Unsuccessful grammar school appeal

@clary agree - I would be surprised if anyone actually does, even if they lived in London etc when they first applied. I’m not sure the poster who said it had particular evidence it was happening, or if it was hearsay.

The school is close to a station and a fast train from London is a little over an hour.

Who would send their child to school in Grantham if they lived in London? Even if you lived in Farringdon or somewhere, that would be a ridiculous commute. Surely no school is worth that.

Just move to Grantham. Or, yunno, use one of the many great schools in London. My mind is boggling at this.

@will2- harsh as it is it does mean that Kings is a truly selective grammar which was the idea many moons ago. Like I said earlier it f you can afford the bus/train fare then send him to carres in Sleaford. Although if you live in one of the villages closer to Sleaford you might well be entitled to free transport.

@clary the school is close to a station and a fast train from London is a little over an hour.

I think the 30 mile radius was introduced at some point in the last five years so there may be boys in the upper years coming in from further away. There’s no sibling preference, so it isn’t a case of get one in and move further out.

However, I would be surprised if there were boys coming from that far out daily - though I can imagine a “stay with a local relative or friend in the week, head home at weekends” situation.

Regardless, that is in the past and no one in the Sep 2026 “batch” should have an address beyond 30 miles.

You need to accept he wont be going and concentrate on finding him another school.

They used to until the zone changed to 30 miles. (Apparently... this is a whole new world for me as first child at secondary school!). They definitely still come from the 3 or 4 cities that are covered either fully or partially within the radius. I went to school in town and we had a few kids from maybe 7 or 8 miles away, one was 14, which was an outlier. The girls grammar is different though. There are zero girls within 30 miles in the waiting list, and 90ish for the boys school.

But it wasn’t marginal. He was 7 points under. That’s quite a lot below. Best to accept he’s not going to go there and formulate Plan B.

So this school is in Lincolnshire? If so that would explain to some extent the wide catchment (tho not the mad zoning method of allocation). Much of Lincs is very rural. I went to a grammar school in Lincolnshire and lived about seven miles away. I had friends who lived 10 or even 15 miles from the school (not great for friendships btw, tho I guess this was before the days we now seem to live in of parents driving their kids hither and yon (this includes me btw)).

But are there genuinely DC attending who live in Leeds and London? So a hundred or more miles away? On a daily basis? I find that astonishing. Or have I misunderstood a PP appearing to say this?

Your post at 17.28 yesterday absolutely brought PP into the conversation

I grew up in West Kent. Anyone living in a village, attending a local grammar, would be highly likely to attend their school more than 7 miles away. That was a normal commute. I havent yet read what school this is, but mention of super-selectives and boys might indicate West Kent. The local boys super-selective is hyper competitive. A certain type of boy. Just be careful @OP - you might get what you wanted. Doesn't suit a lot of very bright academic boys.

I'd love to know more statistics about this, but it's the one we were given. I can think of a few local villages that might be up to 10 miles away, but on the other hand I can also think ogmf villages 8 miles away that I definitely wouldn't consider to be local. I often see kids in the local large city in uniform so I'd really like to know how many come in from these bigger centres, rather than borderline village kids who probably struggle with distance under a lot of school's criteria.

One of my children is highly able but vulnerable to stress. We sent him to our neighbourhood comprehensive. They were very supportive and brilliant with pastoral care. They were so used to being flexible to make things work for a whole range of young people that it was just what he needed. He left with 9’s in GCSE’s and 4 A*’s in A levels. I did once say to him did he wish we had sent him to one of the private schools on a scholarship and he said he would have hated it. I hope your son does well once he settles.

None of that has any relevance to whether or not your DD is musical - she obviously is, whether she still plays now or not.

Reading this made me realise we actually live within 30miles of a Lincolnshire Grammar... but we would have to drive through another county to actually get there. (As in leave our county, drive through that county, then into Lincolnshire) so i do understand your point about the Catvhment. However jts fair that children in the more distant villages within Lincolnshire also get a chance.

Totally agree
My dd2 got to grade 8 piano but can only play the pieces she learned for her music exam
.She now refuses to play at all because she said doing the exams sucked all the joy out of it
My friend’s son didn’t even take any formal music exams and plays brilliantly . He can even play by ear which my dd cannot do

I’m not sure 7 miles would include many of the local villages for which this would be their nearest grammar though. I would still class those as being ‘local’.

