Appeal??

[lamoseley]

I have posted on hear re my 13 yr old dd who has had an awful time of bullying at her current school. I had some great advice from others (Thank you all so much...you know who you are!) and we applied for a local grammar school where my son attends.

Dd did not pass the kent test so she had to sit an entry exam last week in verbal, non-verbal and maths. The pass rate was 110 and dd achieved 110 in maths, 109 in non-verbal and 89 in verbal.

I now have to make a decision and I really want to fight this for her as she is now making herself ill(Physically)in her current school.

Can anyone advise me as to their experience? I really need help its so daunting and worrying all at the same time x

How can you appeal though if she didn't pass?

I mean I thought you could only appeal if you passed it, but didn't get offered a place?

I am very sorry to hear about your DD being bullied. It must be very stressful.

I think you would need to provide evidence that she is academically very able. References from the school, perhaps a member of staff accompanying you to the appeal. Assuming that her poor performance was due to stress or anxiety perhaps a letter from a professional such as a psychologist?

Have you tried to involve the educational psychologist service or the school welfare service at your local authority. I wonder if it might be possible to move her because of the damage to her mental health, outside of the normal selection process.

Hi there

We can appeal although she did not pass, as they have spaces in her current year. We just need to prove to them that their school is the right school for her and like Noobo mentions that we need to prove she is academically able.

Thanks Noobo, I am going to have a look into the ed psychologist service as I did not know this existed. Situation is dd's bully will be back in school on Wednesday (After being suspended for 6 weeks due to her behaviour and attacks on my dd) and my dd is worrying herself sick about this. Last week she self harmed due to the stress. I am at my wits end with worry.

You will need some very compelling evidence that your daughter is academically able enough to cope at the school, since she reached the pass mark only in one of the three papers. Have you also asked/can you ask for the entrance exam to be re-marked?

I can understand why you want to get your daughter quickly out of her current school, but can it really be the case that you "just need to prove to them that their school is the right school for her"? That implies that they can set aside the results of the entrance exam, which seems to make it redundant.

I don't want to sound harsh but I think you need a back-up plan, such as applications to other suitable schools.

I would give the LA a call now and see if you can speak to someone from the Ed Psych dept. I think the Senco or the school can also refer. If your daughter doesn't want to go to school call the Educational Welfare dept at the LA and explain the reason why.

I think LA's do have discretion to find places in an emergency and most schools have to take "hard to place" pupils. If your daughter is self harming because she is so frightened that must be a good reason. The school has dealt with it extremely ineptly; why wasn't the bully permanently excluded?

I would also contact the school and ask what arrangements have been put in place to protect your dd once the bully returns.

I think that there is another point that you need to be aware of. As a grammar school they do not have to take pupils up to their PAN if the pupils have not met the exam standard. As the school is not full, that suggests the school do not admit unless they are absolutely sure they are of the required standard.
I would take a lot of convincing that on the basis of the exams taken that your daughter is of grammar school standard, especially the verbal score of 89.
Nothing to stop you appealing but even if she got in, which I would doubt will happen, then she is likely to be right at the bottom of the tree in terms of educational standard and she will probably struggle in the school.
I would suggest that finding another secondary school would be the best course of action rather than assuming an appeal would be successful.

You know your daughter, but I would have thought that if she's suffering from lack of confidence it wouldn't be helpful for her to go to a school where, by the look of the scores, she's going to find herself at the bottom of the class.
I know someone who spent 5 years at a superselective at the bottom, always feeling they were struggling. When he went to a 6th form college he was surprised to find (in his words) "he wasn't as thick as he thought"-his confidence improved dramatically and he was a different person.