Will HE be a barrier to grammar school application?A moving from HE to school question.

[IslaValargeone]

We have been HE dc for about a year now, it was our intention to get back into school once we had moved house (which we now have done) Nobody however is that keen to change things at the moment, however..We are thinking about applying for a grammar school place, but have been told (not by anyone official) that it might affect dc's application, not least that there will be no formal academic reference if the 11+ mark is borderline.
My feeling is, that if the result is borderline, then grammar school probably isn't the right place anyway, but I am more concerned that an application might be disadvantaged over some pre conceived notion that dc wouldn't fit in because he'd kids are odd.
Anyone had any experience?

No experience whatsoever.

Can you check the admissions guidelines for the school?

I don't live in a grammar school area. But I would have guessed there will be some standard admissions guidelines specifically forbidding discrimination on the basis of educational history (and family income and race, religion and all that). Wasn't the whole purpose of grammar schools supposed to be that they would give opportunities for bright children from ALL backgrounds, not just those from the "right" background?

If people seriously think home education creates social disadvantages then shouldn't that be all the more reason why they should admit your child to grammar school - to save the poor unfortunate from this dysfunctional family and give him or her a proper chance at a good life? LOL.

There's certainly nothing in the admissions guidelines other than stipulations about living in the catchment area. To be honest, after having slept on it, I don't really know why I even gave it much thought, but every now and again when I'm met with some anti home edder it gives me the willies and I begin to doubt everything I'm doing. I'm sure it must fade with time and experience.
I will however take precautions to have dc's second head removed before we start any applications :o

One of the problems with HE is that the world is full of people who "know" that it will cause problems, that it will be held against them, that it will completely scupper their applications for school, college, university, jobs, credit cards, dog licence, etc, etc, etc...

Make sure you get your information from people/places who actually know what they are talking about - the school and or education authority should be able to give you details of the admission policy. And they then have to stick to that policy, even if there are people who have doubts about your child's background - if it isn't something on their list, they can't allow it to prejudice giving him/her a place he/she is otherwise entitled to.

Grey areas like a school reference could potentially be tricky, as the people reading them will be making a value judgement and their prejudices could affect the result. But things like catchment area and test results will be much higher up the list of requirements.

I am slightly apprehensive about approaching the education authority regarding information, as we are currently unknown to them as Home edders, so I don't want to start any interfering. According to the admissions criteria on the school website, we have nothing to worry about, with the exception of passing the exam obviously.

Well, what the school pubish on their website should be accurate - they ought to know!

Do they interview at all? It's a little different but my DD applied for 6th form college and at the open evening and when we put in the application form I got the distinct feeling they were a little sniffy about her being home educated. Added to this she wanted to do dance and drama A levels and they said a virtual outright no because she hadn't done the GCSEs.

Then they called her in for audition and interview. Standard procedure is to offer a place this spring. They sent her a letter offering a place (including to do dance and drama) the very next day. :)

So might be worth enquiring if there is any interview process for non standard cases. I've seen this before, that once they actually meet the child, they can't offer them a place fast enough!

Well done your dd :o
I don't believe interviewing is standard procedure, but it wouldn't worry me if they felt an interview was necessary, at the risk of sounding like one of those mothers, I think they would snap her up, she charms the pants off people she meets. I think I might be overthinking it all? We have only been HE for a year and I am getting stressed/weepy etc at the thought of her going back to school.

I'd try not to overthink it too much. Just go for it and see what happens.

If she doesn't get it, or decides not to go, you can continue as you are and I'm sure she will do fine. If she does get in, cope with how you will feel then. That's what I'm doing, not thinking about DD going off to college - and she's 16 . I know if I think about it too much I will ruin the chance to enjoy the rest of this year. Try to take it as it comes. :)

Oh, and we went in to home ed "temporarily", originally for only that school year, with just DD2. We looked at secondaries for DD2 (12) because we had always said we would, and I told DD1 (after she mysteriously joined little sis at home) she would have to go back to school at 14 because there was no way on this earth I was doing GCSEs with her.

A good handful of GCSEs later , we are now in our fifth year of home educating