That's really interesting. I had read that it can add 5-10 marks to the score. But it's very difficult to find out concrete figures as it's hard to measure and possibly people won't admit to it. I've heard from friends with older kids that it's extremely common to have tutoring so most must believe it to be useful. I dont really agree with it as it unlevels the playing field, but on the other hand, having a completely untutored child that was 2 marks off, if I'd known this would happen we might have tried something more, although obviously not the extensive stuff that some kids have. Tbh I feel sorrier for the kids that scored 2 marks more and got in with extensive tutoring.

I wish they could see inside their brains and select the number of children that way 😆

One of my son's friends lost out on a place on a score well over requirement because her house was 40 metres outside of catchment. The boundary literally goes through their road.

It's a hard pill to swallow BUT if the school could meet their full quota with kids on or above that score living in the boundary, why should they make an exception?

They can't please everyone.

1/3 live more than 7 miles away.

The 30 miles radius has only been in place for a few years. Prior to that, there was no radius and boys travelled by train from much further away including London and Leeds. It’s still a large area but it’s much smaller than it used to be. And my personal experience is that the majority of boys are local - all of my son’s friendship group live within the town or local villages. From the school’s perspective, this gives them a better chance of taking boys with higher scores and potentially higher exam results in the future. I do agree it changes the dynamic from being a truly local school though.

You have my sympathies when it comes to the process. It's brutal. We didn't have to go through appeal but we did lose friends over it and relationships between those of us whose kids got a place and those who didn't remains frosty.

As far as appeal goes, I think you need to remember that while your priority is your child, their priority is ALL of the kids and, of course, the school.

In all likelihood, another child deserved the place more.

I know that's hard to accept, but they have a finite number of spaces.

I truly hope your child moves forward positively and thrives in another school. I really think that's where you need to put your energy now, for his sake.

This feeling of having missed out and unfair treatment can really spiral.

Time to get him excited about new opportunities.

I sympathise as this happened to my son and his friend, he was one point below on the grammar test and we appealed and were subsequently rejected.
He got into a local Church linked school and he did well there in the end.

His friend did the 12+ a year later and moved to a grammar, perhaps you could go this route? See how he goes and if it’s not working out then prepare for the 12+, there are always a few Grammar school drop outs.

20 pupil premium places when there are 174 places in total is fine though. I mean it is just over 10% and the remaining 90% places are there within the 30 mile radius. And a score of 235 when the max is 282 and the cut off was 237 in 2024 was always borderline.
Also all grammars state very clearly not to attend tests on a day a child is not feeling well but to get a doctor’s note instead.
For long term health conditions, extra time with evidence has to be sought well in advance.
The poster whose DC has 240 may still get a waiting place.

Whilst they have to allow appeals legally speaking, they cost schools a lot of money and the DFE is no longer funding this. 40 kids appealing would have cost them over 7000. I think people should not really be appealing if they just missed for a superselective. And if they are just below the 220 in that area, then appeals should go in straight after the test based on school work and with head teacher support.
Generally speaking I think verbal and non verbal style tests you can only really tutor so much for anyway. It is more IQ based and years of reading that makes a genuine difference. Some prep and familiarisation is required, but with that type of tests (which is not based on maths or English) it is more tutor proof. At least that is my opinion (I am sure some will disagree with me).

PP isn't about income. FSM eligibility is mostly, but until recently UC transition blurred that as well.

It’s really very difficult if not impossible to reach a high standard on an instrument at primary age without being musical. String instruments for example require an acute sense of pitch. Marks are awarded in music exams specifically for musicality. That’s not to say that kids at lower grades aren’t more musical, or that you can’t be a late bloomer (many instruments can’t even be started until older ages), but this kind of comment just smacks of jealousy to me. How would you even know whether they can “muck about with a song or enjoy music”?

Whether OP’s child is gifted depends on how long he’s been playing, which she hasn’t revealed. But it’s fair to say that if he’s been playing for 3-4 years (which would be standard by year 6) then grade 3 is average, not exceptional.