Chelmsford County High

Consult our experts on 11 Plus appeals or any other type of school appeal

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brainiac
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:37 pm
Location: Tolleshunt Major

Chelmsford County High

Post by brainiac »

Does anybody know about any appeals at Chelmsford County High School?
Thank you
Sally-Anne
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by Sally-Anne »

Hi Brainiac

If you want past experience of appeals at CCH from Essex members, try the Essex section.

If you want general appeals advice, try reading the Appeals Q&A (link at the top of this page.

If you would like further advice about an appeal from anyone on this section, please read this post first:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=8255

Sally-Anne
KB
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Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Post by KB »

No personal experience of appeal but do know that the Essex Selective system is different to many, so much of the info on the appeals section doesnt apply. For example demonstrating that your child 'had a bad day' & is really of a GS standard / has special needs of some kind that make GS more suitable than another school are not relevant. The places are awarded simply on 'order of merit'.
CSSE are usually quite helpful & would clarify grounds for appeal.
Many years ago my daughter was ill during the exam (although she finished all the papers) & they told me that I needed to get a medical certificate immediately so if I needed to appeal when results came out I would have evidence.
If you wanted to appeal on grounds of disruption during exam etc I think you would also need to have reported it at the time for it to be considered.
Purely personal experience, but I have been involved in education system in North East Essex for many years & never heard of successful appeal for either of our local GS.
Sorry this is so negative. Of course I have no idea of your circumstances or if you have a really strong case. I wish you all the best if you decide to proceed.
moved
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Post by moved »

The only child that I have heard of to gain an Essex grammar place through appeal was ill, with evidence, on the day of the exam. I do not know the details, sorry.
hermanmunster
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Post by hermanmunster »

moving wrote:The only child that I have heard of to gain an Essex grammar place through appeal was ill, with evidence, on the day of the exam. I do not know the details, sorry.
Hi

as one who would be writing the note re the illness... it is really better to contact the doctor on the day so that the fact is recorded in the notes. If the request is made later then all the doc can say is "the patient says they were unwell on x date" - suspect may carry rather less weight.

Herman
brainiac
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:37 pm
Location: Tolleshunt Major

Post by brainiac »

We had a letter from Great Ormond Street for medical evidence and school and CSSE had these letters beforehand. Also, I did telephone school straight after exam to say concessions were not in place. They were really helpful and ensured that this was ammended for her afternoon exam. (She had first 2 in morning and went home for a sleep before 3rd exam in afternoon).
Etienne
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Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Post by Etienne »

All panels are legally required to follow the procedure laid down in the Code of Practice:
Where there is no local review process (as described in paragraph 3.34) or no local review process has been applied, the panel should consider any factors which appellants contend may have affected the child’s performance (e.g. illness, bereavement); whether the family made the admission authority aware of these before they sat the test; and whether it offered alternative testing arrangements or made reasonable adjustments (e.g. in the case of children with disabilities). The panel may then need to consider any clear evidence presented by the appellants to support their claim that the child is of the required academic standard e.g. school reports giving Year 5/Year 6 SAT results or a letter of support from their current or previous school clearly indicating why the child is considered to be of grammar school ability.
Assuming that the school has a case, every oversubscription appeal must consider:
1. Whether there has been maladministration.
2. Whether the parental reasons for wanting a place outweigh the prejudice to the school.

The first of these should be an entirely objective exercise: was a mistake made in the admission arrangements as a result of which the child was deprived of a place to which s/he would otherwise have been entitled?

The second is a more subjective judgement!
We give advice about the sort of arguments commonly put forward, but we do state very clearly in the Q&As:
All appeals are basically the same in that they must conform with the law and Code of Practice. The main differences are (1) how strict the panel is [success rates vary enormously] ......
There are huge variations in different parts of the country.

There is a link in the Q&As, A6b, that takes you to the last available DCSF statistics, but unfortunately grammar school appeals are not shown separately.

The following newspaper article discussed the widely different success rates in different areas:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/200 ... s.schools1
Etienne
brainiac
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:37 pm
Location: Tolleshunt Major

Post by brainiac »

My daughter goes to an independent school so she did not do sats, but her school would support us 100% to back up her ability. Her 11+ score also does that.
The advice is very much appreciated, thank you!!
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