11 Plus Exams Forum

Is anyone else out there annoyed at Warwickshire Education Authority's refusal to give the 11+ results to parents before one has to fill in the preference form detailing which secondary school onewants them to attend?

The Government's Admissions code states that parents should have this information before completing the form if possible.

Warwickshire's stance badly affected the children and parents when my DD did the exam last year - parents were incredibly stressed for many months and numerous children were forced to do dozens of independent school exams so that they had a fallback position if they failed the 11+.

Having spoken, albeit briefly, to Match solicitors they are of the opinion that a complaint to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator would be justified. If such an approach were successful it would force Warwickshire to let parents know their child's scores as soon as the papers were marked (usually 2-3 weeks after the exam is taken) and in any event before filling in the preference form.

I have spoken to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator who agree that such a complaint would fall within their remit and that it might be even better if more than one parent complained.

Is anyone else interested or does anyone else mind about not knowing the results until March as much as I do!?

It does not actually affect me this coming year as DC will sit it the year after but I feel like making a fuss now to get it sorted out.

I would prefer to get the results earlier and would add my name to any petition you set up, Magwich. I guess there is a risk you might not be able to tell for certain whether you will get into a particular school if the result was not clear cut, but even so, I think it is better to know the result as soon as possible. I don't think there is any reasonable justification for prolonging the agony for 5 months or so.

I would agree - the waiting has been torture, and if we had known the results, it would have saved us a lot of time wasted looking at other schools and making decisions just in case my son failed his 11 plus.

I also support you. No justifiable reason for delay.

What I am going to do is to wait until poor DD1 has finished her GCSE exams because she has 27 separate exams and I am taxi and counselling service rolled into one until 15th June!!
I will then draft my complaint to the schools adjudicator and post it on this forum. If anyone else also complains at that time then that will, I have been informed, add strength to the complaint and it would be great to have support from other people in this way. Thank you very much.
Magwich

Did you decide to go ahead with this complaint?

Yes I am certainly going to go ahead but the whole family have had whooping cough for the last 5 weeks!!

Here in Kent we used to have Kent test in January, so had to make secondary school choices 'blind' the only way we knew whether the children had passed or not was on allocation day. this was the case with my two children.

It changed last year to September, so we now have the results before deciding on schools, so there is precedence for the change in Warwickshire

For most people this was a very welcome change, although some people have complained that the children are younger and have not covered the maths content yet at school. i do not see this as a factor as all the children are in the same boat