st bernards appeal

[lovingmum]

Hi my son has got his 11+ results and missed out by 2 marks ... his sats scores have been 5's last year and predicted are 5's ...his headteacher has written a letter of support highlighting all his achievements.

But well basically a few weeks ago he broke down my child that is .. saying that he had been upset since beginning of term as two of his fellow students had been teasing/mocking him and he hated going to school ... and that he'd been sad since 2nd week of sept ... broke my heart ... i did go and get this sorted at the school should I put this on my appeal as mitigating circumstance ? or should I just put his academic evidence and hope its enough ...?

was predicted to have passed as had been doing exceptionally well in tests ...

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Etienne]

You could certainly mention it very briefly, but it begs the question "If he was being bullied for most of the term, what evidence is there that his work was affected?"
Does the school think his performance dipped in the autumn term, when compared with what he was achieving in year 5?

[lovingmum]

yeah I see what u mean ... will have a chat with them tomo ... to be fair I think this may have had some impact (or am i just trying to console myself) because in exam performance for his bucks he scored 118 and then they took a nose dive in the order they were sat after that .for the consortium with 109 and 108 for SG. who knows he was doing so well in all the tests ... just wondered if I should mention briefly and then concentrate on school achievements or if I should mention and have it confirmed by the teacher too, or will that just seem like im making excuses

Is it enough just to put forward all the good academic points and leave it at that ?!?

confused

[lovingmum]

Hiya .. im new to this forum writing ...

I put LG as no one on my CAF Form my sons out by 2 points with 109 I want to appeal but am being told I can only directly appeal to LG as they were top of my list !

Surely if there part of consortium you should be able to appeal to any three of the grammar schools under the consortium.

I phoned LG And they say that I need to appeal through them ... Does that mean I cant appeal directly to StBernards ?

Other problem is LG Grammar not likely to look at my appeal are they ? As they cut off around 115 dont they ? there fore im way off .. in hindsight if I knew that I wouldnt have bothered with LG ....


This is so stressful any advice/help would be appreciated ...

[Etienne]

for his bucks he scored 118 and then they took a nose dive in the order they were sat after that .for the consortium with 109 and 108 for SG

It's not really possible to compare Bucks with the consortium & SG - they have different test formats, and the standardisation would not be the same.

who knows he was doing so well in all the tests ... just wondered if I should mention briefly and then concentrate on school achievements or if I should mention and have it confirmed by the teacher too, or will that just seem like im making excuses
Is it enough just to put forward all the good academic points and leave it at that ?!?

It might be best to get something in writing from the school, but I suggest you don't say too much about this at the appeal, unless they ask you questions. I don't think it will carry much weight, unless the school will confirm his work was affected (and it sounds as if they think he's doing well and still on target for level 5s).
On the other hand, he was close to a qualifying score, so you probably don't need much in the way of extenuating circumstances.

[lovingmum]

Thank you so much for your speedy and informative response... I think I may leave it out and concentrate on the fact that he was so close and his academic evidence that may fingers crossed help ... should I send work samples with the appeal or let them look through books at appeal as his work is always very well received and commented well on by teachers consistently.

Also I have seen some forum topics discuss sub levels should I find this out and get evidence for too ?!?

Feel a little better thankyou

[chad]

was st bernard's listed somewhere on your caf?
If so then you should be able to appeal for a place at the school

[Looking for help]

I agree chad, I can't see any reason why you cannot appeal to St B's as long as it is on your CAF .

[lovingmum]

Yes It was on my CAF Form ... it was second on there .. but they said I can only appeal to the school I sat the test at .. this is confusing

[Etienne]

Could you tell us how the venue was allocated? Did you choose it, or was it allocated by the consortium? Was this school also on your CAF?

Do you know when your appeal is likely to take place - before or after 1st March?