful for this.
We entered a small room and around a table which fitted 8 max were the three panel, the LEA person and the clerk. The clerk handed out our speeches to everyone and they immediately disregarded the original paper work and studied the new script whilst the LEA guy went through the legalities as to why our son is not currently being offered a place at a selective grammar school.
The panel then asked us to present our case and my husband, quite slowly for once, read his script, I had a horribly dry throat on his behalf and a real heavy beating heart!!! They all followed the script as he read it and he read the whole thing without being interrupted.
There were two men (retired) and one woman (retired but also a school governor). They were fine.
The questions....
No-one told me about this one...
Did your son have tuition????
Or this one..
What did you think of the catchment upper/secondary schools in your area when you visited them?????
Then the questions were ok-ish and the panel questioned us in turn...
Why didn't the head supply a letter about a particularly distressed child during the first exam (which formed part of our mitigating circumstances)
How nervous was our son before the first exam, before the second exam, what was his reaction after the exam
(My son is head boy and represents the school in its anti bullying stance so they asked...)
What does the school do with regard to anti bullying and how does your son support this issue??????
Are any of his friends going to the grammar?
(We moved from another area into Bucks two years ago)
How did he cope with this transition and were there any differences in teaching etc.
(A strange one...)
In our speech we spoke about our rankings, 11 ranked which included our son, 7 passed and 2 passed who were not ranked, but none of the three had noticed or could find the relevant page until I pointed it out, that this was the scenario - good or bad - aren't they the experts ????
General extra curriculum questions about what he does outside of school.
Well, that's it, done and dusted...if its not to be well so-be-it!!
xx