percentile scores
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Morning Glory
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Re: percentile scores
With her verbal comprehension score only being on the 42nd percentile, I think you may find she struggles at GS and that would be more stressful for her and for you in the long run. I know you say she is very disappointed but at this stage she does not have any idea of the demands that will be placed on her at GS. I find that GS is demanding and relentless and although DS is doing well, I do a lot of the organising at home and ensuring the right homework is being done, that he takes the right books etc. He does get support in every lesson and I don't think he would cope without that assistance. He still has issues socially and with sharing.
What are your options regarding schools - we had two alternatives when we were going through our appeal, our local catchement upper school said they couldn't teach him and he should be at a GS (not helpful at all) and the other was just out of catchment better but not ideal and we would've had to have crossed our finger to have got a place.
What are your options regarding schools - we had two alternatives when we were going through our appeal, our local catchement upper school said they couldn't teach him and he should be at a GS (not helpful at all) and the other was just out of catchment better but not ideal and we would've had to have crossed our finger to have got a place.
Re: percentile scores
The other school is a good alternative, just she really doesn't want to go there! I know we would have to get over that. You're probarbly right about the verbal comprehension, although the report says her score was suppressed because she was reluctant to add to her initial responses. Thanks for your advice, I think the reality is she won't get through on appeal so there's not much point worrying whether to appeal or not 
Re: percentile scores
Haven't read the appeal thread so I might talk some nonsense here. It does sound as though with a centile of 42% in something that an appeal panel would probably think was highly relevant to a grammar education that you will have difficulties persuading an appeal panel. How annoying.
But you know that this score from this particular EP on that particular day does not prove that your child is not grammar material, it just probably will not convince an appeal panel. The bit where you say the score was affected by her suppressing her responses makes me feel that you do not have true measure of your child's verbal comprehension and you should never let this score affect your own view of your child's abilities.
To give you a personal example, I once sat through some EP tests with a child of mine. He started out with asking questions requiring verbal responses from her. I had told him beforehand that with some people she is relaxed and will say whatever comes into her head to from minute one, and with others it will take months before she would even tell him what her name was. Anyhow he launched in at the deep end to a 6 year old with questions like "what are shoes made of". Daughter shrugs shoulders and indicates she doesn't know, I know she can think of loads of things that shoes could be made of. I'm thinking, what do I do, but I was just a fly on the wall. I could tell DD did not like him, and really wasn't going to play ball properly for the next x hours. It did improve as time went by, but because I was there for the whole thing, I knew that I could take the whole thing with a pinch of salt. The covering letter with the expensive report as much as said this too.
When I asked DD afterwards why she didn't answer, she just said sometimes she feels like she can't speak, and for questions like "what are shoes made of" there are several answers and she didn't know which one to give him so she said she didn't know. Well, it made me think that some EP tests might not be as reliable as we might like to think - some elements of the tests could have lower scores that mispresent the child's ability due to personality. Now I'm sure some EPs are better than others but short of training as an EP oneself (would be fun wouldn't it) your're never going to know which one you got.
Sorry that has taken us a bit off track .......... you could try a different EP who tests verbal comprehension in a different way that circumnavigates whatever this issue was that made your DD suppress further expansion of her answers.
Or you could get happy with the more likely school and in the meantime work on whatever the issues are that you think stopped your child showing herself off to the best of her ability in this particular EP situation, as they are skills that will stand her in good stead in the future, as much as any academic skill.
But you know that this score from this particular EP on that particular day does not prove that your child is not grammar material, it just probably will not convince an appeal panel. The bit where you say the score was affected by her suppressing her responses makes me feel that you do not have true measure of your child's verbal comprehension and you should never let this score affect your own view of your child's abilities.
To give you a personal example, I once sat through some EP tests with a child of mine. He started out with asking questions requiring verbal responses from her. I had told him beforehand that with some people she is relaxed and will say whatever comes into her head to from minute one, and with others it will take months before she would even tell him what her name was. Anyhow he launched in at the deep end to a 6 year old with questions like "what are shoes made of". Daughter shrugs shoulders and indicates she doesn't know, I know she can think of loads of things that shoes could be made of. I'm thinking, what do I do, but I was just a fly on the wall. I could tell DD did not like him, and really wasn't going to play ball properly for the next x hours. It did improve as time went by, but because I was there for the whole thing, I knew that I could take the whole thing with a pinch of salt. The covering letter with the expensive report as much as said this too.
When I asked DD afterwards why she didn't answer, she just said sometimes she feels like she can't speak, and for questions like "what are shoes made of" there are several answers and she didn't know which one to give him so she said she didn't know. Well, it made me think that some EP tests might not be as reliable as we might like to think - some elements of the tests could have lower scores that mispresent the child's ability due to personality. Now I'm sure some EPs are better than others but short of training as an EP oneself (would be fun wouldn't it) your're never going to know which one you got.
Sorry that has taken us a bit off track .......... you could try a different EP who tests verbal comprehension in a different way that circumnavigates whatever this issue was that made your DD suppress further expansion of her answers.
Or you could get happy with the more likely school and in the meantime work on whatever the issues are that you think stopped your child showing herself off to the best of her ability in this particular EP situation, as they are skills that will stand her in good stead in the future, as much as any academic skill.
Re: percentile scores
That makes a lot of sense, she did not like the EP at all so it could explain why her scores were so low- she just did not want to talk to her. In her practise 11 plus papers her scores were always roughly the same the same for both papers, which makes me think that the percentile doesn't stand for much and that her second score was not a true reflection of her ability. I have decided to appeal as I have a lot of support from the SENco and as we have a good alternative, won't be the end of the world if we don't succeed. I really need to focus on helping her deal with just starting secondary school as she will need a lot of support, not academically but emotionally. Thanks for sharing your thoughts 
Re: percentile scores
Well good luck, and I'm glad you are happy with the alternative if the appeal fails. Gobbiness is probably as important as academic ability!! Maybe if you don't get the grammar school you'll get something that brings out the gobbiness side of your daughter as well as the academic side. 