Questions for Etienne re. Kent headteacher panel

[mystery]

Hi Etienne, I'm talking about the thing in Kent where before the results come out, if a child has marginally failed, the headteacher can try and do something about it. Not sure if they call it a review or panel or whatever. I'd be grateful if you could answer these q's please - they relate to children who have just sat the Kent test in September 2014.

1. Am I entitled to know this year if it is happening for my child?

2. Is having the child's year 5 exercise books essential (we have them all at home)?

3. If the school does it, and the answer is still a fail, does this make a real appeal by me later in the year harder?

[Etienne]

What you have is a form of non-statutory review.

1. Am I entitled to know this year if it is happening for my child?

I would have thought so, but hesitate to say at what point in time. (If there's anything in your child's school record about it, then you could certainly invoke the Data Protection Act.)

2. Is having the child's year 5 exercise books essential (we have them all at home)?

This depends entirely on how the review has been designed. Because it's a non-statutory process, KCC can make up whatever rules it wants.
(In Bucks, they refuse to look at exercise books at review.)

3. If the school does it, and the answer is still a fail, does this make a real appeal by me later in the year harder?

Not necessarily.

In some admission authorities, if you've had an unsuccessful review, they can argue that you've already been through a process that was 'fair, consistent & objective', and - if the panel agree there is evidence to substantiate this - then the appeal does not go on to consider any other issues.
Fortunately, unless there's been a change, the 'fair, consistent & objective' hurdle is not used in Kent.

It's not impossible that an individual panel member could note you've already been through an unsuccessful review, and give a bit of weight to it, but I have reservations about this approach because the Appeals Code clearly sets out the procedure to be followed where 'fair, consistent & objective' is not being applied:

• • "3.13 An appeal panel may be asked to consider an appeal where the appellant believes that the child did not perform at their best on the day of the entrance test. In such cases:
    a) where a local review process has not been applied, the panel must only uphold the appeal if it is satisfied:
    i) that there is evidence to demonstrate that the child is of the required academic standards, for example, school reports giving Year 5/Year 6 SAT results or a letter of support from their current or previous school clearly indicating why the child is considered to be of grammar school
    ability; and
    ii) where applicable, that the appellant’s arguments outweigh the admission authority’s case that admission of additional children would cause prejudice."
    

In so far as one can generalise, my feeling is that most appeal panels would take a completely fresh look at your case, and judge it strictly on the basis of the arguments and evidence you put forward.

[Oblique]

Some months ago, our HT gave a presentation about the Kent Test, to allow the parents to make an informed decision on whether to enter their children. He ran through the entire process and stated that we would not be told in advance if there was to be a HT appeal, but the school would give us this information after the results came out.

None of DS's year 5 work came home at the end of last term. At the presentation, we were told that if there was a HT appeal, work from terms 4,5 and 6 would be submitted along with any other supporting evidence. He also said that if there was an unsuccessful HT appeal but the staff really felt the child should have passed, he would support a parental appeal. Teachers have a very good idea of who would flourish in a GS environment.

The schools receive the test results this week, so I guess the HT appeals will be submitted very soon.

I'm trying to keep busy...

[mystery]

Thank you Etienne and Oblique.

Oblique, your head sounds very open and logical.