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Appealing in 2008/9 - I have been here twice in 2007/8

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 11:16 pm
by cindy
Hi All,

Can I first say, what a fantastic site this is.
I have two children. Christopher, who has Aspergers syndrome and Melanie. Here is our story.
I am not loaded, but, am a recentish buy to let investor. I sent my children to private school until about year 4. Funds dryed up and I then sent them to a local village school. There were two years to a class. This seemed benificial, as they seemed to concearntrate on the older year, but I feel that the younger year had a double dose of learning for yr 5 and 6.
My childrens school, gave no coaching for the 11+. at all. Other schools did. I started about eight months before and obtained the correct (v important) practice papers from w h smiths. They do however sell them on this website.
I felt that I had to have a good idea if my children did or not, stand a good chance of passing first. I asked thier teacher, and the Head, who both said they did. In fact both said that if they did not pass for any reason, they would appeal on thier behalf. The school does not have to do this, they only do it if they truly feel that a pass should have been acheived.
Then my children did about half an hour each one or two days, plus a bit
on the BBC revise wise website. This was all to familurise themselves with the test papers. They had no private tuition, however I did the carrot
and stick approach, and they were both offered a suitable incentive to do
the work involved, this seemed to work.

My Son Christpher failed the 11+ by one mark. a manual reinspection of his paper revealed that he had answered most of the first questions getting nearly all of them right. This implyed that he ran out of time. Christopher has since been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, the higher end of Autisim. Intelligent, but socially unable. His appeal was sucsessful. He is now about mid place in grammer.

My dear Melanie passed, with the same menu of revision, and starts her school of choice this September, a Grammer

There were parents at their school who were told that their children should pass. They decided not to opt for the 11+, and some now wish they did.

My reason for writting this

1. I am very greatful for the advice I received, and wish to repay somehow

2. to show that those parents who do not do additional tuition, still stand a great chance.

3.To show that after a child does not pass, all is not lost. I felt that in an appeal, it was v improtant to not dwell too much on things that may have
caused a fail,.... such as deaths of family animals, ilness of the child on the day and so on. However the proof seemed undisputible if a history
of acheivement was shown, say from the first SAT's. then a blip on the day, did seem just that.

I am pleased that my two did not have the extra tuition of a private tutor,
as like many, I suspect that this would not be continued after addmition to Grammer.

Applologies about my spelling, I did not go to Grammer School, Christoper
and Melanie are the first in my family to do so........

Good luck to you all....

God bless


Cindyx

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:02 am
by lgasks
Congratulations to you and well done :D

Kind regards

lgasks

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:29 pm
by arc
hi great to hear your story - my daughter too had no tutors and missed by 2 marks! we have her appeal next week and i'm trying to get my head around what to say! why and how did you get your son's paper re marked? do you think i should be doing this - is it too late? thanks

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:07 am
by cindy
Hi,

As Christopher was so close, I telephone the local council education office,
and asked for a remark, which they did in about two days.
It was they who also told me that I could go and look at his paper. I was told that I could not take it away, but could look at it there, so I made an appointment and did this.
To be honest I dont know what I expected to see, it was the lady who showed me the paper who expressed her thoughts that he had not even attempted the second half of the papers, which she said seemed that it
was a timing issue. As it turned out, it does seem she was right.
I dont think you are too late to ring the Education Office, If you dont do it you may wonder what if?
I do hope this helps, good luck,

Cindy

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:17 am
by Etienne
Unfortunately not all admission authorities are as amenable as Cindy's.

Exam papers are exempt from the Data Protection Act, so it is entirely at the discretion of the local authority whether or not they will permit access.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:58 am
by cindy
Just for info I am in Kent

Cindy