Help! Re school reception place appeal

[mlmx]

Hi, I am new to this site; i came across it whilst searching for guidance regarding my appeal for a reception place for my daughter.
I applied for a place at my local catholic school, however, the application wasn't successful.
I didn't put any other schools as a preference as I really thought she'd get a place there - in hindsight I can see that I have been naive. I only have 1 child and have never had to do this before and I'm very unfamiliar with the whole process.
My application for a place at the school wasn't late, however, I was late bringing the documents into school (i.e proof of address/baptism). This was because we were away at the time, by the time we returned home and I'd opened our mail it was already 1 day past the deadline. I took the documents into school the next day. I was told my application would be considered as late. I did check the school's admission policy before we went to check if there were any dates advised on there but there wasn't.
My daughter wasn't baptized at the time of the application so the baptism certificate was also given in late. We were practicing Catholics prior to the baptism, however, due to family circumstances my daughter wasn't baptized until after the deadline for documentation.
I am hoping for any advice anybody can with with regards to what to base my appeal on.
Will any of the circumstances I've noted below be of any interest to the appeal panel?

1. The school my daughter has been offered isn't Catholic (or Christian).
   
2. We live in the catchment area for the school I wanted
   
3. I think it is unfair my application was considered late
   
4. The school we were offered is 1.8 miles away (35 minute walk for a healthy adult, more like a 50 minute walk for a child who will of only turned 4 in August). It is along a very busy main road. It is the total opposite direction to my place of work. As i work full time, it would be impossible for me to make the journey and I would struggle with childcare. I would have to give up my job.
   
5. My daughter now fits the criteria for a place there.
   
6. After speaking to the school receptionist, there planned admission number was 45, although they have accepted 50. There must be room for extra places?
   
   I have already submitted the appeal and I'm waiting for a hearing place.
   Does anybody have any advice on what's best to focus on the appeal? Or what could help me? I have already spoken to the Father where we attend mass to ask he writes a letter of support, however, as he is a Governor on another school he doesn't want to look as though he is
   "poking his nose in" another Father's business.
   
   Any help would be appreciated as I'm really stressed and upset about this.
   
   Thanks xx

[Skinnywhippet]

Do you really want her to be given a place for a school thAt is not over subscribed by 5 children? I totally understand your disappointment and worry- this is your daughter's education. However, a line has to be drawn somewhere or we will have classes of 40 before long!

[admission]

I think that the only real possibility here is around the reasons why you were not considered as on time.
You need to look very carefully at the admission criteria in the LA admission booklet and also what it says on the school website to see if it gives a deadline for submission of these documents.
If you want to PM me with the school and LA I can look for you and see if I can spot any dates.

[mlmx]

Thanks everyone.
I'm not sure how the classes are split Skinnywhippet but I don't think it's one class for 50 children. It's quite a large school though so I'm presuming it will have 2 reception classes.
I really hope it it's not an ICS appeal.
I know the appeal panel will hear the emotional pleas all the time so I'm trying to keep it as factual as possible but it's quite hard sometimes when you're desperate! :-(
Thanks tiggytape that's really helpful. I think I was about 2 days late handing the proof of address in and 2 weeks late for the baptism certificate. The receptionist said they'd already made the decisions by the time I'd handed it in.
I have now put her name on 3 other schools waiting lists, I went to one today and the receptionist there said they are over subscribed and their waiting list looked very long!
I suppose I've been naive about the whole process I somehow thought they'd understand but it's all based on facts and dates - which I know is needed but doesn't stop me thinking there's no room for personal circumstances.
Thanks admission, I did have a look and couldn't see any but I'll message you the details. If you get chance to look that's great, if not, don't worry.

xx

[NynaevesSister]

You need to find out how the classea are divided. If there are two Reception classes of 25 each then it is not an ICS appeal.

If there is one class of 30 Reception and two classes of 30 mixed Reception and year 1 then it is an ICS appeal.

This will affect how you appeal so it is important to know.

They cannot legally have one class of 50 in infants. They have to get a second teacher.

[prh47bridge]

If there are two Reception classes of 25 each then it is not an ICS appeal

Not necessarily. If they mix Y1 and Y2 they could have 3 classes of 30 in those years, in which case it would be an ICS appeal. So it is important to know how they organise classes in all three years of Infants - Reception, Y1 and Y2. Note that what matters is how many children there would be in each class if all three years were full, not how many are in each class today. If in any of the three years they would be running classes of 30 with a single teacher the appeal will be an ICS case.

As NynaevesSister says, they cannot have a single class of 50 in infants with one teacher. They must have two teachers.

As Admission says, if this is an ICS appeal your only real argument is around whether or not they should have treated your application as on time. Being two weeks late with the baptism certificate suggests you will have an uphill task with that argument but it depends what they say about dates in their admission arrangements.

[lougle]

If your DD wasn't actually baptised at the date of application deadline, then she didn't fit the criteria.

I can't see any appeals panel accepting that someone who got baptised after the deadline for documentation should be considered as baptised at the time of the deadline, because they weren't.

[lougle]

You need to find out under what category the last place was offered.

