Sixth form appeals

ltodaysdate · 2023-09-28T14:34:26+00:00

Hello I sit on appeals panels and in all my years of doing so I've never had one for sixth form until now. It has never been covered in our annual training and although I've read the code I'm still not sure how to go about one/. Im also struggling to find much online, it seems they are unusual. I understand we look at whether the school's decision is reasonable but what does that mean in practice? Has anyone any experience they would be willing to share. Do we consider prejudice? The appeal is for a child who hasn't met the entry requirement. TIA

TeenDivided · 28/09/2023 16:54

There is advice from appeals experts on this thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4906215-has-anyone-won-a-school-appeal-sixth-form
(though part of me worries it is the same appeal)

Original poster

ltodaysdate · 28/09/2023 17:19

Hi
Thanks for replying. I don't think it's the same appeal but I did read through it and some of the responses made me think. Is the panel checking that procedurally the school has a policy and they have followed it and the decisions that they made were reasonable. Or are the panel considering the benefit to the child of attending the sixth form (hence the suggestions on that thread of it is in the child's interest if they did not reach the standard, can they switch to a vocational course, the emotional impact of switching to an unfamiliar school. Or are these the same and the school should have considered these questions and only if they have can we conclude their decisions were reasonable. I hope that makes sense.

OP posts:

redguitar123 · 28/09/2023 17:20

If you are having to seek advice from MN then I would withdraw from the panel on the grounds that you don't know how to handle this case.

ShoutItQuietly · 28/09/2023 17:24

redguitar123 · 28/09/2023 17:20

If you are having to seek advice from MN then I would withdraw from the panel on the grounds that you don't know how to handle this case.

Sixth forms are complete different as school isn't compulsory after the age of 16 and appeals are not common. I think reaching out on here for more information from parents who may have gone through it, or seeking the advice of other panel members (detailed on that other thread) is reasonable. The OP may choose to withdraw but not before looking into it surely.

TeenDivided · 28/09/2023 17:27

redguitar123 · 28/09/2023 17:20

If you are having to seek advice from MN then I would withdraw from the panel on the grounds that you don't know how to handle this case.

Don't panels get guidance from a 'clerk to the panel' or something which guides them through the legalities as needed?

gotomomo · 28/09/2023 17:32

It will depend on what criteria the school set as to whether it is fair. A school that insist ms on very high grades to enter 6th form essentially gaming their a level results could be seen as being unfair if other schools typically would allow a level study with those grades - I know someone who fault and won on this (school required A's/a*/7/8/9)

PatriciaHolm · 28/09/2023 17:47

The appeals code is, as you have seen, somewhat scant on specifics for a sixth form appeal.

For an appeal where the student was refused because they did not meet the academic standards, a panel need to look at the evidence the school had at the time of making the decision. A panel must not make their own decision as to the academic ability of a child - we can't look at internal pre-exam test results, for example, and decide that a child's exams were not indicative of their ability.

The panel need to look at the data available, and any mitigating/specific circumstances information that the school had and satisfy themselves that the decisions were made in a consistent and objective way. Did they consider any mitigating circumstances fairly? For example, if they knew a child was very ill during Year 13, was this taken into account. Has the school admitted children into 6th form with the same or poorer grades? If so that would suggest inconsistency.

An appeal on these grounds shouldn't take into account other factors such as travel, prejudice etc.

PatriciaHolm · 28/09/2023 17:48

Oh and yes talk to the Clerk on the day at the pre-meet if you want some more clarity! That is what they are there for.

Original poster

ltodaysdate · 28/09/2023 17:50

Just to clarify I know there are lots of appeal experts and clerks on here and I was hoping for some guidance from them or a link to something extra I can read.
I willl absolutely be guided by the clerk but I will be the most inexperienced member of the panel and sixth form appeals have never been covered (or even mentioned) at our annual training so I'm just trying to research how these get decided.

I'm reading through the paperwork and I'm not sure what is relevant to the decision. Is it as simple as the child didn't meet the standard so it's reasonable for the school to make that decision? What about all the factors that potentially led to that child underperforming. I know the panel don't make their own judgement on academic ability and I know that as the school has no upper limit on sixth form numbers we don't need to consider the prejudice to existing pupils but what about all the extra things I'm reading about in the paperwork?

I'm just trying to educate myself in advance of the appeal, i hate being underprepared and the code only has a couple of paragraphs covering sixth form appeals.

OP posts:

Original poster

ltodaysdate · 28/09/2023 17:53

PatriciaHolm · 28/09/2023 17:47

The appeals code is, as you have seen, somewhat scant on specifics for a sixth form appeal.

For an appeal where the student was refused because they did not meet the academic standards, a panel need to look at the evidence the school had at the time of making the decision. A panel must not make their own decision as to the academic ability of a child - we can't look at internal pre-exam test results, for example, and decide that a child's exams were not indicative of their ability.

The panel need to look at the data available, and any mitigating/specific circumstances information that the school had and satisfy themselves that the decisions were made in a consistent and objective way. Did they consider any mitigating circumstances fairly? For example, if they knew a child was very ill during Year 13, was this taken into account. Has the school admitted children into 6th form with the same or poorer grades? If so that would suggest inconsistency.

An appeal on these grounds shouldn't take into account other factors such as travel, prejudice etc.

Thank you, that's really helpful.

OP posts:

SugarMiceInTheRain · 28/09/2023 17:59

I do sixth form admissions for a college. We had 8 or 9 appeals this year and the panel upheld the school's decision on all of them. Really depends on the school/ college's admissions policy, e.g. our main entry criteria is predicted grades (minimum 6 GCSEs at grade 5+) so all the ones who were appealing because they hadn't been offered a place due to low predictions (which was the majority) didn't have a leg to stand on.

Others we had to prove that allowing additional students in would put a strain on class sizes for our most popular A-levels, Maths and Sciences, where the groups were already at capacity.

The appeal panel really just had to decide whether we had made the correct decision based on our admissions policy and whether the cases were sufficient to warrant an exception being made.