School appeal, please help :-(

[wendles77]

Hi all, i am having a nightmare with a school appeal.
My current situation is oldest son is in class 3, youngest sonis in the nursery class and middle son did not get in due to class size! we are not catchment and therefore only thing we have in favour is attended the foundation stage and siblings at the school. unfortunately as its a voluntary aided church school, there criteria enrolls those that have attended church once a month for 6 months prior to admission before siblings! needless to say you dont need to attend church again!! the child that recieved a place before me does not have siblings but has a form signed by the church.
Hence my question, the only way i could win an appeal is on the grounds of religious discrimination???
Any help, replies pleeease. very desperate mum, doing to school trips x

[DeWe]

I can't help on the idea of putting an appeal on religious discrimination to a religious school.

[prh47bridge]

I'm afraid you cannot win an appeal on that basis. Faith schools are allowed to give priority to children based on church attendance.

As this is an infant class size appeal there are only three ways you can win. You can win if:

• the admission arrangements did not comply with the law or the Admissions Code and your child would have been admitted if they had
  

• the admission arrangements were incorrectly administered and your child should have got a place
  

• the decision to refuse admission to your son was unreasonable
  

It sounds like your child was placed in the correct admissions category so I'm afraid there is nothing in your post that suggests you have a case. You should still try as occasionally information emerges during the hearing that shows a mistake was made, but I think you need to be realistic about your chances of success.

Sorry.