Do we have any chance of winning an appeal on medical grounds?

[LaughingHyena]

Eldest has been given a place at our second choice school.

However she missed the cut off on our first choice by only 20 meters. This means that in addition to all her friends from primary heading off to first choice school together, she is also the only child in the neighbourhood who will be at second choice school. This has really hit her hard and although we're all trying to keep positive about the second choice we are considering an appeal (whilst keeping our fingers crossed that there is some movement on the waiting list).

The playground rumour mill tells me an appeal has been won in the past on similar sounding grounds, although in the admissions booklets for the last couple of year it states no appeals have been upheld, I wonder whether this is a case of someone appealing but actually getting a place via the waiting list.

She is a very anxious child in general and finds it hard to make friends. She has recently been referred to a paediatrician for an autism assessment (her brother was recently diagnosed). She's also suffers from stomach issues, likely IBS linked to her anxiety.

The issue is what sort of documentation we would be able to find to back this up. I'm not sure what is on her record at the GP (though she has had lots of testing and medication to deal with the stomach issues over the years I'm not sure anxiety will be mentioned anywhere.)

We should be able to get the referral paperwork from the school nurse, and I think the nurse saw her a couple of years ago around anxiety issues too.

Would letters form her current teacher, and the pastoral support person at school hold any value? Do schools usually write these sort of things??

Does the journey to school have any impact at secondary? First choice school is easy for her to get to, off road cycle route from the end of our drive direct to school and she'll have friends going that way. Second choice school is entirely on a main road with a nasty crossing (need to check if the pavements are cycle ways as several here are). Bus is possible but notoriously unreliable locally.

Gathering evidence to highlight any differences between the two schools is difficult, they are both part of the same academy chain. The policies, websites and prospectus seem to have a lot of copy and paste!.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated, I really don;t know what to do for the best here.

[LaughingHyena]

Thanks, that's helpful to know.

All schools will be deemed to be able to cope with a child who has anxiety or ASD for example so at appeal you need to show why specific additional needs are best met by attending the appeal school.

Our hope was to show that with the support of her friendship group she isn't likely to require additional support. Either way this is where it's hard to prove anything would be different between the two schools, as well as policies being the same I believe staff training for both is all done together.

Sounds like the journey isn't relevant then, both schools are within 1.5 miles. We'll probably have to go with her a few times to learn the route to second choice school as it's not a direction we usually go but nothing more than that.

Altogether I'm not holding out much hope. It does sound like we'd have a very hard job proving anything useful. Our plan at the moment is to put in the initial application and see what happens. Hopefully the waiting list will work out.

[Oinkyoinky]

My dds situation was in primary, but has some similarities.
We were returning from overseas and were hoping to get her back into her old school. She had suffered a lot of anxiety just before we left the UK (most worryingly pulling hair out) and this had continued whilst we were away whenever there was any form of change. I felt it was vital she did not have another emotional upset and went to her old school where her old friends were. I had doctor letters, school letters (from abroad) and a letter from an educational consultant. The LEA granted exceptional circumstances and went over numbers for her to get her back into her old school. Through our educational consultant we were very aware we would win if it went to appeal and the LEA decided not to upset an already anxious child anymore and agreed to go over 30 (in year 3).
I would advise you to send as much medical evidence as you can to the LEA in support of your appeal. Saying that if you only missed out by 20 metres it could be likely you get a place in the 2nd round of offers? Good luck!

[LaughingHyena]

Thanks tiggy, that does make sense about the friendships. I'll have a chat with the pastoral support and see if she can help out with documentation. IT's certainly mentioned on the last three years reports that this intervention has increased her confidence and participation in lessons.

There's been a long delay in the referal/assement due to some lost paperwork along the way so we're not as far down that route as we would have liked.

For now we've put together an outline of the appeal, which we'll submit as well as staying on the waiting list. We can decide later to pull out if we don't feel we've got any documentation.