Didn't get preferred school

You can always appeal on any grounds you want. Whether you will succeed depends on how strong your case is and the strength of the case to refuse entry. As Panelmember said, it will help your case if your son's therapist (or another health care professional) will provide a letter saying that in his opinion your son is vulnerable and your preferred school will best meet his needs. You need the letter to say "In my opinion" or something like that. If it says "Mexicanmum tells me" it will be of little use as that means the therapist is simply repeating your views.

OK I found out why my son didt got in to the 3 first choices they all say distance but they all are closer than the one he got in can I still appeal? on the grounds of his needs ....

Agree with Admission. A lot of parents seem to think that refusing the allocated school will improve their chances at appeal. It won't. At best it will make no difference. At worst it will damage your case.

There are even some parents who think that by refusing the allocated school they can force the LA to offer them one of their preferred schools. That also doesn't work. You will only get into one of your higher preferences if a place becomes available and you are at the head of the waiting list. The waiting list is ordered using the same criteria as are used for admissions. Rejecting a place elsewhere will make no difference to your place on the waiting list.

Virgo,
your proposed course of action I would say is the wrong course of action. Firstly it has absolutely no bearing on increasing the possibility of getting a place at one of your preferences that you want. In fact if anything at an appeal it could easily be seen as you trying to blackmail the panel into giving you a place.
The second reason is that there is a realistic chance that you will not get the place you want at appeal - approximately a thrid of appeals are successful at a national level. The LA will still have to offer you a place and that place is likely to be at another school that could be even worse than your 5th preference and further away.
I would work on the principle of accepting the 5th preference school and then getting on the waiting list and appeal for the schools you really want. Accepting the 5th preference does not in any way prejudice your opportunties at appeal.

hi friends,
i have been offered a place for my son which was my fifth preference,but my 2nd and 3rd preference schools are much nearer to the fifth i have been offered , and i know the fact in the other school i am on waiting list,would it be sensible to refuse the offer and send a supporting letter stating my posiition ,please advice if this increases my possibility in getting a place in my other choices . pls advice....

great advice admission. Luckily we got our first choice but I have many friends who weren't even offered any of their 3 choices. I'll make sure they read your post

It is probably a good idea to talk about some of the basics that parents should do if they did not get the preference that they wanted.
The first bit of advice I would give, is always accept the offer that you get no matter how dire you think it is. Firtsly because it at least gives you a school for September. If you reject the offer you will get another offer and it is likely to be even further away and potentially even worse as a school. If you go to appeal and say it is a rubbish school, over my dead body etc, it is actually of no help and probably a hinderance.
The second thing is to look carefully at the letter that you get and just check that there is nothing glaringly obviously wrong in it - the LAs are handling many many thousands of applicants and with the best will in the world sometimes mistakes are made and sometimes what parents put on forms are not always clear!
Next formally ask the admission authority to go on the waiting list for all the schools that you will accept. Don't just go for the one that you really want but all those that are acceptable to you. You will be surprised how much movement there is in some schools and sometimes in schools you would not expect much movement. You can always turn down an offer of a place and you should not feel that you are being a nuisance to people, this is your legal right to appeal.
Then appeal for the schools that you wish to. When you fill the form in to start with, you do not have to go into massive detail on the reasons for the appeal, just a brief summary, the detailed submission can be done latter when you have much more information.
Do not be put off by the admission authority being negative or not being very helpful.
By all means utilise anybody that you feel will help you but lawyers and anybody else who will help for a fee, tends to nit-pick at appeals because they feel they need to be seen by the parents to be earning their fee by scoring minor points against the admission authority case. Frankly scoring minor points is not going to get you a place if you do not have a good case to start with. Also do not believe a lot of what is said in their publicity blurb. They are not party to the decisions made and they certainly have not won every case! One reason you might what to consider somebody else acting for you at an appeal is that they can be more dispassionate and ensure that they get over the best possible case. If you tend to get flustered or you suspect you will lose your composure then as an absolute mimimum make sure you write down before hand all the points you wish to raise.

Panel members are human, they do bleed and they do genuinely feel for many cases that are put in front of them but they have to abide by the regs and they have to make some very hard decisions, that actually are not going to give everybody what they want.

