School Appeal approaching!!

[k19806]

Hi,
I have the appeal for my Son's school place on Monday and let me tell you i am pretty petrified i'm going to mess it up.

My question is does the below point have relevance-

Last year the school I am appealing for let in all 33 appeals and created a whole new year 7 class for them, due to something said by the Deputy head about how all appeals usually get in (we are just a little town in the northeast not like the big London boroughs) - Does the fact they managed to accommodate this many children last year mean i can use that point when they claim the school is over subscribed which are the grounds for not being accepted.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[SueDunome]

No it doesn't, the PAN for the current year is what they will look at. You need to be focusing on why your dc will be prejudiced by going to the school offered instead of the school you are appealing for a place at.

[titchy]

You can use that to chip away at the school's argument that they are full. You can ask how many accidents they have had as a result of admitting 33 extra, ask about lunch arrangements. Basically demonstrate that they're not as full as they claim.

You THEN have to demonstrate that if they do let any extra in that it should be your kid not someone else's i.e. your kids needs that place the most.

[k19806]

Great thank you for that titchy.

[NewIdeasToday]

Surely if they already have an extra class in the year above that makes it less likely that they could have another one this year - as all the teaching space, gyms, lunch halls etc will already be over stretched?

[SueDunome]

Also, if the appeal is on Monday, surely you have already submitted your written statement with the grounds of your appeal. When we went for ours, the panel would not accept anything that was not already on the statement.

[admission]

SueDunome, in which case your appeal panel were not being very proactive. Yes there is a bit in the admission code that talks about it being at the discretion of the panel as to whether they will admit new evidence but actually the panel should be acknowledging that the parents are "the amateurs" in this and giving them more leeway.
As chair of a panel I would always with my fellow panel members accept any further information that the appellant came up with. If that meant a brief 15 to 30 adjournment for all to read through the information, so be it but the panel needs to be clear that they give the parents all possible opportunity to put forward their case.

[SueDunome]

Well our panel definitely were not accepting any further information. Appeal lost, all water under the bridge now. I hope the OP gets a more understanding panel.

[kayskiuk]

I don't see it as new evidence after much research and documents from ace education they state I can ask the admissions authority how many appeals were successful last year, therefore giving me a chance to use that as slight leverage.

[meditrina]

It sounds as if there was a decision that a bulge class was needed locally in your area last year, and they stuck it into the much-appealed-for school, making a lot of people happy.

Taking a bulge class out of it, the they went 3 over numbers (an extra one per form?)

So yea they can cope with going over, but probably not by as many as a who,l new form every year. Bulge classes (even when not in the appealed-for year) do take up space in the school (both in the sense of using classroom, and also throughput for lunch, space generally, timetabling for labs etc)

So I'm not sure it would necessarily help your case to put a great deal of weight on this. Also because if they cannot admit all appellants, it doesn't really highlight why your DC really, really needs this school.

[kayskiuk]

Yes I understand. I have my case for that so just hope it's good enough.