11 Plus Exams Forum

I had always wondered exactly when DD's junior schoolknew the 11+ marks.
The answer came to light during a friends appeal hearing when the panel were told by the education authority rep that the actual marks were given to schools on 8th november. Irritating isn't it?!!

Hi Magwich
I totally agree!
When trying to find out info for our appeal - not knowing the results _ I was surprised to learn that the primary school knew in november! It did seem a very long wait.
My DS sat private school entrance exams and got the results within 10 days!

Very interesting Magwich! And, yes, extremely irritating - I know several people who could have saved hundreds of pounds in private school registration fees had they known before the January entrance exams.

How did the hearing go?

Charlotte

I have seen a few posts on this site to the effect that we would be within our rights to demand access to our children's scores much earlier than March ( I believe under the Freedom of Information Act? ). The local authority would have no choice but to supply them to us.

I haven't seen any posts from people who have actually tried this approach, but I might have a go myself this year.

People have pointed out that if your child is borderline, it is not going to do you any good because you will have an agonising wait to see which side of the line they end up falling. However, if they are clearly through, you can relax and if they are clearly out, you can concentrate fully on Plan B.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried this, or anyone with more legal knowledge than me who could venture an opinion.

I have very basic knowledge on this but, as Bad Dad infers, the schools only know the score, at this stage they actually don't exactly know where the pass mark is going to lie. Why we can't have this information though I don't know, it would certainly help when filling in the preference form!

As regards the Freedom of Information Act, I believe you could take this route, BUT, I think they have to supply the information to you within a certain time period - say 3 months (I don't know the exact period, this is an example with a little bit of memory recall mixed in!) which would mean you would be fairly close to receiving results anyway. I contemplated this idea this year but when I found this out I didn't follow it up.

Hope this helps you understand a little better.

Thanks, alcestermum, I see what you are saying. You have persuaded me that it is probably not worth following the "Freedom Of Information" line. I suppose if a few people did it, there is a chance they might decide to avoid the hassle by releasing the results earlier in future, but I'm not sufficiently convinced it would get us anywhere.

Back in the dim and distant past I seem to remember there being some discussion about the Government insisting that people get the results earlier in future, i.e. before they fill in their school selection forms.

Did I read this in the Kent section? Or has a year of 11+ mania taken its toll and I'm imagining things?

They way I understand it (and there is every possibility that I'm wrong!) is that the Schools (in Warwickshire) are given the marks & passmark early on in the process. The schools then compare this information with the ranking list that they have already prepared and submitted. Any anomalies (but only children failing who, in the school's opinion, should have passed - not the other way round!) will be flagged up and supporting evidence sent to the LEA. This evidence is assessed by the LEA and a decision is made.

This all goes on without our knowledge, between the production of the initial results (?end Nov/early Dec) and the publishing of the final results (early March). Some children who have not reached the passmark are offered a place at GS. I think it would be wrong to tell the high flyers before Xmas & make the boarderlines wait until March. But that's just my opinion.

It is annoying to have have to wait, but this applies to all children in the county - and the majority in the country, not just the 11+ers. It is a pain and seems like forever at the time, but it's only a few short months and there are reasons for the delay.