Disability discrimination, who do I need to see?

[Schoolapplication]

My dc sat the grammar school entrance exam in September and missed the grade by a few marks. We were given the option to have a local review and it was unsuccessful. I know other children with slightly lower marks who were successful. The supporting evidence from the school would have been virtually identical apart from personal statement as our school grades 1-3, all the children I know, including DC are expected to get grade 1 across the board at the end of Y6. The key difference is that my dc had additional time to sit the exam due to being sen registered. I want to know if this, unfairly, affected the result of the local review. Could someone help me with next steps please?

The fact that other children with lower marks were successful is irrelevant. In general, a local review will only succeed if you can show reasons why your child did not perform to the expected standard on the day of the test. It is legitimate for the review panel to think that a child with lower marks underperformed on the day whereas your child did not.

If no reasons have been stated as to why the local review was not successful, you should ask for the reasons. You could also ask if there are any notes of the discussion about your child, but I suspect you won't get those even if they exist.

Assuming you named the grammar school as one of your preferences, the next step is to wait until offers come out in March. You clearly won't be offered a place at the grammar school, but you will be given the opportunity to appeal. The appeal panel must consider whether the local review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way. If there is no evidence that it was, they must consider if there is evidence to indicate your child is of the required academic standard and, if so, whether your arguments outweigh the school's case that admitting your child would cause problems for the school.

The only other alternative that immediately occurs to me would be to apply for judicial review. However, this would be time consuming and expensive, with the risk that you would have to pay the school's legal costs if you lost.