I have a ds in year 7, he is unsettled and unhappy, this was our second choice school.<br>We appealed last year and lost. It went to the EFA who agreed that that the panel did not act accordingly in places but chose to close our case.<br>Ds has a diagnosis of asc, he is at a school that has a unit for autistic dc.<br>He is thriving academically and has not accessed the unit so far.<br><br>My main issue at appeal was the travelling concerns. School is 2 buses away and ds travels alone. There have been various problems and we've tried all 3 routes available, ds is a bag of nerves every morning and has missed a bit of school claiming to be ill. I've now realised its severe anxiety/headaches caused by worrying.<br>He is currently under Alder hey children's hospital who are looking into crohns/coeliac/ibs.<br><br>Appeal school is mixed sex Catholic and his current school is mixed sex, no religion and has some issues ie pupil found recently with a knife/y7 suspended for smoking/bullying/fighting on the bus.<br><br>Ds attended a Catholic primary and the appeal school is the only school here that is mixed sex and Catholic.<br>We had supporting evidence but wasn't strongly worded.<br><br>Ds has had a lot of emotional trauma such as bereavement of close family members and my miscarriage and appeal school offers counselling.<br><br>I think the time of year ( allocations week ) has brought this all back to the surface and I feel that ds was treated very unfairly by the appeals panel.<br><br>I'm now debating if I should appeal for a year 8 place. School is full and gave 8 places at appeal last year.<br><br>Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.