Private tutors and appeals - good or bad?

scarymary · Post by **scarymary** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:48 pm

If you are asked at an appeal if your child has done practice papers, or if your child has been tutored, and you say 'yes', will this count against you?

Post by **Etienne** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:43 pm

Difficult to say!

Practice papers and a bit of home tutoring - probably not.

Professional tutoring - possibly, although I'm not sure that it should.

I admit that it might not look too good if the parent said "I've been sending my child for tuition once a week for the past three years."

I'm uneasy about panels asking for this sort of information because the answers cannot be easily verified.

scarymary · Post by **scarymary** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:01 pm

Has anybody on the forum been in an appeal where this type of question has been asked?

capers123 · Post by **capers123** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:58 pm

scarymary wrote:Has anybody on the forum been in an appeal where this type of question has been asked?

Up until a few years ago it was asked by one of the other panalists at appeals I was on. I agree with Etiennes comments, although 'home tutoring' can also be either a parent trying to help out a bit, a parent who happens to be a teacher intensively tutoring for 2 or 3 months, or even a private tutor coming to the house for several years. We also tended to equate the three years of preparation that a certain prep school gave with intensive private tutoring.

Round here, most children get some tutoring. Some start at Easter for a November 11+. There are some children who do not have tutoring, and get flying passes with just a couple of practice papers (and yes, I know some at DD's school). There are others who could not possibly pass the exam without 2 or more years tutoring, and they are the ones who maybe would be better at a non-selective school. But who is to know that what the parents are telling us at an appeal is the truth? That's why we have to be very careful.

I've allowed appeals, only to be told by friends afterwards that they knew a child appealing for my school who'd had masses of tutoring, yet the parents lied to us in the appeal. Actually, I've heard from a friend that, not surprisingly, one of these children is struggling to keep up with the rest of the class! But what can we do? If parents lie, then it is denying a place to another child, but some selfish people will do anything to get their child into a Grammar School. Shame, really.

Post by **Etienne** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:39 pm

the parents lied to us in the appeal

This is why I'm so uneasy about this line of questioning. The answer cannot be verified.

It's ultimately up to the panel to decide if the appellant is credible, but usually most panels would expect any points significant enough to influence the decision to be substantiated.

Justine · Post by **Justine** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:39 pm

We were asked last week at our appeal if our child did any practice at home or elsewhere.
Luckily we were able to tell the truth as to the fact we did not go down the tutoring line however I felt that we would not be believed as most people we have said this to have looked at us sceptically therefore I replied that our child had looked at a couple of papers on line but had no formal training or tutoring. This seemed to satisfy them as we were successful with our appeal. Hope this may be of some help.

Justine