Unsuccessful grammar school appeal

I agree. My daughter started playing the flute halfway through Year 3, had passed her grade 5 theory and grade 6 practical before the end of Year 6, and she wasn’t considered gifted by any means.

I don't understand how the local authorities allocated the places.
I know certain children who put our 2nd choice school as their second school choice and got it.

This really should be explained (and almost certainly is)
on your home LA's website. In a section which ours, and our neighbouring LA, asks parents to confirm that they have read and understood before submitting their CAF.

However...

Each school which you name as a preference on your CAF considers the application with no knowledge of where else you have applied and ranks your DC purely according to the school's oversubscription criteria.

Your LA collates the responses regarding each of your preferences and allocates either

• the highest of them which can be offered, where more than one can, or
• the only one which can be offered, if that is the case, or
• the nearest school to your address, in your LA, with a place still available once all those who have it as their own highest effective preference have been accommodated.

The third scenario appears to be the relevant one here.

So the DC you know whose parents put the same school as second preference as you did were ranked high enough against that school's oversubscription criteria to be offered a place, and could not be offered their first preference. Your DS, simularly not able to be offered his first preference, was not ranked highly enough by this school, either, nor, it seems, by your third preference.

Was there actually a local school less inconvenient / less undesirable than the 'nearest undersubscribed' school you got, which you would have been offered, had you named it as a preference (and if so, have you now applied for it)?

Btw, if you have a genuine reason to suspect that for either of your non-selective preferences, places were not allocated as they should have been, then you should make this known immediately to the admissions team.

Your letter should state why he missed out on a place. The Admissions criteria might include ehcp, lac, siblings, faith, feeder school all before distance for example.

@Will2 you should be on the waiting lists for the 3 schools you didn't get. There's quite a lot of movement so you may get a place through that.

I've heard of this in our area and I think it's because there is one very very unpopular school and several schools within a mile of each other so the nearest ones to them became over subscribed.

. My son's friend, who lives 7 doors away from our second choice school and put it down as his first choice didn't get allocated a place either!

That is quite surprising unless there is a system of feeder primary schools, or random rather than distance based selection, or faith.

ETA the admissions criteria for each school should be on their websites, as you say you don’t know how the LA allocates.

Our area have been clear that appeals are purely based on whether scores took into account an issue or not at the time of the test So if they had allowances (extra time) for something already then the appeal won't go through or if there was an issue known about before the test then again it won't go through. It's mainly for people who have got medical evidence that their DC was vomiting through the test or broke their arm on the way to school in the morning of the test as far as I could see. Nothing to do with extra curriculars.

I cant offer any practical advice but try and think of this like the burnt toast theory - the allocated school may be just what he needs, or the grammar may have been awful (they already seemed to dismiss his medical/support needs!) try and be positive, whats for him wont go by him as my gran used to say 😊

How come he didn't get schools 2 & 3?
Were they also grammars, or just long shots non-grammars?
Did you appeal for them too?

Also, just like tutoring, people have now caught onto the appeals tricks system too. If everyone is now claiming they eg need their kid to get in to study Japanese/Latin (because they did it on Duolingo for six months) or play their clarinet etc the schools can’t go over the numbers they can accommodate safely!

There are loads of musical and intelligent kids around who also have health conditions but these grammar school places are just extremely limited and competitive. It’s a bit like the elite uni system. You don’t need to get in to do well in the long run though it’s just one opportunity of many.

I think if your child has a medical condition you are meant to evidence it well in advance before the tests to get extra time and a separate room (if the medical condition warrants it). You can’t wait until after and claim it impacted them. There has got to be a process that is followed well in advance that has some objectivity in it.
So many people are now chasing grammar places and they are rightly allocating some places to pupil premium with lower scores (that is objective too).

@Will2 we don’t know what your son’s illness is but 235 is quite a way off a pass mark of 242. Tens if not hundreds of applicants will have scored 235-241. If a child with a 241 score had a vomiting bug on the day, that is likely to have impacted their performance just as meaningfully as illness hit your child, even though your child’s condition is rare.

It is a shame that he didn’t feel he performed his best, that’s hard to come to terms with, but it’s time to focus on the allocated school and I hope he settles well.

OP I think the issue is that his medical condition was there for every exam, so it’s a difficult argument to make - you’re essentially saying that the first one was more stressful, but that will have been the case for every child.

The music is irrelevant.

The reason why pupil premium kids are given special treatment is because they are disadvantaged in numerous respects that impact their chances of getting an offer. For a child growing up in a low income family to have got a score only a few marks less than your son (who is clearly growing up with supportive parents invested in his education) is extremely impressive.

More “deserving” children apply than can be given a place - I think you just need to accept that your DS didn’t quite make the cut this time and move on.

I would try to reframe it. This might be the making of him....

I have one child in a very selective school who thrives on the pressure and stress ( they have an exam in every subject except phse and P.E. every half term)....and a child who is equally bright but with a different personality....the relentless push was just never going to work for them, and they are at a more accademically mixed school.

They had a good friend with a similar personality who chose to go to the more academic school, and isnt coping at all....multiple detentions / suspensions / mostly for going AWOL in the school day when they obviously reach a limit.....

If your child has a medical condition that is worsened by stress, a grammar might be a constant battle, and no child does well in such circumstances.

I'm not saying he was the only child in his position, but the unfamiliar testing environment being different, and the stressfulness around it got to him, especially considering his medical condition - he just didn't feel fully comfortable.
Well, no, he certainly wasn’t the only child in that position - you’ve just described the experience of every child in the room?
And it impacted some of the tests but not others? 🤔

The fact is he didn't meet the pass mark by quite a long stretch. If this was due to his illness on the day, did you follow the instructions on how to report this? Were they made aware that your son was suffering on the day and therefore likely to perform below par? These mechanisms are in place.

All of my children have been through the grammar system, one has a condition that seriously impacts their life.

The pace at grammar is fierce. I have seen many kids over the last 15 years that scrape a place, or get in on appeal to then struggle and are miserable.

The friends thing is irrelevant. Research shows that leaving friends is a short term concern and irrespective of type of school they make new friends in the majority of cases. This is also fluid throughout year 7 and settles more in year 8.

Comprehensive schools have sets for maths science and English which are just like grammar as top performers are there

Grammar schools are underfunded.

He will be able to show his ability in maths at secondary school, and all schools take the same GCSEs anyway. I know how disappointed you feel because we felt the same, not disappointed in her but for her as she too really wanted to go to grammar, but she thrived at secondary school, less pressure.