Appeal decision

[Caz2489]

Any help or advice would be great. Without going. Into too much detail, I attended an appeal on Tuesday for my daughter to attend a new school. She has suffered bullying, anxiety etc for 3 years. She has refused to go back to current school since January, this is her 3rd achool since ur 7, she has been home educated for approx a year, she is now in year 10.
Anyway, I attended this appeal on Tuesday a school which she has a large friendship group already established, children she socialises with outside of a school setting. The appeal seemed to go well but you just never know. Anyway I received an email yesterday (Wednesday) from her current school to say the deputy head from the appeal school had called them twice that morning to ask for her assessment results from November last year. Is this a good sign? Why would they need this information after appeal unless we have won? I cannot think of any reasons, but am also really trying not to get my hopes up! No1 has won at appeal at this school for at least the last 3 years. Any advice would be gratefully received, even if it’s just to bring me back down to earth, I just really hope it has gone our way.

[BarbarianMum]

This is neither help nor advice, just my opinion. I would say yes it's a good sign because I cant think of any reason that they'd be interested in, or entitled to know, her results if the panel hadn't upheld your appeal. But I'm not an expert.

[Caz2489]

Thanks for your reply! I feel the same way but driving myself crazy thinking I don’t want to get my hopes up only for them to be dashed!

[admission]

This could be good or bad news.
It could be bad news and the start of a very large argument in that any admission is not based on the assessment results and for the deputy head to be pushing hard to get them, suggests that the school is somehow trying to decide if your daughter is a pupil they would like in the school. That situation would be destroying the whole purpose of an independent appeal panel based on prejudice to the pupil or not.
The alternative is that the school have been tipped off that the appeal is not going their way and therefore will need to admit your daughter. In which case the deputy head is trying to establish which are the rights sets etc for your daughter to be in, recognising time is not on their side with the holidays coming up very quickly. The difficulty for me on this scenario is that the whole purpose of the process is that the school and you find out at the same time, so why do they know something that you do not know. What did the clerk say about getting an answer, were they sending out by post or emailing you or what?
Sorry I may be being unduly pessimistic but if you say that nobody has got in under appeal for 3 years then the odds may well be stacked much more in their favour than your favour.

[Caz2489]

Thankyou for your reply. The clerk advised she would send a letter out to me, and should be with me early next week. She didn’t advise how the school would be notified. I spoke to my daughter MAT worker who attended the hearing with me and he said that usually in this city that the decision would have been made on the day and that they email the school with the result? I’m not sure how true this is. The school in question is an academy, their usual appeals officer was off sick so they have used another clerk and the appeal was heard at another school in the city (I’m not sure if any of this makes any difference).
The MAT worker is trying to dig and get the decision but doesn’t seem to have had much luck as far as I’m aware.
If the school have been pushing for information and we have lost the appeal, what exactly would this mean? That the panel have not come to definite conclusion? So said take her if she’s bright? And don’t if not?
Sorry for all the questions and Thankyou for your help

[Caz2489]

Also, I’m not sure if the school in question would attempt to break any rules really. Our first appeal there back in June 2016 was refused, I appealed to the EFA as it was a farce to say the least, so another appeal had to be heard by the council later that year. So I would hope this time they would play by the rules, but maybe that is also just wishful thinking.

[MarchingFrogs]

The clerk should have added that the letters to both you and the school will be sent out at the same time, but I think sometimes they tend more to speak to the parent (who they assume won't be familiar with the system) than the school (who they assume or know is) and want to make sure it's the 'when you will find out' that is the most important to them.

[MarchingFrogs]

If the school have been pushing for information and we have lost the appeal, what exactly would this mean? That the panel have not come to definite conclusion? So said take her if she’s bright? And don’t if not?

No, it mustn't work like that - the Independent Appeals Panel has to make its decision based on what has been presented by each side in the hearing of each side. The school and the parent are legally bound by that decision.

[Caz2489]

Thankyou for your reply. I’m just really struggling with the idea that the school have asked for information on her academic achievements if my appeal hasn’t been successful. Surely they would have no need for this information until they have heard the outcome. I just cannot wrap my head round it at all

[admission]

As a totally separate but related issue, there has been a lot in the press about the new data protection guidance GDPR. What seems to potentially to have happened here is that personal data of your daughter (her academic achievements) has been given to a third party who have no right to have them until your daughter becomes a pupil at the school and is on their register. The current school should be handing over that information without very clear permission from you.

[Caz2489]

The present school did ask for permission via email which is how I came to hear about the request for the information.

I’m still waiting to hear if the appeal has been upheld or not, It is frustrating thinking the school are aware of the outcome without me knowing. I will be perplexed to say the least if the appeal is not upheld and wonder what I could do in this situation, they have no need or right to ask for the info if my daughter was not to be admitted.

[MarchingFrogs]

Do you know when the school for which you appealed closes for the summer holidays? It is possible that they are pre-empting the decision and are trying to have plans in place on the assumption that you will have been successful. Rather than only find out when the staff who deal with A level results come back in in August, when neither school will have time to deal with assigning your DD to classes etc, or at the beginning of September.

Oh, and if the local arrangements are that the school is informed by email, then this should be the way in which appellants get the decision as well. However, this would seem unlikely, - whereas the school must have an email address, even in this day and age it's not a foregone conclusion that a parent will have one.

[Caz2489]

The school I have appealed for last day is this Thursday coming. The clerk at the meeting said I should receive letter early this week.

[Caz2489]

Just an update, letter received finally today. The appeal was upheld!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so happy, a 10 tonne weight has been lifted. Something we have been fighting for for over 2 years

Thankyou for all your comments

[MarchingFrogs]

Congratulations

I guess that in the circumstances, you might be tempted to overlook an apparent bending of the rules...

[Rudi44]

Really glad for your daughter, hope this marks a new happy time for her