Appealing for Grammar School place

[ElevenPlusAppeal]

Hello. I know there are some very wise and experienced people on these threads, and I'm hoping you may be able to help. I have name-changed for this, as the information I'm about to give is very identifying, but I have been on Mumsnet since DS was born.

We have two grammar schools within our catchment area. DS did not get a high enough score for either, but we're planning to appeal the one that requires the lower score, because it is by far the best fit for him. It's the school I went to, and it helped me - a student whose parents had never been to university - get a place at Oxbridge. It is a kind, nurturing and yet academically rigorous school where we know DS would thrive. Our grounds for appeal are as follows:

A couple of years ago, I had breast cancer just as we entered lockdown. We ended up with an extremely stressful situation of trying to balance home schooling, my chemo, and DH's work (he was a key worker). It was a terrible time but we got through it and thought he was fine - but apparently not. It turns out he goes to pieces in exams, and just absolutely panicked during the 11+. A girl next to him started crying and had to be led out, and that was it - he immediately shut down. It wasn't helped by the fact that the exam was around the same time as my annual mammogram to check for reoccurence, so it was a stressful time anyway.

We obviously feel awful that we've let him down so much and didn't realise how badly he coped with stressful situations like this. Although we did do 11+ prep with him, it was all at home and online with a tutor - so nothing like the stress of an exam hall.

DS has consistently achieved high results throughout his time at school, and has been regarded by all his teachers as a natural fit for grammar school. He's not just high achieving - he also has the intellectual curiosity and focus that's essential for grammar school students. We have letters from three teachers and his tutor attesting to this. We also have a letter from his headteacher, confirming the emotional trauma he's experienced and his academic prowess. And we have a letter from his counsellor at the time of my illness, confirming the trauma he suffered. We've also, since realising what's happened, taken him to another counsellor to see if she can help him with some of his unresolved trauma. I think she would probably be happy to write a letter for us if need be.

I suppose my question is: do we stand any chance at all? And is there anything I can do to improve his chances even a bit? I feel so awful that he is in this situation thanks to my stupid cancer and will do anything at all to make things better.

One of mine missed the cutoff by 1 mark. I appealed (as did 50+ others, that's how many were at part 1 of the Appeal and this was confirmed by the panel at the 1:1 hearing). In our case DC had, within that academic year, lost my DH and also was recovering from Covid, having just been out of isolation on the day of the exam and had missed more than 2 weeks of school before the exam.

The school I was appealing for was also oversubscribed and had a waiting list as well as those appealing. DC was greater depth in all areas, I provided evidence at the appeal as did the headteacher, so I knew the case was as strong as it possibly could be, as were the mitigating factors - if they were going to allow any appeals at all, given the over-subscription. In fact I don't think they took any on the waiting list, after appeals had been granted.

I won the appeal but did have a back up plan, private schooling. In our grammar school, there are 32 in each class. It hasn't put me off but I know others will think that number is too high. All taken into account, it is the right school for this particular DC, between that and the private school, the local secondary that was initially offered was not, IMO, and I am glad I appealed.

Let us know how you get on when May comes around!

Also, on the elevenplusexams forum in the Warwicksire section, every year there are threads about the AQS / waiting list minimum scores for the various grammar schools (useful if the LA only shows the data for the live admissions round), plus waiting list experience etc.

Our LA, in the results email, tells the exact score achieved by DC and that required to be of "grammar standard".

Did yours not tell you this?

If he’s very anxious and requires counselling I can’t see that emigrating purely to keep him out of a comprehensive school can be much better for him than said comprehensive school?

If you’re not happy with the one you’ve been offered are there any others besides the grammar you’d be happy with? I’d consider appealing for other schools too, you’re not limited to just one.

But the OP has already said she is in Warwickshire, which is not how it is done there.

Unfortunately I don't think that you being ill 3 years prior is going to be enough of a mitigating factor, mammogram or not. How close to the border are you to the next county, most don't have any grammar schools so the schools take a cross section which might be better for a nervous pupil

These are the required scores for the Warwickshire Grammars.

i have just checked

you do indeed get the actual score on results day in warwickshire

but you don’t know if qualifying or not until offer day

so the op should compare the result score with the qualifying score

Thanks so much for the qualifying scores - that's the information I was missing. So, DS is exactly ten marks out - four off the waiting list. I had assumed it would be around this, based on previous years' data. We did, of course, know what he scored in October - but, as others have said, the way it works in Warwickshire is that qualifying scores are different every year, so you don't know for certain until National Offer Day. I do appreciate that other LAs work differently.

We're not that close to a county border so I don't think I can justify the hour-long commute for him even if we were successful in getting him in there.

I wouldn't categorise him as a typically "nervous" pupil - he's actually extremely well-rounded: does loads of extra curricular activities, is great at drama, socialises well. It's specifically exam situations that appear to cause him upset, which I suspect is specifically linked to home schooling during a time of great stress. I appreciate my illness was a while ago and that's what's worried me about the appeal - the problem is that there have been no "exam situations" since other than the eleven plus - so this really didn't flag up to us.

