For the appeals box

[Etienne]

Yes, I think this would be OK.

[panicattack!]

As always Etienne thanks so much for your feedback and your help. I will have to find something else to worry about now!

[panicattack!]

... like many others! My appeal is looming fast and despite reading and reading this forum and the school's website and having lots and lots of help from cyber friends I have come full circle! I am absolutely dreading this week. I felt very well prepared and now that I have taken the dreaded presentation out again to check over it and have ended up re-writing it!

My over sub appeal should, having read all the information and links on this forum, be quite easy to put together but I still can't manage it!!! I am stating academics, why that school and circs as to why we didn't get it. That should be the long and short of it but I keep feeling I am missing something vital ...

I am so useless at public speaking that I wondered if I read everything presentation, prepared answers to questions etc if that really is a bad thing to do. Any thoughts anyone? I had thought I would read the presentation and then know the answers to likely questions so well that I could just glance down to see what I had prepared for. Now I think there is just no way I can be coherent enough.... I guess I am worried about getting my point across effectively I keep thinking it is like an exam, where the bell rings and time is up and you just know that you haven't even reached the point in your essay, let alone finished it!!

Best of luck to everybody, hope you are feeling more in control than I am.

.... wine and chocolate are just not cutting it at the moment!

[T12ACY]

I am with you

Am now in the process of re writing for possibly the 100th time my presentation. Just when you think you have finished and read it you find somewhere to tweak it then the whole thing is different! With writing the possible answers to questions I thought you were in danger of coming across as too scripted, and perhaps the panel might feel these were the words of a third party when it is you they are talking to.... not a professional opinion by any stretch of the imagination!!! Anyway I have kind of back tracked with 2 particular possible questions. Had written a piece to include in my formal presentation but decided I should not try to second guess the questions this panel might have for me (may be different panel and questions to the last!), and have saved these on to a single sheet of paper to refer to.

What I am saying is where there is a significant point to get across rather than a simple answer to a relatively simple question perhaps it is ok to refer to some notes you have made, but for 'easy' questions like books DC enjoys to read or what preperation did DC do an honest immediate answer would come across better than looking for the answer in sheets of 'possible' questions to be asked. Does that make sense???? Not sure it does.

Good luck though, am thinking of you x

[panicattack!]

thanks for that! I was going to try and be spontaneous with my answers but trying to remember all the answers to why that school and why not the other one so I get them all out is going to be the tricky part!

Good luck and soon it will be finished.......

[twinkles]

Good luck panicattack - everything crossed for you!

[U400JB9]

I did go in and say I was too nervous and was it OK if I read directly from the sheet....take a bottle of water too as I found my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth! Read it through a few times before you go just to its fully familiar to you....not just as something you wrote.

Panicattack! stop rewriting it. it is good as it is, you`re just torturing yourself.

They will ask you questions, obviously, but they`re not difficult, they`re all about your child and no one knows them better than you two do. Remember, they have done hundreds of theses appeals and they know when you are being honest. And anyone with half a heart knows what you are going through and allows for "stage fright"

Theres no reason why you can`t take notes and refer back to them during questoning, or if you think of something else. I had highlighted a few bullet points on my "crib sheet" so I could find them in my blind panic......which incidentally never happened.

I think you`ve done a fantastic job and you`re almost at the top of the mountain.....both of you. Lets hope you get Brownie points for time and effort

[panicattack!]

Couldn't have done it without your help

I am going to put it back in the drawer and stop worrying about it. A more positive approach is needed.... what will be will be it CAN'T be the end of the world if it doesn't work!

No more wobbles... choccie and wine and it is only 10.25!!!

[U400JB9]

You could have done it perfectly well without me, but thanx.

Thats a very healthy attitude...not the wine though...LOL

How many days?

[panicattack!]

FRIDAY