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Original poster

Harris Crystal Palace appeals experience anyone?

32 replies

StOlaf · 02/03/2011 17:16

Hi, does anyone have any experience with admissions appeals to Harris Crystal Palace?

My son didn't get any of his preferred schools and ended up allocated to a religious school (we're secular) miles away that we didn't even know existed. Harris Crystal Palace, an oversubscribed academy, was his first choice. We live within the catchment area as does his father, where he spends half the week - in fact his father is about a quarter-mile from the school.

Grrr... so frustrating.

Any tips, advice etc welcome.

Thanks!

OP posts:
Caoimhe · 03/03/2011 10:28

Not surprised by that StOlaf - the Council are quite predictable!

As far as I know you can put your ds on the waiting list for any school even if it wasn't on your original list.

The good news is that St Mary's is not über Catholic but that is because most Catholic parents avoid it.

Fingers crossed for your appeal and/or waiting list movement!!

Original poster
StOlaf · 03/03/2011 08:59

@prh47bridge - many, many thanks for your very rational approach. Will try and try again.

@Caoimhe - Yes, St Mary's in Croydon. I was told by Harris that Croydon applications get put on the waiting list at Harris CP automatically. I will follow up to ensure that that is indeed true.

Taking deep breaths...

Cheers!

OP posts:
Caoimhe · 02/03/2011 23:24

I don't know anyone who has managed a successful appeal at Harris Crystal Palace. The banding and lottery seem to make appeals very, very difficult.

Have you been offered St Mary's in Croydon? It seems to be a popular "final option" for Croydon Council. You need to get your dc on waiting lists asap.

prh47bridge · 02/03/2011 23:09

Looking at the admission criteria, the possible areas for a mistake would seem to be:

  • Placing you in Zone B when you should have been in Zone A
  • Failing to give sibling priority if it applied

There are other possible mistakes such as placing your son in the wrong band but it only helps if your son would have been admitted if the mistake hadn't been made. It would be hard to prove he had been placed in the wrong band and, given the way it works, impossible to show he would have been admitted if he had been in the right band.

As you don't mention a sibling that really just leaves placing you in the wrong zone, so check whether they put you in Zone A or Zone B. Even then, an appeal panel may take the view that putting your son in the right zone doesn't mean he would have been admitted and therefore it isn't grounds for a successful appeal.

They must tell you what band your son was in, how many were in that band and how many were admitted from the band. If they refuse point out to them that they will have to disclose this information if you appeal.

Original poster
StOlaf · 02/03/2011 22:54

All very good points - thank you for taking the time to reply.

@prh47bridge - I'm not sure how to tell if a mistake has been made. Any pointers on what I should look for?

@admission - I asked about banding test results and the person on the other end of the phone line said they don't give that information out. Hmmm... I will try again. As for where he spends the most of the week, it's been 50/50 and we both live within 2 miles of the school, which is their catchment.

Aside from appealing to the academy, I have strong objections to sending my son to a Catholic school. I guess I should bring that up to the council...

OP posts:
admission · 02/03/2011 22:16

The obvious question is what address was used for the application, yours or fathers. It should have been the one that is where he spends the majority of the school week.
However Harris use a banding system, based on a test allocating all potential pupils to a band depending on ability. They then do a ballot for the available places in each band.
My guess would be that it will not be easy to win an appeal for Harris unless they have made a mistake in the process. The first thing i would ask is what band your son was in, how many were allocated to that band and how many were admitted from the band.

prh47bridge · 02/03/2011 17:57

Admission appeals are the same everywhere. There are two ways you can win. One is to show that a mistake has been made and your son should have been admitted. The other is to show that the prejudice to your son through not being admitted to this school outweighs the prejudice to the school in taking on an additional pupil. Unless you think a mistake has been made you need to start thinking about what features there are at Harris Crystal Palace which will be of particular benefit to your son and which are not present in the allocated school. The fact that the allocated school is miles away won't necessarily make for a winning case unless there are reasons why the journey is particularly difficult for your son.