Disturbed during exam and missed out on place by 5 marks.

[supermum2]

Hello all

I hope that you may be able to help with my dielema.
My DS attended an examin November 1 week after my Father passed away. This did not affect his practise grades and was scoring 90-100% on practise papers.

During the exam some children were made to sit at tables where one child faced another. My son was disturbed by the child facing him, my son complained to me after the exam that the boy sang throughout the exams and kept opening my DS pencil case. He continually spoke throughout exam and also made ticking noises.

I was disappointed that my ds did not tell the monitors of the room at the time. He told me that he was worried that he would run out of time waiting for them to come to see to him.

He scored 92% and pass mark was 95% for the selective places.

I called the school the next working day to advise what had happened. I was advised that there was no report on the day of any disruptions, however there probably would not have been due to the poor seating arrangements: children facing each other(maybe this is normal). I was told that he couldnt re-sit but a note would be made of my concerns that could be used in appeal in needed.

I emailed the school to ensure that I had an audit trail of my concerns prior to national offer day.

1 do you feel that I have a good enough case in relation to my appeal
2 do you feel that having children facing each other on 1 desk is good practise or even legal
3 what arguements would you use for such a case


My DS was not offered any schools from his LA as very oversubscribed and hoping that this will go in his favour.

Your helpful comments are very very welcome, I have an appeal hearing in 2 weeks time.

Many thanks

Nat

[hermanmunster]

Hi Supermum2 - I thought you had accepted Whitgift .. or am I getting confused

[supermum2]

Yes I had ..... however situations change we can discuss via pm if you would like.

[hermanmunster]

No probs - just confused me. Are you appealing for a state GS now then?

[Etienne]

Dear Supermum2

You probably need three things for an appeal:

• 1. extenuating circumstances
  2. a wide range of evidence of high ability to show that she ought to have qualified
  3. good reasons for wanting a place at the school (if it's oversubscribed)

You have the first, but, to be honest, 2 & 3 will be just as important, if not more so.

You've a lot of reading to do!
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[supermum2]

No probs - just confused me. Are you appealing for a state GS now then?

Its not a state Grammar just state school with selective places.

Whitgift give you 2 days after allocations to accept or decline a place. From March to September a lot can change so not sure why you are confused.

Several parents accept independents and then are offered state schools and then hand the place back so notihng new here.
We are entitled to appeal on the basis of what was mentioned above.
We are already bound to pay 1st terms fees at whitgift but whether we actually accept it is a choice we have to make.

I hope this has provided clarity.


Etiene many thanks for the link. In your opinion do we have a reasonable case?

[Etienne]

In your opinion do we have a reasonable case?

Impossible to say, I'm afraid. I know the basis for your extenuating circumstances, but nothing about your academic evidence or what sort of case you can put together for wanting a place.

[Bougalou]

Sorry, have just seen this, - hope I am not too late. If the test was administered by the LEA then ask for a copy of the invigilators' reports for all test taken under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ( that's important otherwise they won't give you a copy.) What you will get is a copy of the report which will show the seating plan and will refer to children by number and every incidence of note. You will also know what number your child was. Then trawl through the records. In our case it didn't take very long to be utterly gobsmacked. - Our daughter missed by 5 marks also and we failed one appeal. All we had to go on was one sentence which said she had looked up at a certain time due to a disturbance in the corridor. - The invigilators' report showed that she had actually put her hand up and said she couldn't concentrate due to the noise - not in a corridor, behind a curtain which separated the hall off from other classrooms and the seating plan showed she was placed right next to the curtain. All pupils were majorly disturbed upto 20 times in one of the exams (in addition to lots of other minor distractions like other children walking through the exam hall to get to the toilet, children crying etc), and two children who were on the next desk were talking and messing around with pencils also. Needless to say the second appeal found in our favour and DD is doing well at GS, but wouldn't have been had we not had that evidence. Give it a go.
Bouga

[tokyonambu]

and two children who were on the next desk were talking and messing around with pencils also.

I realise the game is different in places where the 11+ is voluntary and take only by a somewhat self-selecting well-motivated group to places where the 11+ is compulsory and taken even by people who have absolutely no conceivable chance of (or interest in) passing and therefore have no skin in the game, but what on earth are the invigilators playing at if this is allowed to continue?

[dutchy005]

Our appeal also had as one of the mitigating factors a disturbance in the exam room. We didn't ask for the invigilator's report because we didn't know we could but the first question asked in both our appeals of the PO was about the incident. At the first appeal our DS had missed a place by 5 actual marks on the paper in which the disturbance occurred, at the second it was 3. We won the second.

This was a very very important aspect of our appeal, far more important than we realised at the outset. Also, we appealed to 2 schools and the first panel didn't pay much attention to it and we lost, the second homed in on it and we won. We were however asked why we hadn't raised it immediately after the exam - we didn't know we could/should

So, definitely make sure that enough emphasis is placed on it and get as much info as you can. If you can't get it before the appeal cover it in your submission and make sure the the panel get the invigilator's report from the PO.

Very very good luck