11plus appeal help please

[grammarwoes]

DC didn't do well enough in the 11plus to get a grammar school offer yesterday. We stupidly decided not to use a tutor because the council strongly advises that it's unnecessary and a capable child will do well in the 11+ because the content (English and Maths only for our area) is taught in school. We agreed with this sentiment and wanted to make sure that DC would thrive in a grammar environment because they had aptitude and not because they'd been tutored to pass the exam.
However, what I didn't consider in this was the fact that DC was out of school from March until September due to Covid and so hadn't fully covered the year 5 curriculum and thus didn't know all of the content for the exam (homeschooling provision was poor in this period - just some random worksheets from Twinkl / Bitesize, no online classes, no video teaching, not even any marking of work / feedback). I suppose I naively thought that this year's 11 plus might be modified to account for the fact that the kids hadn't learnt everything in it except most of them had because they'd been tutored.
We then moved house over the summer, DC started at a new primary school in September and so was still getting used to a new learning environment etc and hadn't really had anything much in the way of proper teaching for 6 months.
Their class teacher has made comment on DC's excellent academic aptitude and was pleased they were going for a grammar place (they're exceeding expectations in all areas, reading age of 14+ etc).
Would this be enough to appeal that DC is suited for a grammar education and just didn't do well in the exam based on the above? I realise that the chances are very slim but I'm willing to try anyway .
In our area there's no pass or fail mark as such, they just offer the places to the children with the highest marks until all the places are taken.
We're lucky that our backup choice is a good comprehensive (the grammar is out of our area so the comp has many able pupils) but I still think that DC would do better in a highly academic environment / single-sex / smaller school.
Thanks for reading!

I think that's highly unlikely.

Posted too soon.

Even the brightest children need some training as to how the test works, we usually cover it at school (private)

Did you get a score? In our area you get told what they've achieved and appeals are decided upon that basis.

It might depend on the area but I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be enough to appeal in my area (south London borough).

Did you do any prep? We didn't get a tutor either but we did do exam prep at home to speed up.

Working at greater depth/exceeding expectations isn't enough in this area either, but again might be for some areas. At my DC's state primary school, 31% of children leave working at greater depth in all areas (higher for individual - eg. 62% for maths).

We're not in an area that has a full grammar school system so the primary schools don't do any preparation work for the 11plus.
The council's advice is that they don't advocate tutoring at all, that the maths and English in the tests will all have been taught in school (no VR or NVR test in this area). We believed this, but of course the tests this year included a lot of content that hadn't been taught in school due to them not being there for more than half of year 5 due to Covid. There were a couple of practise papers available to download which we did as that was all the preparation work they recommended.

Our area is the same - not a full grammar area and the Sutton grammars only do maths and English based on the ks2 curriculum; no VE or NVR.
The grammar schools discourage tutoring and the primary schools don't help with prep. Our school does do well in the SATs though.

Like I say, so don't think it would be grounds for appeal here but maybe if you mention the area someone with more broad knowledge can help.

Good luck.

You will need strong academic evidence to support your appeal but it is possible. We won our appeal and my son didn't pass.

What county are you in?
I know in our county they didn't fill all the places last year and it looks similar this year for some reason, so appeals will have more of a chance.

Lots of info on elevenplusexams forum

Realistically the school choses on the score in the tests so if there were other pupils who gained higher marks and were allocated a place, then it is unlikely that any appeal as you describe would succeed.
As a panel member we have been advised that the effect of Covid etc should not be considered in any appeal either in the school's reasons not to admit and in the parents reasons for admission.

Head over to the eleven plus forum, they can advise.

Did you do any exam prep? I think it was probably quite naive ru think the test would get adjusted to take covid into account

@seasidefishwife

Did you do any exam prep? I think it was probably quite naive ru think the test would get adjusted to take covid into account

No we didn't . We're not in a grammar area so the whole experience was quite new to us (grammar is out of area, DC is our first to try). The council website specifically says that no tutoring is necessary as the maths and English in the tests is what they will have been taught in school. I understood this to mean that both paid or home tutoring are unnecessary. We downloaded the practise papers (x2) which they suggest so DC can get used to filling in the answer sheets and get familiar with the format.

Thank you everyone for all your advice. The area is Plymouth (but we live in Cornwall). There is no 'pass mark' as such but places are allocated to the DC who score the highest marks in the 11+ until the places are filled. I have no idea what the cut off mark was this year (I.e the lowest mark achieved by the last child admitted) and how far DC missed this by.

Unfortunately I am not sure anything you have listed is a valid reason why your son didn't pass. The COVID excuse and poor e-learning provision could be true for the majority of state applicants and they may have been topped up with tutoring. Just because the council said it wasn't necessary doesn't mean people don't still do it. I think you should firstly ask the school what the cut off score was and what your son scored and then go from there.

