Academic Appeals Form

Academic Appeals Form

Below is the Academic Appeals Form that students and teachers use in my school when the student has been advised not to undertake an Extended Essay in a subject based on their academic performance in the said subject in the pre-IBDP course that they undertook, such as The Middle Years Programme or GCSEs. 

Similar to the Language Appeals Form, this form asks the student to give a detailed explanation as to why they should be able to write the Extended Essay in the subject, focusing on future career choices, their interest in the subject and / or research area, their existing knowledge in the subject / research are and their recent performance in the subject. It goes on to ask the student to put in a detailed proposal for the essay, similar to the student proposal form, including possible research questions and how they intend to tackle the research.

After the student has filled in their part of the form, the subject teacher is asked to give an evaluation of the student including recent assessment grades, their interest in the subject, their ability to work independently, their attitude and work rate in lessons, their previous response to targets and advice, their ability to access assessment criteria in the subject. Teachers are asked to comment on the student’s previous inquiry / research based work in the subject. Finally, the teacher asked whether they recommend that the student is allowed to do an Extended Essay in the subject or not.

After the student’s and teacher’ comments, I work with all parties to come to a resolution. If the teacher does not recommend the student does the essay based on their academic performance, I back their decision and work with the student to find a subject better suited to them. It must be remembered, however, that every student has the right to do the Extended Essay so not all subjects can say “no”. I have had situations where students have had to add to their proposals before the teacher will make a decision.

Final decisions are reported back to parents, including an explanation of the rationale.