I do know the appeal statistics for the school last year: they had 28 appeals and granted 6. So not great odds, but not without hope. I think I'm really looking for advice or tips on how to negotiate the Warwickshire appeals system - anything that might improve his chances.

@Cheshiresun Thank you for your response. I am so sorry to hear about your DH. What a truly horrendous thing to go through.

This is really great advice: thank you. I think we have a huge amount of evidence for Point One: the teachers' letters are all effusive and talk about his consistently very high results. Point 2 will be harder: it is the ethos and environment of the school which we are passionate about. However, they are strong on drama and he is also extremely strong in this area: would that be worth mentioning, do you think?

I’m not in anyway an expert in this. However, there are a couple of things I would want to address if I were on the panel, so you might went to think about if you were asked:

1. Obviously not all trauma etc is visible but it seems you picked him up from the exam and he obviously presented to you as not overly distressed etc - therefore how can you best persuade the panel that this is not a child who is worried about disappointing his parents and had said quite a time after the event that he was stressed and that was why he didn’t pass. There seems to be a lot of assumptions in your post or what you think has happened. What are the facts and how can you show them.
2. The evidence you have (from what you have said) describes that he has understandably suffered trauma but does it specifically say that this would compromise him on the day in that exact scenario? if not, I don’t think that’s determinative. If it does, that is a very specific finding to make so what qualifications does the counsellor have to make that? If they were not an educational psychologist or similar what are their qualifications? I would sssume that the panel would attach less or no weight to someone who is not actually an expert in the area and is not really giving a diagnosis but a non-evidenced based opinion
3. what is his prognosis? I would be concerned if I was on the panel that if he has unresolved trauma and is triggered by exams, a grammar school environment would not be appropriate. Instead, a nurturing highly pastoral environment would be better and then re-assess for a levels etc. I presume the panel can’t take into considerations matters nor raised but I assume they could ask about this - ie by asking how the condition is improving etc and what treatment etc he is receiving. How can you reassure them around that risk and ideally address it before it crossed their mind

The point about drama is potentially good, as long as his offered school doesn't do similar. Most schools will run school productions, offer Drama GCSE etc, so it needs to be more than that.

In terms of point one, don't forget that you need to evidence that/why he underperformed on the day as well. Do you have any letters from professionals WRT his anxiety? It sounds like there's no prior documented anxiety around tests etc? And this has all only come out quite a while after the fact.

I think it's worth a try on appeal, but I don't think it's guaranteed (which obviously you know too).

Are your local comprehensives really so bad you'd move abroad to avoid them?

@Gobbolinothewitchscat Thank you so much for your response - these are all excellent points and just what I was looking for in terms of identifying potential stumbling blocks. I think we do have answers for some of these - for others I'm going to have to think carefully. But it helps to see where the gaps in our case are.

Hi OP,

One of my students missed out by 2 points and successfully appealed based on her exam anxiety. Similar to your son, she went to pieces in the exam and under-performed.

Good luck! Your son sounds lovely

@Postapocalypticcowgirl That's great about drama - I'll give it some more thought. Thank you!

Re: the local high school (we don't have any comps in the county - they're all high schools) I don't want to say too much as this thread is obviously quite identifying and obviously the majority of local children go there.

Thank you, @FloweryFlump that's very heartening to hear!

I personally would not send to grammar school a child who went through trauma. Unless it is a country grammar with acceptance rate of like 24 perc of local kids- more easygoing, nurturing place and not " cut throat" pressure. Here in London grammar means huge stress, fierce competition with genius kids. Anorexia is not rare or self harm, low self esteem and poor mental health. But if that is what people want for their kids...

Would a private school be an option if you taught there? Staff discounts are often quite generous.

@ILickedItSoItsMine I know this school very well and it is not like that. I don't want to go into too much detail this is a well-informed choice based on what is best for our child on an emotional as well as academic level.

@caffelattetogo Unfortunately we've looked into the local privates and discounts are not sufficient to afford the fees - also, there aren't any jobs in my area of specialism at the moment. Because secondary teachers are subject specialists it obviously reduces the job field quite a bit. But I'll keep looking.

Our plan at the moment is probably to give the first year at high school a go if our appeal is not successful, but continue to search for alternatives in case he is unhappy there.

Sure OP. As I mentioned there are country grammars and super super selective grammars with huge pressure. Very different schools

the thing is OP, if he is someone who really does struggle with the pressure of exams, then grammars really won’t be suitable for him. Both mine attend/attended and a lot of pressure on exam results.

You would have a plausible case if he got strong pass in the other grammar. Then you could show it as an evidence and argue that he was stressed because of the exam environment. But if he has not got enough points to get to any of the schools... I see little chance.
I think realisation is needed that grammar is not the only way to go through life. I know Cambridge English Literature graduate who was several times unemployed for months. Honestly, very quickly in life it is all about experience and not even the university one graduated from not to mention the secondary school

You will need to prove 3 things.

1 he is academically suitable ie not being set up to fail

2 the school has the capacity to admit another child, and the benefit to that child of doing so woulld not be outweighed by the detriment to the children already admitted to the year group.

3 that if another child can be admitted without detriment, that the admissions policy shows it should be your ds who is next in line for admission