Appeal 1st Choice, Accept 2nd choice or Stay Put in Private until 13?

[DearM]

Our son is currently in a small private prep. He has ADHD and it is well managed at his current school. The original plan was to move to an 11+ private school but unfortunately he didn't get the offer we all hoped for. We are practising catholics and we applied for 3 state catholic schools. He was offered our 2nd preference, which is a very good school, about an hours commute from home. Socially it will be beneficial for him and we think he is likely to thrive there academically. His current prep school will be very small in Y7 and 8, although the boys are lovely and he gets on with them it's clear they are not his tribe/friends long term. There is no doubt that staying in his prep would give him the best academic outcome over the next two years and he would be likely to get a place at the likes of Mill Hill, Wetherby or Haberdashers at 13.

After the disappointment of the 11+ (lack of) offer, we really had our heart set on our first preference catholic state school. In hindsight, we should have applied for a ECHP for him and named the school, but our intention over the last few years was to stay in the private sector where we have been fortunate to fund extra provision/interventions ourselves when necessary. He has made great progress after falling behind previously in year 3.

The first choice catholic school is exceptional. They offer some spaces based on musical aptitude which he narrowly missed the cut off for. They have a prestigious choir which our son who is a talented singer would have loved to have joined. They also offer a classics curriculum, which he enjoys currently and which is not normally available at state schools. Further the sports provision is much more aligned with his interests i.e. more Rugby and competitive fixtures. It's a slight shorter, easy commute at 45 mins and a much easier drive on the days we drop or collect.

They do a banding test. We, along with his current school were surpised that he was banded in band 3, the lowest. From speaking the school his combined SAS score was 204. The threshold for band 2 was 205. We would have predicted his score to be circa 220 so he didn't have a good day. Statistically, being in Band 3 makes it much harder to get offered a place because sibling, EHCP and other criteria are much more likely to be placed in this band. We are the lowest criteria that offers are made. 20 offers in Band 1 (25%), 28 in B2 (50%) and 12 offers in B3 (25%) were made at our level of criteria. So you have almost twice as much chance of getting an offer from Band 1 at our criteria level. You also have more chance of getting an offer off the waiting list as more of these offers are declined to to take up private offers.
Do we have any basis of an appeal based on banding probably not indicative of his academic ability and this disadvantaged him on an offer? Also, specfically with the provision of choir, classics etc likely to benefit him over the school he has been allocated.
There is a very slim chance of a waiting list offer, 1 in 27. We are also conscious of wasting the school’s resources on an appeal if it is not well founded.

What would you do? Stay in private prep, pursue an appeal with 1st choice state school or happily accept 2nd preference school.

What would you do in Y9 though? It seems to me you’d be in the same place, but worse?

Is the second choice school acceptable to you? There is a lot of movement in September so you might get through.

Go with the 2nd choice state school he has been allocated, stay on the waiting list for your 1st choice school and hope he gets a place. If the 2nd state school really doesn't work out, then it sounds like you might be able to put him back into his current prep school? (based that on you saying its just a small number of boys left in year 7 and 8).

I don't understand your SAS scores for banding... I thought normal SAS scores range was 85-115.

The one thing I would NOT do is stay in private prep. Joining a state school in year 9, or even a private school with a yr7&8 intake, is exponentially harder on friendships. Year 9 is a difficult year for friendships/hormones/hierarchies anyway (ask any secondary school teacher). Being the new kid is an established year group will be really hard on him.

The transition to secondary school for kids with ADHD is a demanding one. There is a lot to learn and remember. Years 7s are cut a little slack but joining a much larger environment when everyone else is already used to it will also be hard and teachers will expect an older child to hit the ground running. Puberty is tough on those with ADHD too. Much better to have year 7 and 8 to find his feet at whichever secondary school he is going to attend.

Accept second, wl/appeal first. Year 7 and 8 at prep is pointless unless you plan to enter for CE/13+ entry to private and a transition to state at that point may be more difficult. The music provision and classics for 1st might be a good tactic for appeal but you need evidence.

