Hi everyone

I have been reading through the appeal information above (very informative so thank you!!) but I'm still somewhat unsure what to do and I was wondering if anyone could offer me a bit of advice?

DC sat for the Trafford Consortium (Sale Grammar, Stretford Grammar and Urmston Grammar). We have had results for two of the schools and sadly he did not pass, however it was close! We are still waiting for Urmston Grammar school results.

Its exactly the same test, but standardised against a different cohort of children. On the Sale Grammar (very much our first choice as its on our doorstep) he achieved 328. The qualifying score was 334. And on Stretford Grammar he achieved 332 and the qualifying score was 334 - so 2 marks out. I would like to appeal for Sale Grammar, but I'm not sure how realistic this is, as he was 6 marks out, and I cant find much information on the Trafford Appeal system.

When we got the letters, the Stretford letter there was a local review form in it.

The Sale one had no such letter, and the letter I received said that the test is subject to an automatic review as he was within 13 marks of the pass mark, the wording on the letter is 'As your child's score falls within 13 marks of the required pass mark an internal review has taken place. This involves scrutiny of your child's entrance test score, our internal procedures and any special circumstances brought to our attention. Unfortunately, following careful consideration of the individual circumstances the internal review panel did not amend the score achieved'

Does that mean the test has been re looked at and double checked that it was marked correctly by the computer (I'm sure its very accurate so I know that seems like a silly question to ask but I was just wondering!)

And does anyone know what that means for an appeal?

I'm just not sure what to do. I spoke to my DCs head teacher and he said he would absolutely support an appeal and help me in any way he can.

I'm not sure what evidence I could give to support an appeal, I know on his last school report he had some marks, but I'm really not sure what they relate to! He had one for Maths where he got 124, one for SPAG where he got 118 and one for something else I cant remember which was 116. I'm sure the head teacher will go through them with me in more depth tomorrow as I have a meeting with him.

If he passes for Urmston Grammar, with it being the same test, would that help my case at all for Sale? Or not really. I just cant seem to find much information on Trafford Appeals so I'm wondering if its a pretty done deal at this stage and there isn't much point.

My last point as well - my DS is 29th August birthday, so very young in the year, am I right in thinking that doesn't make any difference?

Thank you so much to anyone who has managed to get to the end of my post! I'm feeling so upset for my DC and just wondering where to go from here.

Welcome to Appeals!

I'll try and address a few points. Some of our forum members may know a lot more about local circumstances than I do.

As you didn't request the review, I can't see that it would prejudice your appeal.

Good!

Much depends on what sort of letter of support the head will be willing to provide.
https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appea ... cation#b48

There's no urgency as you can't appeal until March - although you do of course have to decide fairly quickly which schools to put on your CAF.

https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appea ... cation#b50

Not with the test which I assume was age standardised (most are) - but it might help with regard to school work. He could develop quickly as Y6 progresses, and it is not unknown for a school to be able to wax lyrical about "recent rapid progress" round about the time of an appeal hearing in May!

If you've already studied the guidance, you'll know that in addition to academic evidence
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b11
you'll also need specific reasons for wanting a place at the school being appealed for:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... -school#c2

It would also be worth investigating the success rate for appeals at the schools you're interested in (so that you know what you might be up against!):
https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeals/general#a39

If in doubt about what to do, given that you have the full support of your headteacher, it would probably be a good idea to submit an appeal in March in order to keep all your options open.
You can cancel it at any point in time if you decide you don't want to proceed.

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Etienne

Etienne, thank you so much for your help!

I'm going to have a good read through all the links you have posted and see the head teacher today, and I will update later on!

Thanks so much again for the help

I have spoken to the head teacher and he has prepared a letter with examples of DS academic success, with the NFER scores on (124 for maths, 118 for spag and 116 for reading) and also predicted SATS results (Greater Depth for all).

I was wondering, is it better to do appeal in March, or Local review now? I think for Local review everything has to be in by Nov 10th but the appeal is March?

Thanks so much for all advise so far!

124 might be all right. Not so sure about 116-118. Clearly above average (100), but whether they're far enough above average depends on what local expectations are for grammar school appeals.



I thought you'd had the review ("Unfortunately, following careful consideration of the individual circumstances the internal review panel did not amend the score achieved"), but perhaps I'm mixing up schools.

If you are applying for a review, then it would be best to find out if it could prejudice an appeal. The grammar school in question ought to be able to tell you if they would make it part of their case that an appellant has already had a 'fair, consistent & objective' review.
I suspect not, as it would be unfair not to tell you before you commit to a review.

You submit your appeal in March, but the appeal hearing would be in the summer term. You can usually submit any additional evidence if you want to up until a week or two before the hearing (but the exact deadline should be given to you).

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Etienne

Thanks Etienne,

The message about the review was in the letter, however we then got a local review form, which confused me as it did say a review had been done, so then I'm assuming the review they do is not the local review perhaps?

The NFER scores are from last year, I don't know if that makes a difference - I feel that DS has already progressed massively since then, especially since he is the youngest of the year, he seems to have made so much progress just in the past few months, so maybe it would be worth hanging on a little to do the March appeal as we would have new NFER scores out then, which might be helpful?

Our local Grammars are not super selective, once you reach the required score of 334 then it goes on distance, apart from 10% of the cohort who are taken out of catchment and on scores alone.

Thanks so much for all your help, this must be a busy time for you and I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

You're most welcome.

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Etienne