Hi, we are going for a Selection Review. Son got 120. We have excellent support from head.

Two questions please:

Is it worth including school reports and exam results?

My son was in the group that sat the exam and were not forewarned of the errors. He was the first in the room to flag the errors with the invigilator and spent time waiting for the errors to be reviewed before being told to move on. I believe he lost time during his interactions with the invigilator and that this could have negatively impacted him. I am keen to include this but don't want it to sound desperate as I do believe that the head teachers report should be sufficient grounds to support his appeal... but if for some reason we fail at appeal I will always wonder whether I should have mentioned it!

Any advise would be helpful.

Thanks

Welcome!

I don't believe that the SRP are necessarily expecting a school report, because they have the headteacher's review form which is structured to suit their purposes.
(An appeal panel, on the other hand, would probably like to see the most recent school report.)

We did include a school report in our example - Mary's review, E32(c):
https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appea ... aneous#e32

But be careful that there is nothing in the school report that doesn't quite match what appears on the headteacher's review form. It will be spotted!

Some school reports are not very helpful for review/appeal purposes because

• they draw attention to areas for improvement
• or they have lots to say about effort, attitude, behaviour - but little about high academic achievement
• or they don't distinguish between good/very good achievement and excellent/outstanding achievement.

If the school report reinforces what is on the headteacher's review form, and is strong on academic achievement, it would be worth including.

I would mention it briefly. The wording at the moment is a bit tentative. It wouldn't sound quite so desperate if you remove "I believe" and "could have"!
It may not count for much, but with a score of 120 you shouldn't need much in the way of extenuating circumstances.

_________________
Etienne

Thank you! That is very very helpful! Much appreciated.

So for step 4 - tell us what grounds you are asking for a Selection Review - is it sufficient to say We request a selection review for **** on the basis that we do not believe his 11 plus score of 120 is representative of his overall academic ability.

That's fine as an opening.

I'm usually advocating brevity!

I think I would go on to summarise the academic case and any extenuating circumstances as in the example of Mary's review E32(c).

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Etienne