Secondary school placement appeal

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,084
Location
Stoke area
Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone has been through a secondary school placement appeal for one of their children and would share their experiences of it?

We've just had the date through for our daughters and although we have prepared for it, you can't be too prepared.

The main thing we're going on is the school that she wants to go to is a better-performing school than the local one she's been assigned too and she's very academic, SATs scores show she's at least 3 years ahead of where she should be and she's wanted to be a vet since she was 3, so we're really pushing that the school we want has an advanced performance program and the school we've been given, although my wife and I both attended has gone down the toilet over the last 10 years. There was a massive student fight while the OFSTED inspector was there... says it all really :D
 
moon man said:
We used my parents address to get my youngest in to a good school, DR now so our entitled boomer tactics worked well tbh
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I've actually joked with the wife that we should just rent a flat in this town and pretend we've separated, use that address to get her in and then "get back together" We'd need to pretend to separate so she can still get the bus from our town. Wife said no... was looking forward to some peace and quiet :D
 
AHarvey said:
I've actually joked with the wife that we should just rent a flat in this town and pretend we've separated, use that address to get her in and then "get back together" We'd need to pretend to separate so she can still get the bus from our town. Wife said no... was looking forward to some peace and quiet :D
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My mate rented a house in the catchment area for 18 months. That worked.
 
AHarvey said:
I've actually joked with the wife that we should just rent a flat in this town and pretend we've separated, use that address to get her in and then "get back together" We'd need to pretend to separate so she can still get the bus from our town. Wife said no... was looking forward to some peace and quiet :D
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Honestly given its your daughter's future I'm surprised more people don't man the hell up and do the needful.
 
My daughter missed out on 11+ by a couple of points. We had an appeal but got nowhere. Girls only school. Schools are overcrowded so it isn't really easy now like it was before. She is doing okay but I have to work for it. I give her personal tuition because her school she is at is really bad. Around here it is either good or bad with schools. No middle ground. In Hindsight maybe I should have pushed her further on revision for 11+ but I'd much rather she got it on merit and not struggle. If she was a boy she would have gotten in as the pass mark was a lot lower for the grammar school.

I went to a pretty average school but still got A's in Maths and Science. I also failed my 11+ but got better GCSE's than a lot of my friends who went to Grammar school. I was very lazy with revising but had a knack come test time.

Obviously a decent school can help build a child and determination can cover up a lot but they need to have it upstairs in reality.
 
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AHarvey said:
We've just had the date through for our daughters and although we have prepared for it, you can't be too prepared.
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Have you considered private education? If she's as clever as you say she might get a bursary or scholarship. Gresham's, for instance is in North Norfolk. Many private schools are generous with scholarships and bursaries.
 
Quartz said:
Many private schools are generous with scholarships and bursaries.
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None of them around our way give a significant discount with a scholarship, they're mostly just extra tuition/opportunities.

They've all put their prices up 8-10% this year too. Really hard to commit long term with possible further price hikes like that (plus labour threatening to remove charitable status).
 
Just went through the appeals process for my Son for Northampton School for Boys, Find out next week if we got a place.

There were 2500+ applicants for the school, for 230 places. 54 parents appealed like us. The first meeting was all parents on a zoom call, with the school presenting their case to the appeals panel on why they couldn't take any additional students.
The appeals panel then adjourned to make a decision on if the school should take more kids and if so how many,

They found in the appellants favour, and said the school had to take an additional 2 children. Not great odds. 2 places with 54 children who want to attend.

We find out next Friday if he has secured a place, fingers crossed.

It is frustrating, he has worked so hard to achieve what he has done, he's a year ahead of the curve in Maths and English, but NSB
Its not easy explaining to a 10 year old who has worked his ass off to get great grades, to then being told sorry you haven't got a place, the system is no longer in favour of the kids who actually want to learn.

The school had 230 places, so many goto Sibling Link, Children of teachers, SEND and so on. By the time it got to the kids who applied there was naff all left.

Should have told my son to play silly buggers for the last two years, he may have gotten straight in :D
 
Quartz said:
Have you considered private education? If she's as clever as you say she might get a bursary or scholarship. Gresham's, for instance is in North Norfolk. Many private schools are generous with scholarships and bursaries.
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We've actually got her booked in for the Newports Girls school entrance test, which is in something like the top 20 in the country, but as it's "all girls" and a lot of her friends are boys she's a little worried about it. It's better than the school she actually wants to go to, but that is still a great school. Both are far better than the one we've got
 
AHarvey said:
Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone has been through a secondary school placement appeal for one of their children and would share their experiences of it?

We've just had the date through for our daughters and although we have prepared for it, you can't be too prepared.

The main thing we're going on is the school that she wants to go to is a better-performing school than the local one she's been assigned too and she's very academic, SATs scores show she's at least 3 years ahead of where she should be and she's wanted to be a vet since she was 3, so we're really pushing that the school we want has an advanced performance program and the school we've been given, although my wife and I both attended has gone down the toilet over the last 10 years. There was a massive student fight while the OFSTED inspector was there... says it all really :D
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I’m in charge of admissions at my school and run the appeals. Sorry, but if it’s full I don’t expect you’ll get a place based on what you’ve put there. There will be others appealing too with far more distressing circumstances than your own which an appeals panel will likely sympathise with more.

I would really recommend getting your daughter prepared for the other school. You could join a waiting list and may get a place eventually when someone else leaves, but this may take a while.
 
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Cant you not home school rather than send you child to a poor performing school.
I'd prefer not to send a child to poor performing school, specially if they have problems with education.
 
Mrwong said:
Cant you not home school rather than send you child to a poor performing school.
I'd prefer not to send a child to poor performing school, specially if they have problems with education.
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Every home school kid i met was a social pariah.

Covid surely was enough punishment for the kiddies?
 
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