Passed 11+ in 1 school but failed in other - appeal?

[11gramquery]

Hi Mumsnet,

I have a question about my child's grammar school options.

DC11 applied for two schools that have the same 11+ test (they share results).

He scored enough for School 1P but did not score enough to meet the criteria for School 2F.

On his secondary school application, School 1P will be his first choice and then two local schools will be the other two options.

I spoke to their current headteacher in passing and they asked me about appealing based on the fact that they passed for School 1P and are doing really well in primary (high achiever, predicted good SATs results etc).

My question is...

1. Can I appeal? I understand this is a 'non qualification' appeal and has a low success rate.

2. Do I need to list School 2F on the secondary application form if I am planning to appeal?

This is a first for me so I'm just looking for perspective here. Thank you in advance.

Generally you can only appeal to schools you have been turned down by in March (some exceptions but this is the case in most authorities), so you would need to put 2F on the list.
If you don't put a school in the list of preferences he will never be considered for it. Also If he's allocated a higher preference I don't think you can appeal unless you make a late change of preference (people who know better than me will confirm If that is correct). If he's qualified for one school & you put that first, surely the other school is irrelevant anyway? Or is he unlikely to get that school either?
Have you looked at the eleven plus exams website? They have a discussion forum for each area & for appeals.

Not sure why this is in AIBU? Might be better to ask to have it moved.

Apologies I have previously posted in the 11+ boards but they seem to be very quiet and slow with replies... I thought this might reach a wider pool of people.

Also the reason I am worried about School 1P (pass) is because we are in the wider catchment, not immediate catchment area. Wider catchment means we are already on the backfoot.

Of course not. The mark is the same, but the two schools have different thresholds. Appealing is not going to achieve anything.

You can apply for any school and you can appeal for any school, even if you didn't get rejected by them in the main admissions round. One school having a higher threshold than another won't be a grounds for appeal, but you can still appeal on the ground that he is of grammar school standard.

What are the grounds for appeal?

My apologies, I thought you could only appeal to a school that had turned you down

1. Is definitely yes. We did this and won.
2. I thought yes too, but am not totally sure. We did put this school down as we knew we would appeal it.

You CAN appeal, but whether it is worth appealing is another matter. Where we are applying (Sutton) there really isn't any point appealing. They are firm that the score is basically everything. In addition, places are admitted on score, so a pupil getting the pass mark is extremely unlikely to get a place anyway.

In other areas e.g. Kent, there is a bit more flex. However appeal success rates are still low. Personally I think you are going through a lot of stress for a slim chance in most cases, but it is area dependent, so you should probably investigate for your area.

Don't apologise. I shouldn't post when I'm ill. You were right. You have to be rejected to appeal. What I should have said is 'If you didn't put the school on the CAF you'll need to apply, then be rejected, and can appeal'. I took a short cut.

@11gramquery doesn't need to have put the school on her initial application to apply for it after the allocations date. Then, when they reject her child, she can appeal.

No different schools have different requirements. Locally we have 3 grammar schools and when you get the 11+ results it will show which ones you have met the entry requirement for.
If it's a no then I wouldn't put it down as others will have passed and met their requirements. The grammar schools near me also generally have wait lists so it's unlikely they will take people who didn't meet the requirements when they can take people on the wait list.

that is sort of what I had in mind - being grammar school standard and being closed to the school he didn’t pass for.

the only extenuating circumstances is we had 3 family bereavements before the exam (one over the summer which meant we travelled abroad for 3 weeks to be with immediate family). He still wanted to give the exam a shot so we went for it.

He didn’t even get tutored - it was all home based revision and school study. So it’s not like he was tutored since Year 4 and then still didn’t pass. If that makes sense?

As pp said, each grammar has its own pass mark. Appealing won’t go anywhere, certainly round here it wouldn’t (Glos). Put the schools in order of preference (the grammar he passed for, not the other grammar) and see what happens in March.

I know a boy who failed and went elsewhere but retook the test and moved school towards the end of Y7 (not sure the mechanism of this). In-year admissions are different to whole-year intake so you could always look at moving later on.