11 Plus Exams Forum

I have one devastated little man at home....... I have a duty to support my son and appeal however his scored was 115 (not what was expected as his practice papers he scored 75 out of 80.

He's been working at a level 5a since Spring (Y5) now in Autumn of Year 6 working at Level 6 (has a secondary school teacher coming in to teach him Maths - as his school no longer have the ability to - to the point he's currently doing algebra) was expected to pass and was told definitely GS material.

The week leading upto the test he was reduced from being an extremely confident person to a bag of nerves and experienced trouble sleeping due to nerves and most nights asked me to lay next to him.

I've read through the Forums and noted evidence is the key but can anyone give further advice as to what information I need to support my appeal. I have asked the school for his CAT's, Reading Age, reports and most importantly his mentoring notes (he's mentored by the Head) whereby it clearly shows he has been working above the national average since Year 2 - so consistency is also the key for me. Any other words of advise would be helpful!!

Links to all our advice are set out here:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... aneous#e32" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Speaking as the parent of someone who did fall apart around the time of the eleven plus, do you have evidence of this extenuating circumstance? Did you take him to a GP or ask for CAHMS during this time? Did the school also note a change in behaviour? These kinds of things will help show why your child underperformed.

Does he belong to any academic type clubs outside of school? Things such as archaeology club, or math or science clubs (not for learning, but for fun). Our appeal panel did accept evidence from these kind of clubs. It wasn't things like Kumon, but was purely clubs with kids who enjoyed the topic and wanted to learn more led by qualified professionals. For example, does you child belong to a club working on things such as Crest Star awards?

In our case, I think the key to it was showing how academically able they were and having strong evidence to show why they had struggled at the beginning of year 6 due to many factors including the eleven plus testing process.

The whole point of the appeal/review process is to get those children who fell through the cracks of the eleven plus into grammar schools. If you have the evidence, I truly believe you will be fine.