11 Plus Exams Forum

First of all please may I say thank you to anyone and everyone who has posted advice and appeals experience on this site, it has proved so incredibly helpful in preparing our appeal. I will post our experiences once we are through the other side! We have our stage 2 appeal for a Kent GS coming up and I feel well prepared but incredibly nervous. However, there is one issue I wanted to ask advice on as I can't seem to find it answered elsewhere...

We are applying for an OOC place at a super selective. Our DD passed the Kent test but her score was not high enough to qualify for a governor / OOC place (367). We have lots of academic evidence to prove her GS-worthy ability, but I am afraid that I am going to be asked why she should be given a place over the other qualified OOC girls above her on the waiting list. I'm a bit stuck on this one. Do I just have to stress how this particular school is right for her and how her performance in primary school demonstrates this (all 3s at end of KS1, above age-expected in all areas for Y3-Y6, CAT score average of 136 and predicted SATs all higher level or greater depth). We have no mitigating circumstances for her below-expected performance in the Kent test - there was a child next to her who muttered all the way through and she is summer-born but truthfully I think it was probably just nerves on the day.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation or any words of wisdom - grateful for anything!

Good luck- going through similar time right now!

Welcome to Appeals!

Although this is an oversubscription appeal, you are also putting forward an academic case (that there is evidence to show that the score was not an accurate reflection of her ability).
GL Assessment itself has written:

• • a pupil’s score is only an estimate of true ability ….. (GL Assessment / NFER)

• • It is important to appreciate that, however carefully educational tests are constructed, an element of error is likely to appear in the results they produce. For individual children, marks and scores should not be taken completely at their face value; they provide only an estimate of a pupil’s ability. This is …. not so clear when a numerical value is given; its accuracy and precision can easily be overestimated. (GL Assessment / NFER)

FridayNightDinner wrote:I am afraid that I am going to be asked why she should be given a place over the other qualified OOC girls above her on the waiting list. I'm a bit stuck on this one. Do I just have to stress how this particular school is right for her and how her performance in primary school demonstrates this (all 3s at end of KS1, above age-expected in all areas for Y3-Y6, CAT score average of 136 and predicted SATs all higher level or greater depth).

I agree that you should try arguing "her performance in primary school demonstrates ......."
- but "how this particular school is right for her" is best kept for the sort of reasons we set out in C2 which are meant to counter the prejudice argument "Why should she have a place when the school is already full?": http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... -school#c2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you Etienne, I'll let you know how we get on.

Fridaynight dinner
If you kindly let us know the outcome of your appeal
Thanks