Hello again.

You can go on as many waiting lists as you like. It does not matter if you did not apply for these schools when you made the original application. The LEA (Islington) may limit the number of schools you name on the application form, but if they are limiting the number of waiting lists you join that is wrong.

The School Admissions Code (available here) says (page 16) that LEAS must publicise how long after the end of the autumn term in the admission year they will keep the waiting list, so you need to check what the practice is in Islington. Even if your son has a school place, he can stay on other schools' waiting lists (although, as I just said, you need to check how long that waiting list will be kept).

pixelchick10 thank you for the reasurance I will do that and find as many positives for him to go there.

thanks

panel member

Thank you very much for your advise,one more question can i keep him on the waiting list for the whole year even he got a place in another school? can He change school duing the year if a place become available? In islington you can put up to 6 schools in your waiting list can I put diferent ones that in my application? I just been getting my self feed with infomation to go well arm!!! so the more i learn about better I know it may be a bit late but finger cross!!

mexicanmum - I think you should do that - appeal and explain that you son has had a difficult time over the past two years and needs a nurturing kind school, with a good buddy system for newcomers - if you can bear to, tell them all the details about your son's background and justify why the school you want him to go to would help him rather than the other one. Best of luck to you.

MexicanMum - It might be better to start your own thread for your question but I'll try to help here.

Did I understand your situation correctly? You have moved since you applied for schools for your son and you have also (I think) changed your mind about the school you want your son to go to. These are the things I think are important.

1. Make sure that your son is on the waiting list for all the schools you are interested in, especially your preferred school.

1. Make sure your local education authority (Camden? Islington?) knows your new address. Waiting lists are held in the same order as admission priorities, so if you have moved nearer to the school, this should place you higher on the waiting list.

1. When you make your appeal, you will have to convince the appeal panel that the 'prejudice' (that is, disadvantage) to your son if he is not given a place would be more than the prejudice/disadvantage to the school in having to admit another pupil. You need to highlight all the reasons why your preferred school would be the best one for your son - don't make rude comments about the school you have been offered, as they won't be relevant.

1. You mention that your son has been seeing a therapist. If your therapist (or another health care professional) will provide a letter to say that in their opinion (not just in your opinion) your son is vulnerable and the school you prefer will be best at meeting his needs because of its mentoring system - and if other schools don't have mentoring systems - this may help your appeal.

1. I'm not sure what you're trying to say about discrimination. If you want to argue that you have been discriminated against, you will need to assemble evidence that applications from people of different ethnic origins are treated differently. You could ask the LEA to provide information about applications and offers made.

1. If you refuse the offer of the school place, your son will (obviously) have no school to go to. This will not increase your chance of winning your appeal. In fact, the appeal panel may feel that you are trying to put pressure on them. The appeal - as I said - will be decided according to the relative prejudice (disadvantage) to your son and the school.

I expect the other admissions specialists will be along soon!

I dont know what to do.... all this procedues are very alien for me. I been triying to get my life back in track for the past two years, after been in a preatty bad marriage(drug abuse involve),when I was appliying for schools,I was going true a bad time and have my hed all over and I really didn't have a clue wich school to chose so I just put one that I really like in camdem and some other ones in islington, my son goes to a catholic school at the moment and the mayority of children went to other catholic school, I coulnd apply for that type because I didnt went mass every sunday.we were very isolated during so long, because of my ex that i had to take my son theraphy for a while, because all the emotional things we went true,we became homeless fo a while because the place we lived was put for sale and I just got somewhee now in januay.. so I want to appeal the decision do you think should I explain all this to the board of appeal???The school i want my son to go have a system that alocates a student of a older yea to mentor the new comers, and that is very re assurent becuse my son is very aprehensive and ansious so I know that that was the best choice for him but insed he got a school that fo my view is where they sed more of the minority and i feel a bit of predujice abut it?? I may be wrong but i felt discrimanated!!!! so im confuse dont know what to do?

and what will happend if I do not accept the offer they give me?

Sugarbabe, we were in this situation last year - DS, along with about 17 others, didn't get in to his first choice, catchment school.

