Worth appealing??

[lancs2000]

My ds passed the 11 plus back in september. It is a single sex school.

Anyway priority is given to boys who pass and live within the catchment area,there aren't enough residual places to go around.

We are very disappointed as the school offered by the LEA is a mixed local school.

For religious reasons we would have preferred a single sex school. Also the grammar has an excellent reputation - the comp doesn't has been under special measures recently.

Would stating religious/cultural requirements be a good enough basis of appeal? TIA

Are you within catchment ? If you aren't but there have been allocations outside it, what is the next criteria applied (siblings, distance, religion etc) and would you meet it. If religion isn't a criteria then there is probably no grounds to appeal on that basis alone.

There's no reason why you can't mention the name of the school if you want to, and there's no reason why you shouldn't appeal. You have nothing to lose and the worst they can do is turn you down.

Is he on the waiting list already seeing as he passed? Or are you out of catchment?

You can appeal on any grounds you want. However, on the information given here I doubt that an appeal on these grounds would be successful.

You should make sure your son is on the waiting list.

We aren't in the catchment. Allocations have been made outside and I'm not sure of the next criteria. Will find out. It's Lancaster Grammar (boys)

He is on a waiting list of 20, admissions tutor told me he is unlikely to secure a place via the waiting list.

We are disappointed because we should have used a tutor so he would have scored a higher mark, also we only started preparing a month before the test.

Hi lancs2000. I phoned the admiss. tutor today about appeal to LRGS. We are in the catchment area, but DS's maths score (his best subject) was just too low (how did that happen..?) His Eng score was really good (and on a hard paper apparently). He said only about 2/3 pupils get in on appeal. So we're going to local CE school.

meaning 2 or 3 pupils get in.

Thanks for the reply inky..even though your son got a low maths score did he pass? Would you mind telling me his scores. Admission tutor confused me a bit re: scores required!

I can't remember his actual scores but they give a target mark which I guess is the pass mark. His maths mark was about 20 below and this was def why he didn't get a place. Eng was well above (20? marks) and VR was on pass mark. If he'd done better in the maths he would have been borderline, but I could tell this was why he didn't get a place. School said they'd support an appeal so I thought I'd investigate.

I was pleasantly surprised by ad tutor. He always sounded scary and I thought by phoning up he'd say don't waste your time, he's clearly not good enough 'sorry, next please' but he was really helpful. What schools do you have nearby?

I would appeal although your chances are low. Make sure you list all other schools in your catchment and show how they are unsuitable.

No, I wouldn't list all the other schools and show how they are unsuitable. The panel really won't be interested. The question is why the preferred school is more suitable for your son than the allocated school. Other schools are not relevant. Even when looking at these two schools, it doesn't help you and can damage your case to talk about how awful the allocated school is. Concentrate on why the preferred school is better for your son.