Ok- we have decided to appeal. Grateful for any thoughts.

[katel]

I'm so sorry, overanxious, I seem to have misinformed you. I know that all the primaries in our town do CATS so I thought it was universal. Still worth a try, though!

Etienne- if you have a moment some time, I'd really welcome any comments you may have on my original post

[scarlett]

Sorry no advice to give Katel..but just want to say the very best of luck for it all ..we're all thinking of you and your son.x

[Snowdrops]

Katel, what did you decide vis a vis the psychologists report?

[Etienne]

I think it's an interesting point: "Had he just missed the pass mark, we would have accepted the result, but he missed the target so spectacularly that the result really looks like an anomaly".

There is no requirement in the new Code for extenuating circumstances.

It's always good to have the headteacher's support, but appeal panels know that there is a lack of consistency in headteacher recommendations (i.e. some can be overgenerous!). What matters, therefore, is the hard academic evidence, and how much of it there is.

I quite like the relaxed approach to the oversubscription aspect of the appeal. Perhaps you could beef up "he is better suited to the grammar school" to include something about "really fulfilling his potential"? If I were on the panel, I'd also like to hear something positive about this particular school, rather than just a preference for a grammar school education.

Hope that helps!

[Amber]

I wonder if you might be better off not saying that you think he would do well at either of the other schools? You might put ideas into the panel's collective mind- well, if that's what they think, then let him go there and do well. Is there a way of saying that although the schools are good, you really feel that he needs the challenge of GS, needs to be surrounded by children of similar ability, something like that?

Just a thought, based on nothing but a first read-through.
Very best of luck.

[katel]

Thank you all.

I know- I did wonder if I was offering a hostage to fortune in my "two good school" sentence. We live in a town with a grammar at one end and a high school at the other and some people are very very snobby about the high school in a very unappealing way and I wanted to distance us from them. I'll think about a redraft.

The academic evidence is difficult, obviously. I don't want to burden the panel with books, but not sure what else to provide. We have a new head teacher who has been imposing a quite strict testing routine on the children for the past 6 months or so, so there's lots of that sort of evidence- I'm assuming it'll be included in his report.

[Etienne]

I've no problem with you conceding that you have a 'reasonable' alternative (panels hear too many 'attacks' on alternative schools!), but I do feel you need to turn the GS from being a somewhat marginal preference into a strong preference!

As far as academic evidence is concerned, I am always drawing attention to this list:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- the more things you can tick off, the better!

[Caroline1852]

Thank you all.

I know- I did wonder if I was offering a hostage to fortune in my "two good school" sentence. We live in a town with a grammar at one end and a high school at the other and some people are very very snobby about the high school in a very unappealing way and I wanted to distance us from them. I'll think about a redraft.

I wouldn't even mention the other school. Isn't the appeal about a clear underperformance in the Kent Test and the fact that you and your son's teachers feel strongly that he should be at that grammar school. It's nothing to do with where he might go to school otherwise.

Good luck.

[Belinda]

.

[katel]

Interesting. I did want to address the snobbery issue head on- we are quite "posh" and the assumption in the town would be that there is no way a child of ours would go to the High School! We have spent the past few months dealing with the double takes of everyone we meet- first because he failed and second because we are not going out of town, or private or something. And I know many of the appeals will be thinly veiled versions of that snobbery, and I am sure the Panel will know that too. We don't feel like that, and I wanted to find a way of getting that message across. Does that make sense?