HSfG APPEAL

[gloucester dad]

Hi,
I have been told today that HSfG have 47 appeal applications this year. I know that last year they allowed 2 appeals. Does anyone know how many applicatons they had last year. I was trying for a place on appeal but the odd's are not very good are they?

[PaterGloucester]

Not an answer, I'm afraid, but a question. Does anyone know the number of appeals for Pates Grammar ?

I know people who are appealing and who would be interested in the odds.

[sally.russell]

Is it appropriate to phone the school and make enquiries about the number of appeal applications they have recieved? Not sure whether this sort of information would help or hinder! 47 is an awful lot, will they hear all of them or do some get turned down before a hearing?

[Alex]

Appeals once lodged must be heard unless the appellant withdraws the appeal. They can only be decided by the independent appeals panel.

I am not familiar with Gloucs but where I am schools are generally quite happy to give information about the number of appeals that have been lodged.

[capers123]

Is it appropriate to phone the school and make enquiries about the number of appeal applications they have recieved? Not sure whether this sort of information would help or hinder! 47 is an awful lot, will they hear all of them or do some get turned down before a hearing?

An appeal would also be dropped if a place was offered from the waiting list: the child was
at the top of the list and someone else who already had a place declined it. I have known that happen right up to the day before appeals starting (even once during the appeals for one that we'd heard).

Note that there is also a slim chance that a place would be offered if, during preparing for the appeals, the school side re-marked the papers manually and found that there was an error in favour of the child, meaning that they would have been offered a place given the corrected score. This would take the school over PAN/IAN, but they have no choice in the matter.

47 is quite a lot. Rest assured that the panel will not take the top 'x' pupils from the waiting list - the mitigating circumstances for each appeal are considered individually. Copious notes will be made both by the clerk (the official record) and by the panel members (unofficial, aide memoire notes - one panalist even drew sketches of the parents so she could remember them), so even though there's a lot of appeals they will be able to give all equal consideration, irrespective of being heard first or last.