11 Plus Exams Forum

Has anybody heard of an appeal that was adjourned for 2 weeks due to the panel wanting clarification of admission policy from the shools representative....We are talking a Church school with its own admission policies.

Dear chad

I certainly experienced problems with schools running their own admission arrangements (more so than with LAs), although I cannot recall a delay of 2 weeks.

The length of the delay might well be because it's the earliest date on which the three panel members are able to re-assemble.

A panel would not lightly adjourn to a later date, and it suggests to me that they are taking their responsibilities very seriously!

Regards

Thanks for the reply Etienne.....I am really puzzled by this.... The panel let the school present its case but then after an hour of questions and debate decided to adjourn wthout the parents putting forward their case.
The parents were first told that the case would be heard 'late July' when the parents protested they brought it forward to 'two weeks'. The parents had to travel for over an hour to the appeal hearing as it was in the diocese capital (church school). It will not neccessarily be the same panel hearing the adjourned appeal.
Is this normal practice ? If a parent had not prepared their appeal..they are not given an adjournment.

Dear chad

There could be circumstances where stage 2 is adjourned to give parents more time, but they would have to be exceptional. I recall one instance where the parent had no understanding of the appeal process, and was totally unprepared, but the possibility of some really compelling medical evidence emerged out of the blue. The child was due to visit hospital the next day, and the parent agreed to request a letter of support. The hearing resumed a couple of weeks later, the panel accepted that the evidence was indeed compelling, and the appeal was upheld.

However, with regard to stage 1, I would not expect the admission authority to be given more time (because it ought to know what it's doing!).

I had thought, perhaps wrongly, that the adjournment in the case you refer to was because the panel required further information, rather than because the authority was ill-prepared. (It depends where the emphasis is )

Without knowing exactly what the issues were, it's difficult for me to comment, but I'll give an example of where a stage 1 adjournment might be reasonable:

• The panel thinks that the admission arrangements were flawed, but this in itself is insufficient for appeals to be upheld. It has to be shown that the appellants would have got a place if the admission arrangements had been correctly applied. It might then be necessary to adjourn to re-check all the applications and to work out how the appellants have been affected.

A delay until late July does not seem acceptable, especially as it emerged that the panel could reconvene within a fortnight.

The panel must stay the same - unless it is proposed to begin stage 1 again ............