Unsuccessful grammar school appeal

[Will2]

Good morning all,

I'm looking for further advice from people who have found themselves in this situation, or any advice from ex panel members which may prove beneficial please.

We got the awful news that my we didn't win my son's grammar school appeal on Friday, with my son being devastated.

We felt we put a compelling argument together;however the panel we had must've felt the schools case was heavier considering our of 39 cases only 1 case was upheld!

My main argument was around a rare medical condition he has and how this impacted him on the day of his first test. He scored above the pass mark on his verbal reasoning test but didn't perform to the best of his ability, citing how he was struggling to focus and concentrate which connects to his condition (NHS diagnosis letter of his condition was provided as evidence) - this is the main reason why he didn't achieve the historically high entry score because he achieved a brilliant score in his spatial reasoning test.

We are waiting for feedback; however the panel didn't ask us one single question about his condition during our individual appeal hearing which my wife thought was quite strange. I just thought they must've researched it and understood how this could've affected him.

The other point I felt was strong in our argument, was how our son is musically gifted and what the school we were appealing for could offer him. He has a grade three certification from the trinity college in London (soon to be 4) and this particular school has a recording studio (his allocated school doesn't have this) as well as opportunities to represent the school in this field.

We highlighted other points during our appeal and I'll be honest, I came away from our appeal quite positive, boy was I wrong!

Any advice from this point forward would be much appreciated. I'm waiting on the feedback which I hope will give me closure. Such an awful process to go through. Thanks in advance!

Awful news and devastated, seems extreme, the rules can’t be changed if candidates say they weren’t their best on the day can you make an exception, where would it stop?

Thank you all for your feedback, noted around the 'gifted' point, it amazed me how some people addressed their responses around that.

It's hard to digest I feel ,when he missed out so marginally and other children with lower scores in other admission criteria are considered to be of 'grammar' school ability, yet my son scored higher.

We will move forward and try and big up his allocated school

You have to ask yourself whether an extremely academically demanding school is the right place for him with his medical condition. Its a miserable place being a clever, bright child with lots of potential, being in a class where you are considered below average from the off because other 11ynolds are ahead of you at that point in time. It affects their self esteem greatly. And with the benefit of hindsight, performance and level at 11 is not indicative of where they all are at 18, please trust me on this. I have university aged kids and the ones that are at top universities and getting great jobs aren't the same as the ones that got grammar school places and scholarships, in all but a couple of cases that I can think of.

Thank you for your compassionate response.

Thank you.
I think that is what we are trying to explain to him, this is just a bump in the road and as long as he applies himself as he has been doing then he should thrive wherever he goes. It's nice to read a positive comment amongst the rest.

My experience, working in a school that took children from a range of feeder schools, is that the children very quickly widened their friendship pool and few were so friendly with those from the same primary, after a short time. It’s an opportunity to meet new people and have new experiences.

I do understand your and his disappointment, but as gently as possible I do wonder whether they didn’t make what you consider sufficient allowance for his medical condition because (assuming it’s a permanent condition) it might also sometimes affect his ability to keep up in lessons.

We provided plenty of evidence as to why this wouldn't hold him back.

His particularly condition being rare is triggered by stress. The crux of it is it did affect him on the day of his first test. He knew straight away when I picked him up, he immediately told me he was struggling to focus and concentrate, with this affecting his timing and having to rush, guessing a large number of questions towards the end. He overcame this on his second test, having been more familiar with the test situation and environment. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, his score was higher than others so we now as parents he'd thrive and embrace a grammar school environment.

I think as parents we just have to move forward now.

Sorry, but your Son didn't meet the criteria. It's the first of many disappointment in his life. He'll bounce back if you show him that it's not a big deal.

You sound like a parent that is able to offer him some fantastic opportunities. Having gone through the teenage stages twice I can tell you that having friends, hobbies and interests outside school is very important. So maybe it's good for his personal development that the school he's going to isn't focused on music.

It’s not very helpful to speculate on why your appeal did not succeed. The decision letter should summarise the evidence considered by the panel and how it reached its decision.

my DC are not in grammar school but from what I hear, the pressure is incredibly intense and getting in is only the beginning. If your DC found the entrance exams this stressful, why do you think he’d be fine with the ongoing workload and pressure of grammar school? Is he more disappointed by this or are you?

I agree with this, I went to Grammar School back in the 70s when tutoring for the 11+ was unheard of. I went from being top of the class to average which really affected my confidence. I found myself among students who were highly intelligent. I really didn't enjoy my grammar school years.

My daughter failed her 11+ on one of the papers, but scored an extremely high score on verbal reasoning. No tutoring at all. I could have appealed but I didn't as I was told that the top group at secondary was equivalent to the bottom set at Grammar and I thought that would be better for her confidence. She did extremely well on her GCSEs, all A*, As and Bs, did A levels then went to uni.

The problem now is that so many parents are paying for tutoring for the 11+ that there are too many children passing for the amount of places available. This is why I think they should be abolished.

What instrument does he play? Grade 3/4 on French horn, bassoon, tuba or harp will be of a lot more interest to a head of music running a school orchestra than flute, clarinet or piano.

As a panelist in this situation, there are two hurdles we need to consider;
non qualification - the fact he didn't get the qualifying score. We are not allowed to make our own determination as to your sons ability; we can only look at the academic evidence that shows that his ability very clearly. That requires extensive paper evidence from school in terms of previous, consistent high achievement. Did you have that? TBH the reason for underperformance is not that important, it's the evidence of consistent performance at the required high level that is key.

then even if we decide that that evidence exists, we also need to consider oversubscription - is the detriment to your child of not going to this school greater that the detriment to the school of taking another pupil? This sounds like it might have been an extremely oversubscribed school with a strong case, if the panel only gave one place with 39 appeals.

Even if we decide that an appealant is of the academic standard, we also then need to decide on the second point too. The music points you make would generally be quite weak I'm afraid - nice to have but not a huge detriment not to have. He also seems to have access to music lessons/support outside of school.

The full feedback letter should explains the deliberations of the panel and why they made their decision. if you really aren't happy that this explains the deliberations the panel made, you can make a complaint based on maladministration, though honestly it doesn't sound as if that was the case. This won't overturn the appeal result, but if granted, would result in another fresh appeal with a different panel.

He is more disappointed than we are as parents.
We as parents are more disappointed he didn't get one of his school preferences, not just the grammar school.

Everyone knows their children and he wouldn't struggle at a grammar school.

I'm not saying he was the only child in his position, but the unfamiliar testing environment being different, and the stressfulness around it got to him, especially considering his medical condition - he just didn't feel fully comfortable.
He has sat many tests at school and is thriving academically, particularly in maths and he wanted to show this at a grammar school.

Very refreshing to hear - thank you. Those are some top level grades!

I sat the 11+ quite a few years ago as well, missing out by one mark. I was offered a place at the grammar school after several weeks of starting my secondary school chapter. I chose to remain at my existing school and not take up the offer of the grammar school place. I've tried to use this to explain to my son that a grammar school isn't the only place you can get a great education.

He will be able to show his ability in maths at secondary school, and all schools take the same exam anyway. I know how disappointed you feel because we felt the same, not disappointed in her but for her as she too really wanted to go to grammar, but she thrived at secondary school, less pressure.