[mlmx]

Thanks prh47bridge I will call the school again! I think the secretary is getting sick of me now, does she have to provide me this information? I want to go into this appeal as prepared as possible so although these extra facts may not support my appeal on their own, I'm hoping combining them will show iv attempted to do my research and I am serious about the appeal.
Thanks lougle, I know she didn't fit the criteria, just that she does now; tiggytape has already kindly pointed this out that I couldn't base my appeal on this. I will ask what the last criteria the final place was offered though.
Thanks again everyone x

[ProudAS]

The local authority are required to provide certain information under the freedom of information act. I'm not sure how it applies to schools.

Make your FOI request as specific as possible - in this case how the intake/ child offered the last place fitted in with the published oversubscription criteria. For example, if baptised catholic children (which your dd wasn't at the time) are top priority and all those offered places are baptised catholics then she was not turned down wrongly but if a child who would have been a lower priority than your dd was offered a place then that is a different matter.

As regards getting dd to alternative school and yourself to work you've got a few months to put arrangements in place. Does it have a breakfast club or could she go to a childminder who drops off there thus allowing you to drop her off earlier and get to work? What about requesting flexible working which as a parent you are entitled to do?

[mlmx]

I'm pretty sure that all the places offered were to baptized catholic children and the decision to turn down the application wasn't wrong in terms of that but I will appeal based on the application being deemed as late, I guess I'm hoping for a sympathetic panel! Which I'm sure won't be the case.
I have checked re the class sizes, there are 2 reception classes. So, based on what the receptionist confirmed (50 places offered) it does seem as though the places are split. I'm guessing 25 in each class.
Year 5/6
Year 5/6
Year 4/5
Year 3/4
Year 3/4
Year 3
Year 2
Year 2
Year 1
Year 1
Reception
Reception
Nursery

Would this class split and the fact that 50 places were offered mean it isn't an ICS appeal? (confused)

Thanks again

[lougle]

If it is an ICS appeal, you won't win on your late vs on-time argument. Working it through logically, it was either:

• Late, because the evidence must be submitted with the application to make it complete.
  

or

-On time, because the actual form was submitted, but the child in question was not baptised at the time of application.

You can't have it both ways. Either way, you failed to get into the category which got a place.

Your only hope is a non ICS appeal, but if there are other children appealing who were in the category which was the last offered and missed out on distance alone, say, they may well have a stronger case.

Even if you are right about the 25 places , that would leave a maximum 5 places for appeal if the school has capacity.

[ProudAS]

If it is not an ICS appeal the panel will weigh up impact on the school of admitting an extra child against what the school can offer your DD that allocated/alternative schools cannot. About 1 in 3 succeed.

Simply because a school has a PAN of 25 does not mean that it can take 5 more children as building size etc come into the equation too.

[mlmx]

1 in 3 sounds a bit more promising. I'll be surprised if it's successful from going off all the internet research I've been doing lately!
Fingers crossed though.
I've never really appreciated how stressful this time of year can be for parents as I only have the one child and have never had to do this before!
I guess I can only try and see how it goes.
I did find out that my daughter is number 2 on a waiting list for another RC school abit further away, the ofsted report is outstanding there. It's just the childcare I'll have to worry about next as I cant reduce my hours at work or do compressed.
Has anyone ever had experience of waiting lists, or been number 2 then offered a place for start of term in Sept?

[mlmx]

Ah right... I need to speak to the school again to find out for sure. The receptionist is going to hate me soon!
That's a bit of a relief re the waiting list. From reading the ofsted report i think there is a an above average turnover so that's a good sign.
I still would struggle with travel/childcare as it's near enough the same distance away as the school we were offered a place at but that school wasn't RC and it's not got a great reputation.
I shall ring the receptionist again!
Thank you tiggytape for all the helpful info

[admission]

Mlmx did PM me, so I can confirm that the school has a PAN of 45 and the current classroom organisation, from the school website, is as she has said in an earlier post. with 50 places being offered.
The only sensible explanation for the current classroom organisation is that the school has less pupils at the top end of the school than the 45 or 50 they are taking in at the infants end of the school.
If they actually had 45 in each year group the usual split is to have two small reception classes of 22 and 23 and then three year 1/2 classes of 30, followed by six classes of 30 across years 3 to 6. Any appeal in this case would be an infant class size appeal because of what is called future prejudice in years 1 and 2 classes.
However they appear to be taking 50 in each year group now and have twelve classes. It is not easy to predict what the actual class organisation would be in this case but if it was 50 in each year group then I would have 6 infant classes of 25 each and then 6 junior classes with either 33 or 34 in. Any other organisation in the infant end of the school give lots of split year groups and very messy organisation.
Mlmx 's problem is that whilst it is not an infant class size regs case under those circumstances the reality is that any appeal panel is going to be looking at the class sizes in the junior end of the school and saying do I want to increase the class sizes any more when this reception year group gets to be junior classes. That means you need a really good case for part 2 as to why this school is the only one that is appropriate or prove that it should have been counted as on time and therefore a place should have been offered in the original admission round.

[lougle]

That's useful, prh.

I still can't see how the OP can say her application would have got her a place though. If the application was 'on time' because the form was submitted by the deadline, then the facts on that date are that the child was not baptised. The last admitted criteria was baptised child.

If the application was late, then she wouldn't get in anyway because all places were allocated in the first round.

you can't have it both ways and either way the OP wouldn't secure a place.

[lougle]

What I'm saying is that it wasn't simply a case of late evidence. The child wasn't actually baptised. You can't apply criteria retrospectively.

[lougle]

I do see that and my scenario will only make sense if the OP is correct that all places went to baptised children.