Secondary School Appeals

[WaffleMummy]

Good evening!

Is there anybody out there with any advice or experience with regards to secondary school appeals.

My DS has not been given any of the schools (SE Kent) that we applied for and I am quite literally devastated.

We have been advised to appeal for our local Grammar school as he did so well on his Kent Test, only missing out on the maths by 1 question (he got 105 - needed 108) and scored well over on the other subjects.

I did not expect to be appealing for 3 schools just so he doesnt end up in the one we have been offered which is absolutely wrong for him in every way (DS has ASD/ADHD/anxiety diagnosis however he is very bright and not at all cut out for the huge school far away from home he has been allocated!)

If anyone has ANY experience or ANY advice I would be so grateful.

Thank you - a very upset, desperate mumma!!!! x

Hi OP, there are several posters on here who are experts on appeals (not me!)

Some thoughts from me:
Accept the offered school - this will not prejudice any appeal or waiting list offer.

You can go on the waiting list of schools - see if this is automatic with your LA or if you have to ask. See how far down you are.

Your appeal needs to focus on reasons why your son needs to go to the school you are appealing for - things like extra-curricular clubs, music provision, sports teams, specific languages previously studied. Distance and friends going there will not be helpful.

Did you apply to catchment school? If not, see where you would be on the waiting list there as this, a nearby school, may be preferable to the far away one he has been allocated. If you put your catchment school as a preference and still missed out, it might be worth checking that the criteria were correctly applied. I don't know about Kent but where I live, everyone who lists their catchment school will get an offer from it (unless they get an offer from something they list more highly, obvs).

Honest answer is that you are unlikely to win an appeal for a grammar school when child has not met the required level in the tests. You have far more potential to go to appeal for the other schools you put down as preferences and win.
As Clary says you should accept the school allocated, simply so that you are not left with the problem of finding a school on your own. You also have to consider that given where you are, it might well be that this school you are dismissing out of hand is actually a better option than other available schools, which could be a lot further away.
You need to check with the LA that you are on the waiting list for the schools in your preference list that you did not get a place in. Then formally appeal for the same schools on your list.
The other thing you should also do is re-evaluate any other schools that are in your area and consider whether they are a better option than the school offered. If this school has a place then you can request that place. It still does not stop you appealing for your preferred schools.

Excellent advice here already.

Have you yet had the information to explain why you got no offer from any of your preferred schools? Apart from the grammar, did you apply for any school where you could be pretty sure of getting a place on grounds of distance (or anything else)? If so, you might want to double-check that there hadn’t been an error.

In East Kent grammar school appeals are often successful - there are typically more grammar places than children who pass. I know several children every year who have got a grammar place - in some cases more than one place - when they didn’t get the required pass mark.

What I would ask, OP, is whether your head will support your appeal. Did they put in a head teacher appeal? If not, why not? In my experience, if your head won’t support your appeal it’s far less likely to be successful... in fact, the only time I’ve known successful appeals when the head hasn’t supported the appeal, is when parents have applied off the back of really good SATs. Which obviously won’t be an option this year.

I have to say, at my DDs’ school, which is rarely full, there is a big influx at the start of Y8 - lots of children have a second try at the test in Y7. So that may be an option.

Firstly generally in Kent there are not catchment schools, so that is probably irrelevant, it is mainly done on distance as the crow flies.

Secondly 105 might get him into a grammar, but it will also depend on his overall score, so 105 with an overall score of 332 would not be considered exceptional, 105 with an overall score of 365 would probably be viewed differently, he is likely to be somewhere in the middle of those figures. Missing out on maths might not be such an issue as missing out on English - many grammar schools set for maths anyway. Although the covid argument will be trotted out by everyone, essentially not having been taught maths since the middle of year 5 will be a disadvantage on a test of maths knowledge to the end of yr6. I have looked at the data so if you pm me his score I can probably give you a better idea of how well he has done compared with other boys who might also be appealing.

