Appeal (Kent)

[Crackerjax]

Good morning,

FYI, just found this this morning on the KCC website under their 'Appeal a school offer - guidance for parents' ....

'If you are appealing for a place at a Grammar school you must demonstrate that the child is of the required academic standard, for example, any current test results and recent school reports and/or a letter of support from the current or previous school clearly indicating why the child is considered to be of grammar school ability. You may submit additional information in support of your appeal (including medical evidence), which should be at least 5 schools days before the hearing date - clearly marked “additional information” with your child’s name and school you are applying for. If you need to present anything new on the day of the hearing there is a slight risk that the proceedings might have to be adjourned.

It is not recommended that you submit or bring to the appeal examples of your child’s school work as the Panel will not be in a position to make a proper judgement about its
quality. The members would have nothing to measure it against and would not know the depth of the work submitted. Also they would not know whether the work had been carried out unaided.'

[Etienne]

The first paragraph above about "required academic standard" is basically a quote from the Appeals Code.

• • "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."

The second paragraph above about school work is useful to know. We discuss this possibility in the Q&As, Note 1, http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

• • They [the panel] may not be very interested (perhaps taking the view that they already have evidence of attainment from the school), and they may not even have time, but at least you will have given them the option.
    
    Another reason why some panels may prefer not to look at school work is that it’s not their role to assess it. However, I doubt that anyone is really asking them to do this – all they should be asked to do is look at the evidence of the teacher’s marks and comments! They are under a duty to consider any academic evidence the parent wishes to submit, and a panel should think carefully before refusing to accept relevant evidence, especially if it is pointed out that they are not being asked to assess the work.
    
    Having said that, I would accept that there’s little point pressing the matter if the panel are not interested – except in situations where parents are short of evidence (perhaps because the primary school will not co-operate). or where parents are seeking to demonstrate the impact of extenuating circumstances at a particular point in time. In these situations, school work – depending on what it reveals – would be an essential part of the case.

[Crackerjax]

So on Wednesday, we were relieved when we were offered our 2nd choice school .. especially when other kids at school weren't so fortunate. So that's one less thing to worry about. Forms returned promptly accepting our place.

Today, I have been to GS this morning and handed in our form regarding appeal. They already have possible dates for hearings on their website .. June just seems so far off. My plan at the moment is to submit our appeal letter/evidence in April - dd's school have recently sat some mock SATs and they will sit another round towards the end of March which I am hoping will give her teacher/head teacher enough to go on with regards to their letters of support.

Let the fun and games begin ....

[Crackerjax]

Hello

I have received my appeal pack from GS, it makes for interesting reading .. enough to scare anyone off appealing! (school is oversubscribed)

Hoping to speak with dd's teacher/headteacher tomorrow to get the ball rolling from their side especially as Easter Hols and SATs are fast approaching.

[Crackerjax]

So have just read that 22 girls didn't get our preferred GS as their first choice (along with countless others who had it as their 2nd or 3rd choice). The school is over subscribed and we have been told there will be a possible max 10 places available through appeal.

Obviously, GS was our first choice .. I assume we be included in that 22 along with a few other non-qualification kids?

Just waiting on our school to come back to us with everything requested by the GS - sent a copy to the HT and gave a copy to the class teacher just for info, but seems HT has passed it all over to the class teacher to follow up on. Hopefully easter hols and SATs won't delay things too much.

Has everyone else got info back from their schools yet?

[Crackerjax]

had a quick word at school today as really need all their info so I can finish preparing my appeal letter.

dd's teacher informed me she will give me everything next week. I asked if that would include ht letter of support or would I need to contact her direct? y6 teacher said that she has drafted the letter with all information needed and this will be signed by both her and ht. I was expecting a letter from both, but until I see the letter I have no idea if it will suffice.

Is this something the panel would approve of?

[Etienne]

y6 teacher said that she has drafted the letter with all information needed and this will be signed by both her and ht.
I was expecting a letter from both, but until I see the letter I have no idea if it will suffice.
Is this something the panel would approve of?

I see no problem with one letter and two signatures, provided the content is all right.

[Crackerjax]

Hello .. just wondering if anyone has any experience of Kent HT Appeal system as I have a query. I understand the panel is made up of representatives from both local primary and secondary schools.

We've just got the school's case through and have noticed that the chair of the HT Appeal panel is actually the Head of the gs we are appealing for. So was she already screening kids prior to 11+ results being sent out? 8 out of 11 kids had a successful hta from our school. I didn't realise that gs heads were involved in this process.

The school had a published pan of 145, they offered 170 places in October and 13 places were offered to waiting list in April. Next year the published pan is 180 and for this reason it was thought that possible 10 places might be available through appeal ... it's not looking like that now.

[Crackerjax]

Hello Etienne,

I was just wondering if I can ask your advice on something.

I am preparing our presentation, both non qualification/over subscription and our class teacher has said to throw weight to the sibling link and how well dd1 has progress at gs. So along with the logistics of getting 2 kids to two different schools in opposite directions (this will be his job as I leave at 6am for work) and getting himself to work on time, the affect different holidays/inset days - more time off impacting on our time off as a family, my husband has suggested that we mention dd1 failing to reach the entry criteria for reasoning, had a successful hta and is now in top set maths/English at the gs we are appealing too (she had levels 5b with her SATs that year).. as he says, the test result doesn't reflect the ability of the child. I am just wondering if this is something we can raise?
He has also suggested we ask the school rep of all those with successful 11+ results in 2015, how many actually entered as 'exeeding' in all 3 ??

Many thanks

[Etienne]

Hi Crackerjax

Using a sibling as part of the case for academic suitability (very understandable from the parents' perspective) is likely to go down with the panel like a lead balloon!
I'm afraid I can't see them giving any weight to a comparison with how an older sibling has performed.

There might be a useful argument to be made under Extenuating Circumstances, if the pressure to emulate an older sibling's success caused great anxiety in the lead up to the test.

It's certainly important to highlight the sibling under Reasons for Preference (strong links with the school, logistics, how very much the sisters want to be at the same school).

They may or may not have an accurate answer to a question about the typical academic profile on entry - but how will it help your case if they claim something on the high side?