11 plus bucks review

[Sarah.tak]

Hi

My daughter got 118 and I would like to appeal.

I had baby in Feb 2018 and he was not well, then their dad moved out in June. Would these be extenuating circumstances?

She has been doing ok at school, I have meeting with head today and will see if she will support.

[anotherdad]

Hi Sarah. Which region are you in? Bucks?

You may have extenuating circumstances but first things first, see the head and see what she says. Academic evidence to show suitability to a grammar school is the crucial thing. No amount of extenuating circumstances will win a review or appeal unless there's good academic evidence in the first place.

Also, have a read through the guidance on reviews and appeals so you're prepared for the meeting with the head.

[Sarah.tak]

Hi

I am in Bucks region.
I met with head teacher today. She said they graded her as 2:2 before test, so was good chance of her passing.
She said would support and complete form.
She is at expected levels for English but exceeding in maths.
Do you think we have a good chance ?

[Guest55]

Welcome; sorry to hear your news.

A review panel will tend to want to see KS1 level 3s and above age expectations in all assessments.

Have you got other evidence e.g. CATs, reading age?

[anotherdad]

Do I think you have a good chance? I have to be honest and say no, I don’t think you do yet because the academic evidence you have is not as strong as I’d like to have seen and the Head’s recommendation isn’t the strongest it might have been, although she may have a good record of accurate judgements which would be helpful to yours. However, mine is only one view and I’m not a review panel member, I’m just trying to be honest, not get your hopes up and to challenge you to try and find more evidence of the type Guest55 suggests.

Keep posting and getting help. You have a lot to juggle at the moment but people on here will help as much as we can.

[Sarah.tak]

Thanks for your replies

I spoke to head again today. They don’t have any cat results as they no longer do them at that school.
Her key stage results were 3 for maths and reading, writing she said she needs to look up as maybe 2a or 3.
Her reading age is above average and she will include that into her report.

She said she thinks she has a good chance academically but thinks I need strong reasons as to why she didn’t perform on the day.

[anotherdad]

People like Etienne and Guest55 are better qualified than me to comment on the academic levels, so await their input.

Again, I'll challenge you here: Your personal circumstances have been hard and I can see you've had a difficult year, however, is there evidence that they had an adverse impact on your daughter's school performance? You can see the difficulty here, where you're arguing that home circumstances affected her performance in the test but where you're using academic evidence from the same period to show suitability for grammar school. It would perhaps be helpful if you were able to show strong academic performance up to this year, then you could suggest that your daughter's school levels and test result were all impacted by personal circumstances.

Sorry, I know it's not pleasant to have to go over these things but you will need to build a good picture for the review or appeal.

[Sarah.tak]

I have been asked by head to complete the section asking what grounds for selection review.

Once I have completed and sent with heads completed form. Is this the only thing they look at and decide appeal ?
I am getting confused some people mention going in front of 3 people?
I am in Bucks area

She also said no longer allowed to send child’s work and certificates from extracurricular activities.

Pls can you clarify for me thanks x

[anotherdad]

Have you read through all the review and appeals guidance on this forum? It really is essential that you do and understand it because it answers a lot of the questions you are posing.

[Guest55]

I think you are confusing a review [paper-based exercise] with an appeal; which route has been advised?