Appeal without special circumstances on the test day

Consult our experts on 11 Plus appeals or any other type of school appeal

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jenijen81
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2021 3:57 pm

Appeal without special circumstances on the test day

Post by jenijen81 »

Hi

I might be being a little premature with this (but I'm a worrier and I like to be prepared!).

We will be sitting the Trafford Consortium exam this year as we really need our child to attend our local school (which happens to be a grammar), as they can not travel far on a bus/tram without medication (and the only medication that works for him also makes him incredibly drowsy and emotional). It isn't practical, or fair, to medicate him twice a day every day. There are no other schools within walking distance.
We're trying our best with revision, and although his maths and NVR is very good, he is let down massively with VR (he's not a natural reader).
If he only just fails to achieve the qualifying score, will we have any grounds to appeal? On the school website, I can only find information about special circumstances on the day of the test, and adjustments due to disability, neither of which are applicable to us.

Many thanks for your help
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Appeal without special circumstances on the test day

Post by hermanmunster »

Welcome to the forum!

There are basically 2 types of appeals:

Oversubscription
- when there aren't enough places in the school for all the pupils who want them and there is a cutoff either distance or score - in this case parents have to appeal based on why THIS school is the best one for the child

Non qualification - this is where the required score is not achieved, this appeal has to be based on academic ability and you would need evidence of that. This sounds like the appeal you are looking at - the key is also explaining why the child did not reach the score on the day - ie they normally would but something happened that meant they didn't eg sudden recent stress in the family etc

Sometimes you have to do both - ie prove that they are academically able and then that they should have a place at the school.
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