Appeal 2008

[Etienne]

Little to add at the moment as you've already had so much excellent advice.

Have a look at the Q&As:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/11plus ... nswers.php
Section E11 might give you some ideas about how to go about a letter of appeal against non-qualification.

my daughter is always hard working, always pleasant and polite

While these are all excellent qualities, I wouldn't normally recommend drawing attention to them at an appeal against non-qualification. You don't want an appeal panel to think your daughter achieves her good results only through sheer hard work! Much better to talk about her high intelligence, academic ability, academic potential.

Wish my German were as good as your English.

[bestpossibleoutcome]

Without going into the details, (if you would like to hear them I can give you these separately!) my daughter failed the 11+ in 2005. I appealed for both grammar schools but both appeals failed. We had never considered independent schools before, but when there seemed to be no hope anywhere, I decided that she should sit the Birkenhead exam. This consists of 3 tests; verbal reasoning, maths and English. She passed, and we committed to pay. I am a single mum, so other members of the family, (grandparents) decided to share the load. The school is excellent, the teaching is its major strength (this was acknowledged by parents at one of the recent meetings re: the changes that are going on there now). Its results are consistently better than the grammar schools.The teachers have stated that they are committed to the school so little should change in
that respect. The change to an academy would mean that you would only have to pay for the first year. I urge you to give it serious consideration - I nearly didn't. I now believe it was the best possible outcome for our daughter. She has done better there than several girls in her year who passed the 11+ but chose B'head over the grammars! Arguably, she would have done well at either grammar school. It has also given her incredible confidence (in a nice way - not arrogant), something her primary school certainly did not do. She loves the school and would not change even though we recently discussed the possibility. The Headteacher recently said that in spite of the changes, it would be made very clear to parents that girls who were accepted would be entering a very academic environment and that there would be no "dumbing down".

Sorry to have gone on at such length, but from a very bleak scenario 3 years ago, we now have a happy child who is enjoying her time at school. I would be very happy to answer any questions you may have,

[bestpossibleoutcome]

I privately emailed you the above post several days ago, but I'm not sure whether you noticed it.

Happy to answer any questions,

[scatshouse]

justme wrote:

On the day before the second test she was with her friend (who also took
the 11+) who got bullied by some other friends, that girls going to
grammar school become geeks and will wear glasses and this might have affected my daughter as well.

her first score was 121 and the second only 112.

I would definitely emphasise the bullying the night before the second test at your appeal. Your daughter's score for the first test is the maximum she could have scored. The bullying the day before could have affected her concentration in the second test.

I feel this, together with all academic evidence, should be noted. My son has also been told that only geeks go to grammar schools by some of his 'friends', and it does affect them.

Good Luck,
Scatshouse.

[Appeal Mum]

I agree with Scatshouse,

If you can focus on your academic evidence to prove if it had not have been for this incident knocking her confidence she would have scored a similar score.
If you have previous school standardised scores around the same mark as the first test (120s). It will be easier to show your child was affected by the bullying incident, hence a lower score of 112.

121 is not the max though, 141 is.
121 for the first test is good, you are only 3 marks out anyway 233 instead of 236.
I really would take as much academic evidence as possible to confirm 121 is a more accurate guide to her capabilities rather than 112.

You can do it and we are all behind you..

I know for sure although the school you want is over subscribed they have left places available for appeals.

AM

[scatshouse]

Appeal Mum wrote:

121 is not the max though, 141 is.

Good job I'm not taking a maths exam, don't know what I was thinking