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ESSEX 11+ appeals process

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 5:37 pm
by yvonne
hi all
i would like some advice on how to successfully appeal against an 11+ decision
my child failed by 4 marks for one of the essex grammars .

can anyone help

Appeal - Essex Grammars

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:34 pm
by sleepless
Yvonne,

If you are happy to do so, please let us know which school you wish to appeal for. Is it one with a catchment area, ie Southend or Westcliff or one without a set catchment area, ie Chelmsford or Colchester. If Southend or Westcliff do you live in or out of the schools catchment area? This may make a difference regarding any advice.

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:39 pm
by Guest
hi
thanks for your response , it is one of the chelmsford grammars

Appeals

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:24 pm
by sleepless
Notoriously hard to get into.

I am not sure about KEGS but CCHS does not seem to ever have any successful appeals. Looking at its web site and the changes in it over the past couple of years I have seen that number of successful appeals always seems to be 0.

Anyway, where there's a will there's a way.

First, how do know your child missed the place by four marks. Because the CSSE weight the marks so that four questions don't necessarily equal 4 marks, it depends of the difficulty of the questions, etc and is a very complicated mathematical formula I believe.

What I think you mean is that whatever the cut off, ie last placed candidate s aggregate score was for your chosen school then your child had four marks less than that.

Firstly, you need a really good excuse for your child not performing as well as they should have on the day. I think that might be quite difficult for you because your child has actually done extremely well to come within four marks of admission and if there was a really good reason for them to do less than their best, ie, family bereavement, death of a pet, etcthen your child was likely to have done far worse, if you get by drift.

Then you should think of all the reasons why you feel that your chosen school is the only school for your child and that no other school would be suitable. You should remember that the appeal panel will want to hear why the chosen school should admit your child, despite it being full, and they will not be particularly interested in your reasons for not wanting the school you have been allocated (unless there is a very particular reason for not wanting the allocated school)

It will not be good enough to say "We like this school, it gets good results", etc, etc as that is the obvious reason that the school is oversubscribed in the first place.

You may want to bear in mind that there is always some movement within all schools in different years and there may be the opportunity to enter later if you wish.

May I wish you the very best of luck but if you need any further advice please ask.

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:59 pm
by yvonne
Hello

Thanks for the advice , infact she was ill during the week and we took a chance as we were led to believe that it was too late to be accepted for the second test date .

The school is a perfect match for her abilities and she is determined to get in. If not usccessful then we can try at a later stage , maybe in a year or two.

I just hope for her sake , there is a way in.

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:27 pm
by yvonne
has anyone had a successful appeal ?
if so can you tell me what is acceptable and what is considered exceptional.
is being ill during the week leading to the exams an exceptional circumstance, as this would have affected their level of concentration and their performance?

Thanks

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:42 pm
by yvonne
yvonne wrote:has anyone had a successful appeal ?
if so can you tell me what is acceptable and what is considered exceptional.
is being ill during the week leading to the exams an exceptional circumstance, as this would have affected their level of concentration and their performance?

Thanks

11+ appeal

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:57 am
by Diane
Hi Yvonne

From my own experience and that of others having gone through the appeals system it would seem it definately is not enough to simply say your child was unwell.
You will need to back this up with a doctors certificate to cover the illness, or hospital records. You can understand these measures as lots of parents would like to explain away a dissapointing result by saying their child was unwell/under the weather!

Good luck

Diane

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:30 pm
by Guest
thnnk you D
i will get these of my doctor and see if it helps .

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:36 pm
by Guest
Anonymous wrote:thank you D
i will get these off my doctor and see if it helps .