Reasons for wanting child to go to different school - advice pls!

[litdog]

We are asking our council to send our child to an independent SS for long and various reasons after months of research.

The council wants the placement to be in local school which we don't like as, to be honest, it feels like a Romanian orphanage where problem children are dumped. We have looked round it four times in a desperate bid to like it but each time we come away feeling desperate.

The school we have found, which has offered us a place, could not be more different - the children and staff are engaged and happy, and there is a buzz about the place.

How do I say this in a formal letter to the council asking for the indy school? I don't want to be rude, but our main reason is entirely objective.

Also the school they want only goes up to 11, which means we'd have to go through the whole process all over again in a couple of years. This would be disruptive and upsetting for our child.

Also they seem very unambitious for the children there, whereas the school we like is really focussed on where they go next, full of suggestions about the best thing to do for each individual child.

If anyone can help with suggestions then I would be really grateful. I am writing it myself today and feel sure there are good key phrases I could put in that I don't know about.

Thanks

[nennypops]

You really have to focus on demonstrating that the school they are nominating can't meet your child's needs. Ideally that means picking things out of the reports that that school can't do and the indy school can, or that the LA school can only do with extra expense which might make its costs comparable to the indy costs. The point about the changeover at 11 is a valid one, particularly if your child's sn are such that s/he has difficulty in coping with change. Not so sure about the point re being unambitious, they will swear blind that the local school is just as ambitious.

[litdog]

That is really helpful, thank you so much. I'm writing it now in a bit of a panic. Thanks!