year 5 11+ meeting

[lea2124]

So last night was my son's schools 11+ meeting. All was self explanatory but apparently the year 5 teachers have already ranked the children! I don't really know what this means but am thinking it's the 1, 2, 3 rank that i've seen some of the posters on here talk about.
Am I within my right to ask what they have scored my son or is it only needed/required if we have to go down the appeal process? Saying that, I would like to know what they think because parents evening are always very blase and the teacher is always very non-committal. Obviously I have a sense of where he is but it's all getting very real now and considering we were told roughly only 10% of children from a maintained primary school like ours actually qualify for a grammar school.
Many thanks.

[Sally-Anne]

the year 5 teachers have already ranked the children! I don't really know what this means but am thinking it's the 1, 2, 3 rank that i've seen some of the posters on here talk about.

Yes, that is the Head Teacher's Recommendation that we refer to. The deadline to submit it is 28th September, so it's not surprising that many schools undertake the process in the latter part of the summer term.

Am I within my right to ask what they have scored my son or is it only needed/required if we have to go down the appeal process?

It's only needed for the appeal process. You could try asking for it, but you are very unlikely to get an answer without a fight, and I'm afraid you will immediately become "that parent" ...

we were told roughly only 10% of children from a maintained primary school like ours actually qualify for a grammar school.

Nonsense. That might be true of your child's school, but for 2017 admission the overall figure for Bucks state schools was 22.6% (qualified with 121+) and that rose to 25.7% after Reviews.

[lea2124]

Many thanks for the quick reply.

I thought that might be the case regarding the HT recommendations, I definitely don't want to be "that" parent so will just wait till the end of term report!

I believe 18 children qualified out of 110 who took the test in my son's school (current year 6) and the HT gave the impression that that was a good result!
She also said the appeals are getting harder and harder and the school can only support an appeal if a child is working at greater depth level for all subjects. I totally get that. Seeing from just this forum the amount of appeals has been huge this year.

Nonsense. That might be true of your child's school, but for 2017 admission the overall figure for Bucks state schools was 22.6% (qualified with 121+) and that rose to 25.7% after Reviews.

Could the area you live in also affect the % who qualified? I *think* she was trying to say the area we live in doesn't tend to have a high % qualifying rate.
Anyway I'll try not to dwell on that too much!

Thanks again.

[anotherdad]

Don't worry about the qualification rate in your school or area. There is no quota and the statistics are just that: statistics. Over time a trend for a particular school or area might show an above- or below-average qualification rate. That could be attributed to circumstances peculiar to the school, such as a lot of children with English spoken as a second language, or a tendency for families in that school to do a lot of tuition, but unless there is a fundamental problem with the education delivered in the school, the statistics have limited bearing on your own child's individual chances.

It sounds to me that the HT is sensibly cooling expectations. My daughter attended a school where many middle-class parents were obsessed with 11+ results from the onset of junior school and the HT did their best to deal with it, but there was constant pressure on teachers at parents' evenings to predict children's 11+ qualification chances. By year 5 it was all they were interested in. You will have seen posts on here from parents whose children have missed out on qualification, despite "being in the top sets" or "on the top tables" in primary school but they often forget that the cohort is standardised and unless they know the wider context of how their school's attainment levels stack up with all the others, being in the top set may or may not be significant. Conversely, you don't tend to see posts on here from parents of children who haven't been in the top sets but who have perhaps unexpectedly qualified!

You're right not to dwell on it too much. If you think that your son would be best placed in a grammar school, well-judged home preparation and practice will give him a chance of qualifying, irrespective of the school's overall qualification rate. Where the school's overall rate might come into play is with reviews and appeals, where the reliability of the HT's recommendations is important. A HT with a good record of judicious recommendations will see his or her recommendations carry more weight than those from a HT who dishes out support to everyone.

[Guest55]

I am very concerned about the Head's use of the word 'appeal' when I think it the HT review that is being discussed.

A HT review is very different to an appeal ...

[lea2124]

The HT did talk about both the selection review and the appeal but didn't go into too much detail because like she said if/when it comes to it she'll be there to help every step of the way anyway. Tbh I can't deal with that problem atm. We'll cross that bridge when/if it comes to it.

[Guest55]

Yes but do read carefully about the differences if your child does not qualify. In our experience on here, some Heads are misleading people.

[lea2124]

yep will do. Plus I'm sure I'll be on here asking for help. Hoping we won't need it though.

[Guest55]

Let's hope you don't need to know the difference but a friend might.

[Blue_Marigold]

Good luck Lea2124. I hope you won’t need to worry about reviews and appeals xx