11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi, I have an appeal on Monday and wondered if I could get some advise from Etienne. Many thanks

Hi Watkins1 - welcome to the forum

Are you able to outline your questions on the forum? there may be several people who can help you and the advice given will help others.

I have been sent the statement from the school ahead of the appeal next week. My child is one point away from the cut off mark, and the basis of my appeal is that my child was very distraught at the time of the entrance exams due to the loss of both grandparents in a few months. I have also submitted references to her academic ability. The school statement says that they are sympathetic to the family situation but there are no concessions for family circumstances. Therefore, I am feeling a little despondent before the appeal next week.

Hi Watkins,

Thanks for the background - am sure Etienne will be able to give some more info but until then it might be worth looking at http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which discusses extenuating circumstances and the appeal. Whatever the circumstances, the crucial thing is that there is good evidence of academic ability and this is the thing that you must focus on particularly with your DC being so close to passmark

Watkins1 wrote:the basis of my appeal is that my child was very distraught at the time of the entrance exams due to the loss of both grandparents in a few months.

Unfortunately the loss of grandparents tends to come up at appeals quite frequently, and can lack conviction. It will help considerably if there is clear evidence from the school of her distress around the time of the test, and perhaps that there was a marked dip in her academic performance.

I have also submitted references to her academic ability.

This is where the centre of your appeal should be - proving as far as possible that the test result was not representative of her ability.

The school statement says that they are sympathetic to the family situation but there are no concessions for family circumstances.

This is very much a standard statement against oversubscription and you can pretty well ignore it. Focus on the academic evidence instead.

Hi Watkin
The basis of our appeal was extenuating circumstances. DD lost one grandfather, in the July, and the other was diagnosed a week before the Kent test and died very quickly. DD bombed on the day, badly. So well done to your child for doing so well.
HT sent us with evidence of high ability, confirmed there hadbeen a dip in her ability in the time over the test, she provided evidence of her returning to high levels before the appeal.
HT also arranged counselling for DD though school, so we took evidence of this too.

Both appeals we attended asked if she struggled with stress then, how was she going to cope at grammar......bit different methinks, but I bit my tongue.

Let me know if I can be of any help.