Primary school failed to lodge appeal on 11+ result (Kent)

[TonbridgeDad]

Hi again, you were all so helpful last time with my query I thought I'd turn to you all again...

We received our son's Kent 11+ result yesterday. Although he passed the overall mark and achieved over the minimum on two of the three sections, he missed one section by ONE mark.

I called his school and spoke to the head to understand the appeals process. She told me that the headteacher appeal committee had already met. She then told me that she thought that we had heard the results last week and because we didn't contact her, they didn't do the appeal. She then said that she had spoken to our son at school and asked him about which schools he had applied to, apparently to get an understanding of the priority. It seems to us that she has either deliberately decided not to lodge an appeal or simply forgotten. According to a friend of ours who is a year 6 teacher, my sons case would have been an easy appeal.

The Head has confirmed this morning that Kent admissions will not now accept any further appeals from the school and that we have to wait until after offer day to lodge an appeal directly with the grammar school.

I'm meeting her later today to discuss. As you can imagine, I'm furious and it doesn't add up.

Any advice welcome!

Thanks

I have no idea why your head would think that you had heard the results last week. As far as I can see from Kent's published process, you were not supposed to receive anything before the decisions were sent yesterday.

If she decided not to appeal, there is nothing you can do about that. However, if it was a mistake because she misunderstood the process, you should contact Kent's admissions team and explain what has happened. They may be able to get the Headteacher Assessment Panel to reconsider your son's case, but you can't force them to do that.

It may be that you will have to wait until after offer day and lodge appeals for the grammar schools. You will have a good case if you can show that the head's failure to act has cost your son a place.

Generally headteachers only take one or two from each school to a headteacher appeal so it partly depends on whether there were other students who also didn't pass but with a higher mark or a stronger track record in class. Headteachers are not obliged to appeal for any child. prh47bridge can probably advise on the legality of that however that seems to be the reality.

It is a tough system unfortunately and very stressful but there is support on eleveplusexams.co.uk forum for appeals where you can get specific advice for grammar appeals although prh47bridge does give great advice too. With the Sevenoaks annex I imagine there might also be more flexibility in the system for parental appeals.

Don't be furious about it.

Try get your head to put something in an email that may assist you for your appeal.

I would also start gathering evidence for the appeal - does your child have excellent assessment results for year 5 or 6? We're there extenuating circumstances.

Good luck!

Yes actually Monochromefox makes a good point, you need the head teacher on board to write a supporting statement for the parental appeal although you probably won't need this until March time.

Thwre are two aspects to the appeal. You need to overcome the lack of qualification (i.e. although my son missed out on Maths by 1 Mark he is really a maths genius, top of his class, scored really highly on quantitative assessment for CATs and has been recruited by Nasa to check their calculations- obviously lighthearted though with MN children you never know). For this you will need the help of the school.

You also need to overcome the oversubscription so why would your child benefit from attending that specific school rather than other schools. So for example if the grammar school offers three languages then your child loves languages and can only study one in their allocated school. If the grammar school has a chess club your child wants to be the next grand master. Start comparing the schools and thinking about why (beyond it being a grammar school) that would really suit your ds.

prh47bridge can probably advise on the legality of that however that seems to be the reality

That's perfectly legal. Primary school heads are not obliged to appeal for any child. They are free to decide how many appeals to lodge and which children to appeal for provided their reasons are not discrimination under the Equality Act.

Name changed as it's a small world. I work in a Kent primary and have been peripherally involved in the appeals process - not an expert but I know a bit. On the one hand, I would say that you aren't necessarily entitled to be angry at the lack of an appeal. Missing the pass criteria by one mark is incredibly frustrating, but equally a pass mark is a pass mark - there's always going to be someone (in fact many people) who are just below, either on the overall mark or on individual papers. I don't think your friend is right that it's necessarily an easy appeal to win - I have frequently seen appeals turned down when a child misses by one or two marks. The key with the headteacher appeals (where there aren't extenuating circumstances) is for a head to decide whether the mark is reflective of the child's ability. If a pupil is consistently working at a high level in the classroom and the mark is genuinely surprising, then there are good grounds for appeal. If, however, the child is borderline and the mark is fairly reflective of their ability, then Kent are likely not to overturn the result. The main thing is the evidence - in order to make an appeal worthwhile, the school needs to be confident that it can produce plenty of evidence that the child's class work is consistently significantly better than the mark suggests.

But - and it's a big but - I think you are quite right to be furious about what the head has said to you about the reasons for not appealing. Either you've misunderstood what she said (which seems unlikely), or the head's incompetent in not understanding the process herself (everyone in Kent schools knows that HT appeals happen before the parents know the result) or she is trying to fob you off and invent excuses for not appealing. Both of these last two possibilities are unacceptable. However, as others have said, you'd be unwise to go in all guns blazing, as you will want the school's support in your own grammar school appeal in April.

