Grammar School Appeal

[DentalImplant]

I have just read on the government statistics website that 17.4 percent of appeals in Slough and 13.5 percent of appeals in Trafford for secondary schools are succesful. I assume this has to do with the fact that these are grammar school areas and that one can therefore appeal against the 11+ results. Has anyone experience with appeals in these areas? Any tips in particular how to argue that it is more important for you child to go to the school than for the school to not to be oversubscibed.

Would you be appealing that they didn't get required score due to exceptional circumstances, or that they met the score but just didn't qualify.

if the latter I guess you'd start in the normal place. What is it about the school that you think makes it so suitable? Curriculum/options, extra curricular, pastoral etc? You can' say better ofsted/results/travel. Most other things are fair game.

Slough has about 10 or so comprehensives so I assume that number heavily comes from those schools rather than the Grammars. I don’t have the statistics off the top of my head but from what I remember, successful appeals at Slough Grammars are quite low.

Can one find the number of appeals that where succesful per school or school type? Just out of interest, can one find the statistics for the 11+ results, that is, how many students got which score?

You can email/phone each school's admissions officer and ask for a list of appeals and how many of them have been successful in the last 5 years or something.

The statistics for the 11+ results you might be able to find by submitting a Freedom of Information Request or also just asking the school.

Which of those areas are you in, if either?

Does it make a difference in which area one lives in? I thought all grammar school appeals were basically the same.

Well, in Lincolnshire, for example, entry to one of the grammar schools is by score only and is entirely distance blind. Whereas in the Trafford area, most of the grammars have priority postcodes

There is a lot of expertise on this board (not me, but panelchair, prh47bridge etc) and giving a bit more information will get you better answers. For example, did your child reach the minimum required score, or not and you are appealing on grounds of being ill that day?

If the latter, bear in mind that the first question will be, If your DC was ill enough for them to not be able to show their true capabilities in the exam, why did you let them take it, instead of informing the school and availing yourself of the appropriate arrangements?

could it also be the case that some successful applicants then decline the place ( decide to go private) and they hold those places pending the appeals, so they’re not going over. And then they’re able to be more generous on appeal than many schools.

where I live there is a significant number of kids who get a grammar place but then decline it.

My understanding in Trafford (daughter passed all 4 exams last year but I like to be prepared so had done all the reading in advance just in case!) is Stretford and Urmston allow you to appeal almost immediately if within 10 or so marks of the pass mark. I am not sure what % of those are upheld.
AGSG and Sale don’t allow immediate appeal re pass marks, and any appeals are done after places are allocated.

looking at FOI results, it seems most successful Appeals are based on issues other than not meeting the pass mark for those schools.

we didn’t sit for Loretto so not sure about them or St Ambrose/ AGSB.

I don't think they are allowed to do that?

Spaces freed up prior to any appeals have to go to the next on the waiting list.
Only if people pull out after others have successfully appealed can they then wait to get down below PAN again before admitting.

I guess it might be different if there aren't enough 'grammar school material' people so offered under PAN, and then appeals persuaded them otherwise?

deleted duplicate post, but can't unquote!

They don’t do that. If a place is declined after the March offer, it goes to the next person on the waiting list.

If a child is admitted under appeal, the school goes over their PAN. They don’t “hold places” for successful appeal applicants.

I am guessing given the time of year, it is not meeting the score

Designated Grammar schools are the only state secondary schools permitted not to offer all their available places, if there is a set standard and fewer applicants than there are places available have met that standard. (In that case, an appeal for non-qualification is not automatically also an appeal for oversubscription).

The 'appeals' that are held at this time of year (e.g. in Bucks / Kent / Bexley and for the Trafford schools mentioned) are strictly speaking a 'local review', a successful outcome of which being that the candidate would be deemed to have passed - and only work in areas where 'a pass' is the basic requirement for eligibility, with the actual ranking being on the basis of oversubscription criteria such as place of residence, etc, not ranking in score order. The review isn't going to conclude that the candidate should have their score changed from, say, 'five marks below the pass mark' to 'six marks above the pass mark', it would just be 'deemed to be eligible after all', so to speak.

Try the elevenplusexams forum, it’s got a whole section on state 11plus appeals

It is very difficult to appeal against 11+ results. The appeal panel is not able to assess your child's work, so you have to show that your child is of grammar school standard and explain why they underperformed on the day. Even if you succeed with that, you have to convince the panel that the disadvantage to your child from not being admitted outweighs the problems the school will face if they have to cope with an additional pupil.

The conclusion you draw in your OP does not follow. Across the country, roughly 21% of secondary school appeals are successful. Both these areas are therefore well below the average. There is no way of knowing, but I suspect that almost all successful appeals are either for the non-selective schools (i.e. the schools that aren't grammar schools) or relate to children who passed the 11+. The number of successful appeals against 11+ results will be vanishingly small.

I double checked and you are correct that I missread the figures: Slough and Trafford are the areas where most appeals are heard (not where most appeals are successful).

I'd say in Trafford there's a lot of desperation appeals for grammars where exam passed but no offers plus appeals for most popular non grammars. It's a highly pressurised area with high school hysteria

And the appeal panel will (and so should you) be wary of setting your chils up to fail.

Even if you succeed with that, you have to convince the panel that the disadvantage to your child from not being admitted outweighs the problems the school will face if they have to cope with an additional pupil

I'm sure you're aware of this @prh47bridge because your posts are always so informative and helpful, but just to clarify for those who might not know, this isn't exactly the case in Bucks. In Bucks if you succeed at review you are put into exactly the same position you would have been had you obtained the qualifying mark. You are deemed eligible for grammar school (though like everyone you aren't guaranteed your first choice of GS), and you don't have to make a further case re PAN.

I was talking specifically about appeals, since that was what OP was referring to. As you say, in addition to appeals after offers are made, some areas have a review process that happens before offers day to deal with situations where the child has underperformed in the tests.

For Trafford, some of the information referred to above isn't correct. You can't "immediately appeal" at any of the Trafford Grammar schools, you can ask for a Local Review at Urmston and Stretford if your score is close to the passmark (within 10 marks of 334) but that won't come under the definition of an "appeal".

As correctly set out the number of appeals is potentially high because of the desire to get into Trafford schools (not just the grammars) as they're all generally good and the geography of Trafford means that residents in quite a few bordering LAs (Manchester, Cheshire East etc) will try to get in. The number of successful appeals for the grammar schools will be low overall - possibly not too bad for Stretford and maybe Urmston but harsly any are successful for Altrincham and Sale - as published on Altrincham Girls' website, they had 13 appeals for entry in September, only 1 of which was successful.

Thank you everyone. It did not make sense that so many appeals were successful and indeed I just missread the numbers. With so few appeals successful one wonders why so many parents appeal (perhaps they also missread the figures)! Most likely only parents of children with genuine and provable circumstances will win the appeal and that is how it should be (and the part why this particular school is suitable will be a minor point).