Been away a while as this all got a bit painful. As a reminder, DS fell well short in the Bucks test. Went to selection review with an amazing set of reports and recommendations from his primary, they rejected it out of hand. Went to final appeal, which took months. Result arrived today. They agreed that the selection review didn't do its job properly. They agreed that DS is academic enough to go to a grammar and that his 11+ result was out of character. But unfortunately they also accepted our local grammar's case that they're full and can't possibly take one more pupil. So they've put him on the waiting list, from which nobody ever emerges because nobody ever leaves. Off to the local upper he goes.
I'm happy that he finally has an official bit of paper saying he's qualified for a grammar school, he certainly earned it over seven years of hard work. But I'm beyond furious that the selection review panel fucked up, as had the process worked properly he would have 100% been allocated a place on national offer day. He's been utterly, utterly screwed over by the system, which is a level of unfairness that's hard to take when the victim is a smart, hardworking, 11-year-old child.