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School admissions - there is hope!

12 replies

Traylo2girls · 31/05/2011 10:34

Hi, i just wanted to let all you parents out there having problems with school admissions it is worth investigating! I was informed in march that my daughter had not recieved a place at our 1st choice school - where she currently attends nursery class. (one of only 4 children out of 54 currently attending to be refused) I decided to accept the place offered at another school but also to appeal. I rang the education office every week and was never given a straight answer, the appeal was cancelled twice, they would never tell me where she was on the waiting lists and to top it off 3 weeks ago i contacted the 'offered' school only to be told they had no details for my dd and the reception class was full :@ as i'm sure you can imagine i was not happy! I was stressing out over the appeal and worrying about where she would be going in sept.
Well, can you imagine my shock when i again phoned last week to be told all appeals had been cancelled - i was about to seriously hit the roof when the lady explained my dd had been allocated a place at our 1st choice along with the other appealants. On further investigation my LEA have apparently admitted that mistakes were made during the admissions process, not only for primary but also secondary schools. Therefore all appeals were upheld without being heard.
Result for the parents i say. Sorry for seeming so long winded, i just cant believe how relieved i am that its all over and i wanted to give other stressed out parents hope xxxxx

OP posts:
chopchopquick · 31/05/2011 12:56

That is fab news. I bet that is a very big weight off of your mind.

MammyT · 31/05/2011 13:36

That is a lovely tale of hope for the many who are appealing decisions.. Well done and I hope your child enjoys school in September.

admission · 31/05/2011 17:56

Please tell which LA are we talking about here, as they have been very honourable in owning up to their issues and doing something about it.

cuckooclock · 31/05/2011 22:39

Would love to know what mistakes they had made, might be helpful for some others.

MM5 · 01/06/2011 06:38

I am happy for you but sad for the school. This means they will be oversubscribed and they are now having to scramble to deal with too many children for the teachers they have and, possibly, not enough space to deal with the extra children.

This is what really annoys me about LAs. They mess up big time and it is the school, staff and children that have to deal with the problems.

Traylo2girls · 01/06/2011 14:30

Thanks for msgs everyone

Admission - its flintshire in north wales

cuckooclock - in letter all it states is "in the light of recent appeal hearings, i have concluded that the procedures were not strictly adhererd to in this years admissions"

mm5 - the school is not to capacity they just have a pan of 54, when speaking to the head he has had more than this previously. Also only 3 extra children making a total of 57 have now been admitted this year,with 1 teacher and 2 tas per class

OP posts:
admission · 01/06/2011 18:51

Traylo, thank you for confirming that, I suspected you might say Flintshire. Yes they made a mistake which became apparent at an admission appeal for a secondary school.

Traylo2girls · 01/06/2011 21:49

What was the mistake

OP posts:
admission · 01/06/2011 22:06

I know lots of things about lots of LAs much of which is given in confidence.
I also do lots of admission appeals and I would certainly not give out any confidential information about specific appeals
So I am afraid it would be wrong of me to say any more other than what a people know in the area, which is effectively what you have got in your letter.
Sorry I can't say more, but I would reiterate that the LA are to be commended for accepting something went wrong and doing the right thing to put it right.

MM5 · 03/06/2011 06:30

Traylo2girls.... I understand what you are saying and I am glad to hear that this won't cause a problem for the school your chlld is going to next year.

However, this is still a problem because you don't know the situations of others schools that now have to take above their pan numbers. If a school has a pan of 30 or 60 that is one or two classes. When they allow it to go to 33 or 63 you have problems because you have to keep within 30 per class in KS1. 33 or 63 means that there are too many children for 1 or 2 classes but not nearly enough for 3 classes. This puts a massive strain on the school budget and means less money for essentials for all children involved.

Traylo2girls · 03/06/2011 07:23

Mm5 i completly agree, in my particular area there are 4 schools, 2 of which are always oversubscribed but only have pans of 54 and 1 that is full with a pan of 32 not sure on exact details of 4th one but i know its full other than these its 5 miles to next schools. Yet the local council say that we dont need extra classes or even another school, although they are building houses left right and centre!

OP posts:
MM5 · 03/06/2011 09:59

That is a problem all across the UK. In the next 5 years they are ex pecting an additional 200 children above current numbers but all of the local schools are at capacity with no money to even extend the schools we currently have or build new ones. This is what they get for closing loads just a few years back. :(

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