I think you've been quite naive to believe the council who obviously want to discourage tutoring for the 11+. However if the way it works is that the top scorers get a place and obviously you must know that LOADS of parents will tutor then your child (especially if you knew they were not even getting basic tuition) will not be able to compete.

At 11 you will have no exam technique which is half the battle with all exams so as an absolute minimum I would have made sure that my child would have done many many practice papers if I had a moral objection to tutoring. However to not prepare your DC with either the knowledge or the exam technique yourself seems a bit like you set them up to fail.

Having said all if that, I'd appeal. Why not, you've nothing to lose. They can only say no and then you are in the same position you are in now.

I'd suggest finding out the mark of the last child admitted and how much your DC missed by - I think you can do this via FOI.

As I'm sure you are aware, the Plymouth Grammars recruit from a pretty wide area, so my understanding is that the pass mark can be very high. I think most people do tutor, or at least do intensive practice at home, whatever the council say.

I think you have nothing to lose by appealing, but I think unless your child was pretty close to the last mark achieved it's not likely to be successful on these grounds.

Are you allowed to join the waiting list and do you know your place on it? That will give you some indication of where you are in relation to the pass mark. AFIAK there is not normally huge movement on the waiting lists, but there will be some, so if you are very near the top, you may get a place anyway.

But to caveat my last post there will be lots of exceeding expectations kids with high reading ages who don't get a place, as most not in that category won't bother with the test. I've got no experience of the appeals system but I think you'd have to prove real academic excellence rather than just being fairly bright.

There is nothing to lose by trying but I agree with Admission that this is a long shot. If you decide to go for it, don't raise your child's expectations and be realistic about your chances.

Thank you for everyone's input. I do accept that the chances of a successful appeal are slim and I wouldn't even tell DC that we were appealing if we decide to go ahead, to avoid false hope. I suppose it's deciding whether we should give it our best shot for their sake vs wasting the panel's time if it's such a ridiculous appeal

Gathering evidence won't be easy as we moved house and DC started a new school in the autumn. Given that their new head (and even class teacher) barely know them, we really only have their recent end-of-term assessment to go on.

So I should probably just give up now 😂

No but your first information to find out is where the cut off was and what he scored and perhaps where he is on the wait list as that will give you an indicator if a) he may get a place off the wait link anyway and b) if an appeal if worth it if he is below the cut off by a good margin as that will be a harder case to prove.

I agree with admission and prh47bridge.

This is a very long shot. There’s nothing to stop you appealing - appeals don’t have “grounds” in the sense of things you can appeal about and things you can’t - but, to win, you’d need to satisfy the panel that your child does meet the standard for the school, despite their test score, and that the disadvantage to them in not attending outweighs the disadvantage to the school in admitting an additional pupil. I expect there will be a lot of people appealing for selective schools on the grounds that the child’s score would have been higher if it hadn’t been for Covid, but schools and appeal panels have to work with the scores as they are.

As others have said you need to find out the score and how far away it was if it was really close appeal if it wasn't then there's no point

I'll contact admissions again. On Monday they said they couldn't tell me the cut off score for the school . Maybe they were a bit harassed and I will have more joy if I call next week

I think your downfall is getting DC to sit an exam with no prep. I'm in a grammar school area and can't believe so many parents think that intelligence alone is enough. There is no other exam out there that a person is expected to sit with no prior work going into it. My DCs have a private tutor from year 5 and that is considered late for some.

I agree with @OneRingToRuleThemAll, I’m in Kent and tutoring is completely de rigeur here. It’s not about intelligence alone it’s about familiarity with the format and loads of practice. While I’m sure a few exist, I don’t know any child who has passed the 11+ without it.

I agree follow up with Admissions re cut offs. Here in Kent the OOC (out of county) requirements tend to look for a high pass mark and there are only a limited number of places. It’s entirely possible that the grammar you’d prefer is similar which if that is the case then I’d shelve the appeal.

@OneRingToRuleThemAll and @SJaneS49

I agree I was short-sighted about the tuition. The tests here are just one English and one Maths paper and the blurb issued by the council beforehand states that they will be assessed on what they've learnt in school so no tutoring is necessary (or indeed advocated).
We're new to the area and I'm not familiar with grammars so believed this to be true.

:-) it’s the same here - no State Primary is allowed to tutor for it as the ‘theory’ is they should all go into it cold.

It’s just common knowledge in grammar counties though the vast majority tutor (either graduate level parents typically doing it themselves or paying for professional tutoring).

Not exactly a fair old system I’m afraid!