Admission Appeal Advice Please

[duckduckgoose1]

Hello.

Asking for a friend who has a school admission question.

She has recently moved house. Her daughter is in year 2 at an infants only school in the area she used to live- the journey each day is pretty horrendous so she wants to move her to a local school. She needs to apply for a Junior school year 3 place by 15th Jan. However, there are no Junior only schools in her new area- it's all primaries. All the current year 2 places are full with fairly long waiting lists.

She is pretty much guaranteed a place at the Junior school in her old area as there's a feeder link from her infants to the Juniors. However, it's a horrific journey which simply isn't sustainable long term. She doesn't drive and it's a rural area.

She has been advised to make an in year application now for local schools for current year two places and get on the waiting lists then next school year (year 3 so not infant class size) appeal and try and get a place.

However, we don't know if she has more chance of winning her appeal if her daughter has no school place ? Basically should she apply for the feeder school (in her old area) as she knows she'll get a place and appeal the local schools with her daughter having been offered/accepted a year 3 place at the school in the old area or will her appeal for a local school carry more weight if she has no school place at all.

Thank you.

[LIZS]

Get her on the waiting list for the local schools. Their waiting lists may be long but that doesn't mean she wouldn't be ranked near the top if she now lives close by. Others may be settled elsewhere and not choose to move if offered. If she deliberately doesn't apply for a Year 3 place then I don't think it would help at appeal.

[duckduckgoose1]

Thank you. The local school admissions team have checked their address and she will be 6th and 10th on the lists for the two local schools. Rural area so not many options. They've said they have very little movement, only one child moved out of the entire school year last academic year. Basically very little chance unless she appeals :(

[LIZS]

but come year 3 they may be able to admit more pupils unless the capacity has been reached. Does she know what has happened in past years at this transition point ? The 5 above may not choose to take up the place if offered.

[duckduckgoose1]

Thank you. I had to realised that there would be the chance that people on the waiting list may decline the place if offered. Good point, thank you!

[catslife]

Whether you have another school place (or not) has no effect on the Appeals process.
For Y3 the infant class size of 30 rule means that schools can admit additional pupils at Appeal and so the chances of this being successful are higher than for reception to Y2 admissions.

[prh47bridge]

Not having a school place will not improve her chances of success at appeal. It may actually damage her chances if the appeal panel think she is trying to blackmail them by refusing to accept a place anywhere other than her preferred school.

[admission]

The issue here is around when is the optimum time for an appeal. If they appeal now it is for a year 2 place and the question that needs answering is whether the two schools have an admission number which would mean that any admission appeal is an infant class size appeal. So have the classes got 30 in them and what is the published admission number for the school. If it is 15 or 30 then it almost for sure will be infant class size case. Under those circumstances the chances of winning at appeal are very low, well in fact for an in-year place read basically impossible to win.
If however it is an appeal for a year 3 place the infant class size regulations do not apply and there can be more than 30 in the class.
You are only allowed one appeal per school per academic year, so if it is infant class size regs case in year 2, you would be throwing away your appeal at the moment. You would be better off, struggling onto to the middle of June and then applying for a year 3 place in September, when you have a better chance of success at appeal.
You have till the middle of January to place your admission preferences, but there is nothing stopping you from applying for a place at the two local schools now and getting on the waiting list. Though being 6th and 10th on the list does not sound like that will be very successful in the short term.
If you decide to await till June till appeal then the safe bet is to apply for places at the two local schools as preferences 1 and 2 and then put down the junior school as preference 3. The probability is that you will get the junior school places but by putting in the two local schools as preferences you do at least force the LA concerned to consider your application for September.
Having no place will make no difference to an appeal. The LA will be required by law to offer a place in September but it could be anywhere within the local area and even more difficult to get to.