primary admission appeal

[jo39]

I wonder if anyone can offer some advice/information.

We are in the process of appealing for a reception place for my son. The PAN for this schools reception class is 22, all these places have been offered. Years 1 & 2 will have 25, and 22 children respectively next year. The school also has a nursery class of 8 in the morning, and 8 in the afternoon, children aged 3-4. At times the reception and the nursery class are taught together as an ?early years? class.

Last year the reception class was 25 pupils, as 3 were taken on appeal, also since then the school has had 2 new classrooms built. The staffing for the reception and nursery is one teacher and two nursery nurse qualified teaching assistants.

The information that the authority sent to us claimed infant class size prejudice, as they claim that the reception and nursery class together is 30. However, as I understood it infant class size prejudice applies only to children aged 5,6 or 7. Can anyone tell me if I am correct in this?

Any help very gratefully received.

[BetsyBoop]

according to DCSF guidelines it can in the circumstances you outline

Q Does the class size limit apply to mixed nursery/reception or Year 2/Year 3 classes?
The duty applies to classes where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 within the school year. So, if the majority of the children within a class will be aged 5, 6 or 7 by the end of the school year, the class must comply with the statutory limit.

However the appeals panel allowed last year's appeals, so there is a reasonable chance that they will this year too?

[admission]

This is a difficult situation and is about the admission regulations not really keeping up to date with the changes to the foundation stage and how it can be run.

Foundation stage is nursery plus reception year or foundation 2 as it is often termed. The problem is that the admission regs refer to foundation 2 only not nursery but the DSCF guidelines that Betsyboop refers to clearly do apply. The school would appear to not be staffing the nursery seperately from the foundation 2 class and is correct therefore in claiming that this then meets the ICS Regs. However the question is what level of time are the nursery children in with reception children - less than 50% and you could argue that this is not appropriate.

However I think morally they are on dodgy ground because they are not staffing the nursery and in effect using that funding to have two small classes in year 1 and year 2. The nursery teacher is in effect being used as an infant class teacher.

I would specifically ask at appeal how the nursery is attached to the school. Is it a state nursery class or a private nursery? If it is the latter then I cannot see any reason to include it in the discussion on appeals. If it is a state nursery, which is what I would expect, then they need to justify the use of the funding for the nursery.

You should also raise the issue of the two new classrooms and whether they are in the net capacity calculation of the school and therefore the admission number of the school (almost for sure the answer is no). That then questions the PAN of 22 and therefore the admission of more children.

[rohana]

hi,
can any 1 help me acyually my son is 2nd on the waiting list is there any chance that my son get place in this year.he start reception this year.any one who had same experience like me?i wonder if any one can advice me?

[BetsyBoop]

rohana - have you actually read the responses people have posted on previous threads you have hijacked?

[annh]

Rohana, you need to start your own thread and not keep randomly asking your question in the middle of other people's threads, it's confusing and you haven't given enough information for people to be able to assist you anyway, although you have had some good advice about this on other threads.

Second on the waiting list is normally a good position but a lot depends on the individual school and area e.g. if the intake is 90 in a city school, you will probably get a place, maybe not if it is 22 in a rural area with less mobility.

Your best place to ask this question is at the school itself. They will be able to advise what is likely to happen based on previous years experience. Be aware however, that depending on the school's admission requirements, you can sometimes move down as well as up a waiting list.

[jo39]

Thanks ever so much to both of you for your answers, they were really helpful x

[rohana]

i am really sorry

[jo39]

We heard this morning that we have won our appeal. Would like to thank you again for your advice and help. We did argue that the infant class size prejudice didn't apply as the nursery children spend much less than 50% of their time with reception, and were also helped by the fact that the admissions authority weren't sure if the building work had been taken into account when calculating the PAN.

Such a relief, can look forward to September now!

Thanks again

[BetsyBoop]

great news