Good luck, and I really do sympathise - it's a horrible situation for you and your son to be in.

Thanks everyone.

Firstly, those who point out that we have no right (legal or otherwise) to appeal - you are quite right of course and that's not driving my frustration. Although there is no guarantee an appeal would have been successful, only two weeks ago we were told by our son's teacher that he was in the top 5% for English and 15% for Maths (based on SATS) and that has been a fairly consistent message throughout the last few years. So it feels like there should have been enough evidence to submit an appeal.

As per @toomanylemons point, I am, and remain, furious about how this has occurred. We received an email from the Head the day after contacting them to say that KCC will not entertain any further appeals and that they are "sorry for not submitting the application as intended."

That last point is the interesting one as it demonstrates the lack of consistency in what we have been told. Because, in a subsequent F2F meeting later that day, we were told that after having spoken to our child about his school choices some two weeks ago, they decided not to take the appeal any further. And also claimed not to understand that KCC process properly as only a few children (seven this year) take the Kent test. It is only fair to point out that we did get a full apology and the head took responsibility.

So we have been left bewildered at the actual reasons why they didn't appeal and what the truth really is. Did they intend to submit an appeal but forgot? Or did they decide not to?

As you might expect, we have been given assurances that if we choose the appeal direct with the Grammar school, we will have their full support.

All in all, terribly disappointing for my son even through in reality, in may not make any difference to where he ends up at school.

As he's borderline he probably won't do great in grammar anyway. It could be a blessing in disguise

@HallieKnight

As he's borderline he probably won't do great in grammar anyway. It could be a blessing in disguise

It doesn't sound as if he is likely to struggle though. The 11 plus is a poor predictor of GCSE success. Also consider that the ds sounds as if he is possibly at a state school, which perhaps is not the most organised so might have had no teaching for months. Compare that to a child getting one mark more in a prep school with online zoom lessons, f2f possibly since June, small classes and probably a tutor as well. Fairly obvious who will struggle more.

Op are you aiming for selective or superselective options? I would think you might stand a chance at a parental appeal depending on the overall score.

I'm really feeling for you OP. I'm usually the first to give the school the benefit of the doubt, but there's very little apparent defence here. How on earth can the head not understand the system?? It's really not complicated. And sadly, assuming your DS is at a state school, this is just another illustration of why prep schools have such an advantage, even after the test itself. I remember the first time I went to drop off appeal papers (for about three kids) and there happened to be someone from a local (similarly sized) prep school there, dropping off literally armfuls of the things.

It is strange as from your user name - you live in a grammar area so the school should be on it.

My son's teachers had no idea he sat it.
They were surprised when they found out. So they certainly would have not lodged an appeal but that are a bit disorganised and then I meant to mention it ahead of time and got waylaid.

I would pass get your ducks in a row.
Gather your evidence.
Ask for year 4 and 5 books so you can take copies of work.
Look at the schools you want to target and see if there is anything particular to your child that may help.
Get past school reports and ask for past testing and contact Kent admissions.

Get on the 11 plus forum as there is an appeals section.

Check out the Kent blog (Peter's Blog?) he is excellent about Kent grammars.

I hope the marks in the sections that did have a pass were strong passes as that can help.

Don't worry about people saying your child is not grammar material or will struggle. A test is a fair way but there are zillion things that can stop a 10 year old performing on the day.

Not to hijack your thread OP, but we are in the same position as you but out of county. Our Head has said they would support an appeal if we want to make one, but I put Tonbridge Girls on the form which I think is unlikely to accept a bare pass at 11+ from out of county, let alone an appeal from below the pass mark.

Does anyone know which (if any) Kent grammars take out of county children with marks close to the pass mark (and, therefore, to which we might be successful on appeal if we choose to go down this route). Is Weald an option maybe? I ask as we have a week now to change our school preferences and I can't seem to work it out from looking on the websites...

@Whatafool123 yes weald is the girls pass mark grammar , thats your best chance of getting in on appeal from a near miss (I did the same for my daughter a few years ago and was successful 🙂)

Thanks so much @beckymum. Can I asked if you and she have been happy at Weald?

@Whatafool123 oh yes very much so, I always knew she was bright and she rose to the top of her year group by GCSEs. She's done lots of music there too, and made great friends. Don't let it worry you that your daughter was a near miss, if you know she's bright then she'll be fine! It's a great school.
It's great her primary head teacher is supporting you , that will really help, our primary head came to the appeal hearing with us .

Good luck @whatafool123 👍

An update from our side. Bexley results out yesterday.....wait for it.......

They are lost. School hasn’t received them and Bexley are looking for them.

I can scarcely believe it 😳

No! How could that even happen! I hope it is sorted soon @TonbridgeDad 🤞

Oh my goodness TonbridgeDad you are having a bad time of it!

@tonbridgedad did you get anywhere with the appeal and the lost results?