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!

Reading this made me realise we actually live within 30miles of a Lincolnshire Grammar... but we would have to drive through another county to actually get there. (As in leave our county, drive through that county, then into Lincolnshire) so i do understand your point about the Catvhment. However jts fair that children in the more distant villages within Lincolnshire also get a chance.

None of that has any relevance to whether or not your DD is musical - she obviously is, whether she still plays now or not.

One of my children is highly able but vulnerable to stress. We sent him to our neighbourhood comprehensive. They were very supportive and brilliant with pastoral care. They were so used to being flexible to make things work for a whole range of young people that it was just what he needed. He left with 9’s in GCSE’s and 4 A*’s in A levels. I did once say to him did he wish we had sent him to one of the private schools on a scholarship and he said he would have hated it. I hope your son does well once he settles.

I'd love to know more statistics about this, but it's the one we were given. I can think of a few local villages that might be up to 10 miles away, but on the other hand I can also think ogmf villages 8 miles away that I definitely wouldn't consider to be local. I often see kids in the local large city in uniform so I'd really like to know how many come in from these bigger centres, rather than borderline village kids who probably struggle with distance under a lot of school's criteria.

I grew up in West Kent. Anyone living in a village, attending a local grammar, would be highly likely to attend their school more than 7 miles away. That was a normal commute. I havent yet read what school this is, but mention of super-selectives and boys might indicate West Kent. The local boys super-selective is hyper competitive. A certain type of boy. Just be careful @OP - you might get what you wanted. Doesn't suit a lot of very bright academic boys.

Your post at 17.28 yesterday absolutely brought PP into the conversation

So this school is in Lincolnshire? If so that would explain to some extent the wide catchment (tho not the mad zoning method of allocation). Much of Lincs is very rural. I went to a grammar school in Lincolnshire and lived about seven miles away. I had friends who lived 10 or even 15 miles from the school (not great for friendships btw, tho I guess this was before the days we now seem to live in of parents driving their kids hither and yon (this includes me btw)).

But are there genuinely DC attending who live in Leeds and London? So a hundred or more miles away? On a daily basis? I find that astonishing. Or have I misunderstood a PP appearing to say this?

But it wasn’t marginal. He was 7 points under. That’s quite a lot below. Best to accept he’s not going to go there and formulate Plan B.

They used to until the zone changed to 30 miles. (Apparently... this is a whole new world for me as first child at secondary school!). They definitely still come from the 3 or 4 cities that are covered either fully or partially within the radius. I went to school in town and we had a few kids from maybe 7 or 8 miles away, one was 14, which was an outlier. The girls grammar is different though. There are zero girls within 30 miles in the waiting list, and 90ish for the boys school.

You need to accept he wont be going and concentrate on finding him another school.

@clary the school is close to a station and a fast train from London is a little over an hour.

I think the 30 mile radius was introduced at some point in the last five years so there may be boys in the upper years coming in from further away. There’s no sibling preference, so it isn’t a case of get one in and move further out.

However, I would be surprised if there were boys coming from that far out daily - though I can imagine a “stay with a local relative or friend in the week, head home at weekends” situation.

Regardless, that is in the past and no one in the Sep 2026 “batch” should have an address beyond 30 miles.

@will2- harsh as it is it does mean that Kings is a truly selective grammar which was the idea many moons ago. Like I said earlier it f you can afford the bus/train fare then send him to carres in Sleaford. Although if you live in one of the villages closer to Sleaford you might well be entitled to free transport.

The school is close to a station and a fast train from London is a little over an hour.

Who would send their child to school in Grantham if they lived in London? Even if you lived in Farringdon or somewhere, that would be a ridiculous commute. Surely no school is worth that.

Just move to Grantham. Or, yunno, use one of the many great schools in London. My mind is boggling at this.

@clary agree - I would be surprised if anyone actually does, even if they lived in London etc when they first applied. I’m not sure the poster who said it had particular evidence it was happening, or if it was hearsay.

I heard of people taking the 11+ around the country. Then moving closer to the school they got a place at.

Things like the 30 mile rule being
introduced at this school restrict this, as fo
inner and outer priority areas such as there is at Tiffin. Basically, a lot of selective schools have some kind of distance criteria as well. Not to mention that there is a fairly short period (6 weeks or so, Sep and early Oct) in which selective state schools run their tests, so it’s not physically possible to run around the country to all of them, as there will be clashes

I notice on the Kings admissions faq(presumably similar for other 11+ consortium schools)
“On the day:
My son is ill or not 100% – what should I do?
Please notify us by e-mail ([email protected]) as soon as possible and we can then re-arrange a sitting in the weeks following the 11+. Please do not send your son for testing if he is not feeling at his best.”

@Will2are you trying to argue that for one paper sitting he felt ok and the other not? Did you notify this at the time? if you had his score in advance of the CAF deadline you might have realised it was borderline at best.

DS who is still in year 7 has a boy in his class who came over to England to sit various grammar tests from India, all over the country. The parents then moved to England and locally to DS’s grammar school. Both parents now work here. So the kids from London get displaced as well and so some parents then do it elsewhere. And we had people from Manchester and Gloucestershire sitting exams in Kent, Sutton, Essex, for QE, St Olave’s too. Just to point out it works both ways.

Yes true, it’s probably one of those things ppl claim that are not actually happening (like a child starting school called La-a - urban myth). Anyway it’s done away with now evidently

@LIZS yes, OP would have had the score ahead of the CAF deadline

Random set of cut off scores from the 11-plus forum:

2012 - 232
2013 - 223

2015 - 229

2017 - 229
2018 - 229

2020 - 228
2021 - 229
2022 - 234

2024 - 237

So looks like the cut off has been broadly trending upwards, even before the VAT policy came in.

If you think applications are being made from the wrong addresses, you can flag this to your LA.

@SheilaFentiman my LA goes to huge lengths to stop false addresses being used for school applications. A lot of evidence is required for how long parents have been at the house and bills. The pass mark here has not changed so if more Indian families are here (nhs doctors?) the other dc cannot be bright enough to get the pass mark. No idea why that would be. Tutoring is rife.

I saw a boy in a St Albans school uniform at the Sutton tests when my son took it this year, I thought that would be a long way to come but seems its normal. The poor kids taking so many tests