The school itself was apparently surprised by this and appealed to the county on behalf of the 18 children and were granted permission to take an extra class just for this year.

Is your son the only one not to have got a place, or were there lots of others?

Not necessarily, inspireddance. A diagnosis of ASD won't be enough on its own to automatically overturn the decision not to offer a place - the panel needs to be convinced that the preferred school is better placed to meet the child's needs than other schools. Appeal panels work on the basis of whether the 'prejudice' to the child if they're not admitted is greater than the prejudice to the school in having to take another pupil. Having siblings at the school hasn't been enough to get a place there so far, because (I think) this is one of the LEAs where out of catchment siblings come a long way down the priority list. Again, it can be argued at appeal that there are strong reasons why the youngest child (more than any other child in a similar situation) needs to be at school with their siblings but the outcome of the appeal is not a foregone conclusion.

gril66 - You stand a good chance of appeal if your DD has been diagnosed with ASD and her siblings go there. Show how the school can better meet her needs (Does she have an IEP or similar that sets out her needs?)

Sorry you didn't get your first choice Sugarbabe, but if it's any consolation Willy D's is a really good school, DD (Y7) attends and loves it and is making great progress. Her older brother has been on the waiting list for 3 years and we still can't get him a place there ( high birth rate year).

There are loads of clubs, teachers who are interested in the pupils and their subject, right balance for homework and regular progress reports. Discpline is excellent.

But we went through appeal process and it is incredibly stressful and didn't help DS at all.

It'd be the same for a non-foundation school, except you'd be addressing your remarks to the LEA and, through them, to the appeal panel.

Panelmember's comment: 'You need to highlight how and why your preferred school is more suitable for your child and better able to meet his needs' is what you need to build your appeal on.

I did this for DD (appealed directly to the school as it's a foundation school) and she eventually got in. Assuming you're writing directly to the school rather than LEA*, I would also put in writing that you wish to go on the waiting list with immediate effect.

*I don't what sort of school you've applied to, the info I've given is relevant to applications for foundation schools.

Thank you for your reply. We are out of catchment siblings. My other two both have statements for Autism etc which is one of the reasons I want her to go there as they have good SEN and have been bril with my other two.

Sorry for your disappointment, gril66.

Does the school not give priority to siblings? Or are you out of catchment and so lower down the lists than in-catchment siblings? Have you double-checked that the admissions criteria have been correctly applied?

The general advice given above still stands, but I wonder whether your daughter's needs around her Aspergers have been taken into account or might give you stronger grounds for appeal. Is it important that she should be with her siblings? If you can get a letter from a health care professional saying that in their opinion (not just in yours) it is important for your daughter to attend the same school as her siblings then even without a statement this will add weight to your appeal. Similarly, does the school have any special expertise with or facilities for children with ASD? Can you identify other ways in which it can cater for your daughter better than other schools?

Hi,we didn't get first choice either. Two of my other children already go there and my daughter has Aspergers , though not bad enough for a statement, so she has always assumed she would follow her siblings, the same as I did. Lots of tears all round today so if anyone can give me any advice on appealing or if we even stand a chance it would be greatly accepted.

PS If your primary school is a feeder school then you should certainly check what the admissions criteria say about priority from feeder schools and that the criteria have been correctly applied. Likewise, check what the criteria say about distance to school. The problem may be that, although it is your closest school, they have still managed to fill all the places not taken up by siblings etc with children who live closer than you do. Double-check everything.

Prh47bridge (as ever) has hit the nail on the head.

Saying "It wasn't my first choice" or "but he wants to go to the other school" won't cut much ice at appeal. You need to highlight how and why your preferred school is more suitable for your child and better able to meet his needs. Saying "but all his friends are going to this school" is also not likely to win the appeal for you. The panel will very probably take the view that for very many children going to secondary school means making new friends and most children cope perfectly well with this. On the other hand, if your child has particular vulnerabilities or social needs which mean he needs to be with children he knows, you can mention this at appeal.

As prh47bridge also says, the advice given on MN is (dare I say it) at least as good as you will get by paying for a guide or an adviser's services.