Thirdly it depends where you are and what the other pressures have been on the grammars in that area, sometimes almost whole classes of non qualifying children have been taken on appeal when it suits the school, other times virtually none.

Lastly his current school might be a factor, anecdotally grammar schools seem to favour the underdog, so if he is at a state primary he might stand a better chance. I am not sure that there is any actual evidence for my claim, I suspect it shouldn't be the case, but it happens.

Did you apply to the grammar despite not passing (that will make it easier)? If you haven't already applied you should do ASAP. Whether your headteacher appealed in October may or may not help, however the main thing is whether the headteacher currently would support your parental appeal.

To be honest if you are appealing for other schools and if you really believe that a grammar school will be the right environment for your son then you have little to lose preparing an additional appeal, other than a few more hours and a bit more money on hair dye and anti- wrinkle cream. The main work is in learning how to do an appeal and gathering information. It is a long shot so be realistic about that with yourself and your son if you even tell him that you are appealing for the grammar. Try to be positive with him about the allocated school even if you hate the school and do look for other schools which might have spaces which you had not previously considered. Depending on your location though the choices might be limited by the coast as the allocated school far away might be the next nearest. Good luck.

Lastly his current school might be a factor, anecdotally grammar schools seem to favour the underdog, so if he is at a state primary he might stand a better chance. I am not sure that there is any actual evidence for my claim, I suspect it shouldn't be the case, but it happens.

Schools must follow their published admission criteria. They cannot have other, secret criteria. A school can name some primary schools as feeder schools and prioritise children attending those schools. If they have not done that, they may not use the school the child has attended as any part of the decision-making process.

There is good advice here from clary, admission and PanelChair. Listen to them.

While I’m sure it’s hugely stressful, don’t completely despair! There is a lot of movement into the grammars after the first offers go out in our part of West Kent. Nail bitingly, this could be last minute!

Do you know how over subscribed the grammar is? In our part of Kent, the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells grammars are over subscribed ..but various of the Maidstone ones aren’t and do take DC who narrowly failed, not on first round but often at the last moment!

And yes, I’d definitely look at an appeal Year 6 have had a very disrupted year and there must be some mileage in terms of using the knock on affect of that!

@prh47bridge

Lastly his current school might be a factor, anecdotally grammar schools seem to favour the underdog, so if he is at a state primary he might stand a better chance. I am not sure that there is any actual evidence for my claim, I suspect it shouldn't be the case, but it happens.

Schools must follow their published admission criteria. They cannot have other, secret criteria. A school can name some primary schools as feeder schools and prioritise children attending those schools. If they have not done that, they may not use the school the child has attended as any part of the decision-making process.

There is good advice here from clary, admission and PanelChair. Listen to them.

Yes of course it shouldn't be an issue at all, as I stated there is no evidence for my claim, just experience and anecdote in an already fairly corrupt system. We benefitted so no reason to challenge it, but I know of more than one heads who do not hide their favour of state schools in actual appeal hearings, I do not know how much that sways the appeal panel, and thankfully more of them are moving towards being represented by the LEA rather than the school which might be more impartial. Unfortunately unless there is firm evidence and taken to review these things bumble along under the surface. All people are subject to biases, it is hard for any system to be truly objective, and arguably the appeal system at secondary level should not be completely objective, because how can a system put a numerical value on whether Tommy's love of Mandarin outweighs Sarah's need for a class size to not go over 30. It can't which is why we have appeals. I personally am sick of all the politics around school admissions, thankfully through it all, however if it helps the OP to be aware that if there is a head in the appeal they may hold similar biases that will help them to be more prepared.

Kent is a funny old area.

Depending where in Kent, you stand a chance of winning an appeal to one of the undersubscribed grammars - it may be better to describe them as less subscribed !
Oakwood Park, Norton K, Barton Court, TW boys

You just need to have a better appeal than the other eleventy billion parents doing the same.

I assume the allocated school is the enormous school smack bang in the middle of the county?

They do run a successful grammar stream.