I'm hoping for a bit of reassurance in advance of our school admissions appeal hearing as we've just had the lea's case and it's terrifying!
We moved to a town with only one secondary school. Its 0.59 miles away from our house but is oversubscribed and so our application for a place for our son in yr 8 was refused on those grounds. Places in his yr are 172 but they are operating at 177 currently.
Most of the secondary schools in the nearest town (8 miles away) are over subscribed but we found a place in a school 9.27miles by car from our house. We have younger children and work commitments so can't drive him ourselves and there is no school bus so our son uses public transport which costs us £25pm.
When we asked for financial help we were told we'd get petrol money if we drove him which we can't do.
After 4 wks at this school my son was complaining of being tired. The journey to/from school requires two buses and takes 1hr 25mins each way (when buses are on time) and frankly it's tiring him out. So we decided to appeal mainly based on this and the effect 3 hrs commuting is having on him which will only get worse when his workload increases as he goes through school.
We also mentioned a bullying incident in his new school, another child runned chewing gum into ds's hair and when he told his tutor, his tutor handed him scissors to cut it out himself (in front of his peers, ds was humiliated) leaving him with a chunk of hair missing. Other boy was not sanctioned. I waited a couple of days for the school to let me know what happened (son told me) but when I didnt hear I rang and complained that the teacher's management of the situation was inadequate. Boy was eventually sanctioned.
I mentioned this incident in our admissions appeal and I'm livid because ds's current school have minimised what happened (didn't say Ds had gum rubbed in his hair by other student just that his mother was unhappy he had gotten gum in his hair) and outright lying that they contacted me re incident and other incidents. Theyve also cited an ofsted report from three yrs ago saying bullying is minimal but what bearing does this have on my ds's experience of bullying?!
Should I mention the untruths from his current school or will that make me seem petty? Tbh the real reason we are appealing is becasue of the long school journey ds has to take when his catchment school is a 5min walk away. Should I mention bullying at all?
Do we have a good case? I'm worried we'll be dismissed instantly.
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Secondary education
In year admission appeal hearing
47 replies
IRegretNothing · 19/01/2017 14:58
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