It sounds as if getting sufficient academic evidence together is a struggle. I think the best you can do is follow hermanmunster's suggestion and see if the HT will provide evidence of your son's rapid adjustment to schooling in the UK and his progress since then. Be careful with the "lower group to higher group" circumstances because if the school isn't a high-attaining school this may still not be evidence of high attainment for your son.

I think you need to consider the likelihood that your appeal will be unsuccessful and whilst you're gathering evidence for your appeal, you also make sure your son is well prepared for the transition to the school he has been allocated.

I think it has already been made clear to you that:

To sum up, there should be three parts to your case:
1. Academic evidence that he is even more able than his score might suggest.
2. Reasons why he underperformed on the day of the test.
3. Reasons for wanting or needing a place at this particular school.

The mitgating circumstances will cover point 2. However, they will not cover points 1 & 3.

It might be worth asking the mods to merge this thread with your previous thead here:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=53995

That’s right Anotherdad, the school is ofsted oustbfibg, above avg in primary results. Can I not undertake out of school assessments for reading and writing age? Or any suggestions on these lines please?

Oops * outstanding

An Outstanding Ofsted rating isn't necessarily an indicator of high academic attainment, thankfully. There are many Outstanding primaries doing wonderful work with children from challenging backgrounds and who don't have collectively high levels of attainment. If your son's primary does have strong academic results and your son is doing well with respect to his year group, that should be reflected in the academic report the HT submits.

Looking through your other thread, I am puzzled because your thinking seems muddled. For instance, you state:

but in the other thread, you state:

So is the HT supporting your appeal or not?

I've now read through the whole of the other thread and it seems that you have been allocated one grammar school but don't think it's good enough because it isn't Outstanding. Is that right? Etienne also gave you comprehensive advice on the structure and format of your appeal for your first choice eleven days ago! What's changed since then?

I'm confused.

Thanks for looking through all my posts, indeed it’s a bit puzzling why the HT said that appeal will not be strong of your child doesn’t have SEN and is too good.

But he wrote a very positive recommendation and himself suggested eventually to emphasise on his transition into new school.

I have many reasons for wanting the school and some mitigating circumstances ( some family/ some Ds’s)

I have got very good inputs from the forum to even consider attempting an appeal but I am still seeking suggestions if I could get extra academic evidence outside of school to support his rapid learning in run upto 11+ despite change in curriculum and even age difference in two country’s age vs class/year system.

Any suggestions will be very valuable.

Many thanks to all of you to help muddled souls like us

Are you sure the HT said exactly that? It seems a very odd thing for a HT to say.


Fair enough, I wasn't criticising the choice, just trying to understand the situation and your motivation.


I'm sure you could, but whether you ought to is another matter. It seems to me that it is your HT that needs to provide the evidence of strong academic ability.

I was surprised myself with the comment from HT but he gave a very supportive recommendation.

For academic attainment only school should provide evidences?

I would agree with anotherdad. Any additional evidence you got now from outside school - even if you could find someone to do it, would only show where he is now - the school can comment on where he was when he started with them AND where he is now - ie his progress since he joined.

What school are you trying to appeal for? What school have you been allocated?

Wilmington Grammar , seeking Dartford Grammar.

Sure, will follow up with school then. Thx