If we stay at prep the plan would then to move to 13+ private school. He would start with lots of other new pupils. The risk is we don't get the 13+ we would hope for and it's at the costs of a socially limited y7 and y8.

Yes, I think he could move back to prep in worst case scenario.

So the test was Maths and English, standardised scores for age for both. So national average kid would be 100 +100 = 200 score.

Places at 13+ drop if they took too many at 11, it's a much smaller entry than it used to be. I wouldn't rely on that

And many 13+ intake schools now preallocate the majority if not all of their places based on pretests in year 6.

13+ exams are harder and more subjects than just English, Maths, NVR, VR. Join the second option and wait list for first.
Most London schools entry is now 11+ with a few place at 13+ and if accepted the DC must start performing well. Year 7 and Year 8 is about learning how to study, filling in gaps in some subjects, join clubs and making friends etc.

This

You say he has ADHD. Did you ask for and was he given exam access arrangements? Is there grounds for appeal on this front?

Take 2md school option. Go on waiting list for 1st place school.
Use money saved from not being in private school to tutor for 13+. If all goes well at state school keep him there fir the duration, if not do 13+ exams and go back to private for year 9.
state school places are easier to get now fir year 7, than if needed in year 9

Following this with interest, we are in the process of appealing to 3 schools (our son got none of his 3 choices)
our appeal for 1 of the schools will be based on incorrect banding. We are trying to argue he was placed in a more competitive band incorrectly.
He was diagnosed with tonsillitis 16 hours before the test.
I am still waiting for the school to share his results and banding.
we are using an appeals consultant.
one thing we have already discovered in the more evidence the better. You need to evidence why his performance on that day wasn’t reflective of usual attainment, so you can build a case that he was disadvantaged by the admission process.

Accept the 2nd, appeal & stay on waiting list for 1st. Start the ECHP application now as he is likely to need extra support anyway.

Dis you include his ADHD diagnose in your state school application?

If your child didn’t get the places hopednfor at 11, he may also be unsuccessful at 13 when there are fewer places. So counting on that seems risky. And socially, I think starting with your cohort at year 7 is important, and entering at year 9 would be harder. I wouldn’t lightly plan that for my child. As others have said, the second choice school you got, which you’re essentially happy with and and think your son will be happy at, sounds like the best option. And you may be lucky on waiting lists for your first choice, they do move a lot.

At this point, you can simply go to the next round (there is NO appeal until July, but a second round of allocation in May, although they may ask you to submit your appeal letter at the same time, which confuses people). I would do this, go to the next round of allocations and see what happens. As for your appeal letter, you need to demonstrate that the detriment of your child not going to this school is greater than the detriment to the school going over its admission numbers. I'm not sure whether him underperforming in the test would be taken into account, but him not having access to the choir may work so I would definitely push this angle.

If the OP doesn't submit an appeal before the deadline, it will still be heard, but 1. not necessarily before the end of the summer term and 2. Given that the school is already at or above PAN, if the OP's DS isn't offered a place from the waiting list before the on time appeals are heard, then any that are upheld will delay any further offers from the waiting list, as the school will not offer to the waiting list again until the numbers drop to one below PAN.

Read your paperwork.

I have group appeals for April and May

No , we didn't ask and it wasn't very clear that exam access arrangements were available.

The school have already confirmed that all offers in his band have been accepted. We are going to prepare an appeal.

Do consider if you want to appeal on these grounds perhaps to say he would’ve achieved a higher score if he had exam access arrangements. However the onus will be on you to prove that he has had a higher score with the required provisions in the past. E.g. rest breaks or exam prompter or fidget toy etc. might be worth asking his current school if they were supporting him in any such way.

What kind of tests were these though? Our borough uses CAT 4 tests for Fair Banding. I don’t believe children with any SEND needs are given extra time in these kinds of tests? Sometimes a reader or a scribe is provided but not extra time. Maybe different in your area though?