Reference Letter given by primary schools to Indie

[RBCDAD]

Hello,
Does anyone have any experience as to how do we know what is given in the reference letter to Independent schools? Also I understand these are confidential reports but is there anyway we can have those reference letters as end of the day these are information about our kids. Does it get covered under FOI?

Thanks.

[JustADadHere]

I would love to know this as well - as I am 90% sure it is the letter that got my son into St Albans more than anything else... I would love to see what was said.

[tigger2]

Hi RBC dad

I wondered if you had any advice on this via a pm? I too would be very interested to get a little more info on this

Many thanks
Tigger

[J50]

The Head at son's primary asked for an email to be sent to him detailing son's outside interests etc. Obviously he already knew about some things like the school football team and 'cricket' team etc. We were to be charged £35 per report to be sent (4x schools) but were only charged once if the schools accepted the Primary school's format of the report (and didn't insist on him filling out their form) - which I thought fair. So I was fairly confident that he was putting a decent amount of effort into compiling the report.

One of the 4 schools when we were invited for interview said in the invite letter something like - "...following an excellent performance in the entrance exam and an equally excellent school reference letter".

Hope this is useful.

[fairyelephant]

Our primary said they had so many requests they would need a supply teacher for a day if they followed the format required by each school. So, they produced a standard format regardless of what the schools asked for. It hasn't seemed to hold anyone back. I think the receiving schools know that what they will get from primaries varies wildly, whereas preps are likely to work harder at selling their wares!

[RBCDAD]

Sure Tigger. Pls do..

Our Primary School had standard format and we had given all the details upfront so that it is easy for them to write the reference letter. Also they said they wont be able to share the reference letter as they were confidential and they won't write anything negative. But I am still curious to see what has gone in the reference letter under FOI act.