My son missed alty boys by 2 marks.I want to appeal

[Nosheen123]

Hello,
My son passed stretford grammar but missed Altrincham grammar school for boys by 2 marks. We are out of catchment for stretford but we are in the catchment for alty. Our first preference is alty and we would like to appeal against this decision. I have many reasons to appeal and also my elder son studies there too. Can someone help me regarding appeal
Thanks

[Stillunexpected]

What are your reasons for appealing? Your other son going there won't make any difference.

[Buttercup27]

Sorry but there has to be a cut off somewhere. I don't think appealing would do any good.

[IguanaTail]

Do you know if the headteacher already appealed?

[admission]

Not sure why you are raising this issue now. Assuming that you are talking about son joining in year 7 in September you should have been notified of the result of the 11+ by the end of October, so that you could make appropriate adjustments to the CAF by the 31st October.
If you had queries about the test score then you should have raised them then as it would have given sufficient time for further consideration before now, when in reality nothing can happen about it.
Having not achieved the required mark you simply will not have been considered for a place at the school.
Probably your best bet is to contact the school now and enquire about the results and try to start a dialogue about it. If before the 1st March you can agree with the school that there were extenuating reasons why your son did not reach the required standard and secondly why you have not previously contacted them then that is a positive.
As Tiggytape says you will then have to wait until after the 1st March and then you can appeal. If you do get agreement that your son was of the required standard then that will be a positive at the appeal but there will always be many parents who believe their children are of grammar school standard, who do appeal. Most are disappointed by the outcome of the appeal.

[Nosheen123]

Thanks for the responses and I am planning to appeal after first of March after my son has been denied place as I contacted school for rechecking of marks but they refused and informed that all results are checked twice
I was pregnant and had baby in same week of exams and was quite unwell and had to attend Number of appointments and ended up having emergency caesarean within a week and his father was in different city due to work
He is also being supported from primary school as he has improved remarkably in last year and has good reports from school
He was born on 23 August and is the smallest in class
I have also spoke this class teacher and he is also happy to help and help in appeal process
I am also planning to talk to a solicitor if it is of any help?

[namechangedtoday15]

Have you read the policy? I only ask because a review will already have taken place before the results were sent out in October.

My DS also took the test. You needed 334 as a "qualifying score" so I assume your son got 332. Any papers with scores from 320-333 are reviewed (they look at overall performance in the 3 papers, plus the English piece they write on the day but doesn't form part of the score). If the panel thinks the child should be upgraded, the score is increased to "334R" - ie a qualifying score. That's all done before the letters were sent out.

I only set that all out because it suggests that the internal review didn't think you son should be upgraded. You'll therefore need to go through the process Tiggy sets out but I imagine the evidence of academic ability will need to be very strong.

I think the Altrincham Grammars are notorious for only have a very small number of successful appeals because there are waiting lists of children who do pass.

Good luck, there is a website called elevenplus and there is a page of the Forum specifically relating to appeals.

[namechangedtoday15]

P.s. should have added that the raw scores are already standardised to reflect age - so they'll already have adjusted it for his August birthday.

[Squashybanana]

Stretford Grammar is a lovely caring small school that works incredibly hard with their children. He will be more than fine there.

[namechangedtoday15]

The OP is out of catchment for Stretford. I don't know their policy as well - do they offer on score out of catchment? If so, do you think he scored high enough to get a place?

[Squashybanana]

Stretford is less popular than the other grammars and doesn't have a strict catchment as far as I know. Its distance criteria is usually a couple of miles these days I think.

[Squashybanana]

Yes confirming 8 miles for 2012 entry, 2.9 miles for 2013 entry and 2.2 miles for 2014 entry.

[namechangedtoday15]

Just looked at Stretford ' s policy. They offer the first 20 places to the highest scorers irrespective of distance - OP, do you think your son might be in this category?

Looks like the distance of boys who got places is shrinking - Trafford ' s website says the furthest place was 2.03 miles from the school in 2015.

[Nosheen123]

I really appreciate for the suggestions and advices to make the chances of appeal being more successful
I have already contacted the school for internal review after the results came out
I was told to appeal the decision after palaces will be allocated in March so I am waiting for the admissions to be granted
I have also contacted primary school head teacher and class teacher and they are happy to help in appeal process
I got an optimistic response from school as my son has shown a huge improvement in class in last two years since joining school
We moved from Ireland and he was moved up two classes in UK and was in the lowest set but has moved to highest set this year !
I am assuming it may be helpful during appeal procedure
Thanks again for informative posts

[Brightnorthernlights]

Can I ask what the basis of your appeal would be? It appears his papers would have already been reassessed. I knows it's very difficult but there does have to be a cut off and I'm sure the school has plenty of boys who met the qualifying mark on the test. His age has already been taken into consideration. Was he ill on the day of the test?