AGSB OOC Appeal - anyone else?

[ariadne]

Good point, Etienne. Thanks for being here - I've spent hours today going through your old advice.

Equally, anyone who gets a waiting list place will drop their appeal, so less competition for any spaces awarded on appeal.

[HotRod]

We are OOC and DS did not get offered a place. Admissions have informed me today that they had more qualifying children in catchment than usual, so they have made "only nine or ten" OOC offers, the lowest being a score of 390 (!!) which is significantly higher than DS's score even though he did really well.

If any of you with an AGSB place are thinking about possibly declining it for whatever reason, I'd be very much obliged to you .

Hi - same here, our son had a very good score in the 370s which would've been enough even last year when teh minimum score for OOC went up 20 marks to 368 (thanks to deltamum for the past scores) so I was hopeful. However with the expanded catchment area the school seem to be looking more at having local boys, it seems unlikely he'll get in on the waiting list from the sounds of it. If there are grounds for appeal it might help.

I don't think many will be declining tbh, would it be those who do so in favour of Sale/MGS etc I take it?

[ariadne]

I would be assuming independent tbh. Or relocation?

[LooniesMum2]

When we had an OOC pass 3 years ago their admissions office told me the waiting list didn't move and that that usually no further offers were sent out, contrary to what people were saying. Sorry to disappoint - it was difficult at the time but DS is happy and thriving now!

LooniesMum

[hermanmunster]

When we had an OOC pass 3 years ago their admissions office told me the waiting list didn't move and that that usually no further offers were sent out, contrary to what people were saying. Sorry to disappoint - it was difficult at the time but DS is happy and thriving now!

LooniesMum

It depends, some schools offer over PAN knowing that a certain number of places will declined and hence they do not need necessarily to go to the waiting list. This varies by school and year eg Camp Hill Boys in B'ham offered over PAN in the past, but appears not to have done so this year (not confirmed but we shall see) - it means that the cut off goes up and the waiting list moves more quickly.

Re people declining places - just about every child who goes to a private school locally will have been allocated a state place and many of them will have been offered GS places.

[go2khurram]

I've been looking at the Appeals section but I can't see many (any?) Trafford appeals so thought it might be worthwhile posting here.

We are OOC and DS did not get offered a place. Admissions have informed me today that they had more qualifying children in catchment than usual, so they have made "only nine or ten" OOC offers, the lowest being a score of 390 (!!) which is significantly higher than DS's score even though he did really well.

Admissions also told me that there is absolutely no way they can create an extra class for the 2019 Y7 until the extension is finished in 2020. She gave the impression the school will be considered to be bursting at the seams so I infer they will push back hard against having to admit any additional children this year.

The school DS has been offered was our second preference and probably good enough, but AGSB is head and shoulders above it in terms of being a good fit for him academically and extracurricularly (is that even a word? ) so we are staying on the waiting list and preparing our appeal.

If any of you with an AGSB place are thinking about possibly declining it for whatever reason, I'd be very much obliged to you .

What standardised score your DS accheived?

[ariadne]

I'd rather not say exactly, but usually he'd have been in. This really is a bumper year.

My spouse has had more information. AGSB has made 200 offers for the 173 places, expecting some to drop out. There are around 100 on the automatic waiting list. I can't imagine every single one of those will appeal so we aren't giving up hope just yet, but really I think our chances are very low.

[Mandy21]

Hi OP, I think the school has been trying to reduce the numbers of OOC boys for some time to make it more of a local school - info available on the internet shows that last year the 2018 entry was 153 in catchment boys and only 18 out of catchment boys.

Anecdotally, the prospects of appeals are VERY low. We are in catchment so appeals would be on the basis of non-qualification which is obviously different, and I know of a family whose DC was 1 mark away from the pass mark with overwhelming extenuating circumstances and the appeal was refused. I've looked to see if I can find any official stats and can only find something for the girls' grammar which goes back to 2014 - 29 appeals, 6 granted (4 non-qualifying appeals and 2 location based). I think the boys' school would be similar low odds.

[ariadne]

Yes, that fits with our understanding and we are going to be structuring our appeal accordingly. I do think it's good and fair for the school to prioritise local children over those clever but distant, but as we are in a non-grammar area and can't afford private this is our best and only chance of a selective school (even if that chance is 1% or worse!).

[ariadne]

I thought I would update now that we have had our appeal (will post on the megathread once we have the results).

There were two lay and two educational members on the panel, plus a solicitor clerk. The school was represented by the admissions manager and the HT. Everyone was friendly and there were even some shared laughs and chuckles during certain parts of the hearing. HT made sure to shake hands and thank us for coming before and after, though I'm certain he had more important things to be doing!

The chair was extremely good at setting out the aims and procedures of the appeal before we started, at creating an informal but stringent atmosphere, and at making sure everyone had been heard and had all their questions asked and answered. The clerk, the panel and the school admin were very careful to keep the school's representatives well away from the hearing room before and after the hearing itself.

The school's case was simply to refer to the Governors' Case we had all had in writing, then to confirm that the reason our son hadn't been admitted was because the last admitted child scored 390 and he had scored less than that. This was also the total of their summing up.

Panel asked the school how many OOC children had been made offers (though this was in the pack) but had no other questions. We had some questions about how they calculated PAN/capacity and what prejudice there was in the current oversized year and had been in previous oversized years, and the school's representatives stated quite firmly that there had been no difficulty or prejudice. We brought this up in our summing up.

We made our case based on DS's consistent high performance and enthusiasm for the school, and the lack of suitable alternatives. Panel asked if we had applied to other grammars, and then why not - we had expected that question and had already submitted evidence about the length of journey, which is comfortable for AGSB but unacceptably long for e.g. Sale which would be the next nearest. School had no questions.

Overall everything was handled absolutely 100% by the book and we felt we were being given every opportunity to put our best case. Last night I slept through the night for the first time in months. They are hearing appeals until Thursday 6th, over thirty in total, so will have made their decisions by Thursday 13th. Our fingers are firmly crossed but we know it is still a long shot.