I need appeal proceedure advice please

You can write to the school and ask them, they are obliged to give you any information that might help your appeal. I wouldn't have thought they have to tell you about other peoples appeals though because that shudo be confidential.

I asked the LA when I was on the phone to them about our hearing how many other appeals there were and she told me, and they also told me after the hearing that ours was the only successful one. I would have thought that different LAs do things differently though.

Perhaps a very naive question, but where would we find out about previous years intakes at the school for which we are appealing? I know that last year 3 were admitted on appeal, but have no idea of the basis for their appeal, nor how many people appealed unsuccessfully

SchoolsNightmare - when I got the official statement from the LEA as to why they wouldn't admit my son it was all about over crowding and space.

I found out what the actual numbers were for each year group and discovered that Y9 had 3 less than the maximum of 165 per year, so could argue against their 'assemblies and lunch times' are full up reason.

I also found out statistics re pupil/teacher ratios (schools was a relatively generous 15:1) and used government comparators for a new secondary school with the same number of pupils (the school we wanted had a greater total net area). The average class size was only 27.5 so we argued that class sizes would not be prejudiced. I also argued that, as our area had a greater number of single sex girls schools than boys, there was an issue of inequality of access for boys to single sex provision.

Then, after much snooping on the net, I found a determination by the schools' adjudicator from 5 years ago in which it was stated that the school could easily accommodate another 25 pupils in each year group within the existing accommodation. (The panel asked for lots of details at this point!)

Then I went on to our reasons for wanting this school which I won't bore you with.

Hth.

Just to add a little of what we did that seemed to work (as far as I know, I can't tell which parts of my case were dismissed and which parts the panel paid attention to)

Our letter was set out as QOD says, but I also included a list of reasons why ds would benefit from a place.

I didn't argue the schools case at all, I tried to be quite gracious about the whole thing and said I appreciated that admitting my child may cause them a problem, but I did ask the school representative how they had coped in previous years when they had had to admit an appeal child. He just said that the appeal children were doing very well and that the school had coped. He talked about things like the computer suite only having enough stations for the right number of children though.

thankyou

itookanarrowtotheknee - Feel free. Always happy to answer PMs.

I appealed successfully to grammar for DD and the format of the letter was set out with
Academic achievement
Other school achievements
Extenuating circumstances. (for her was school fire causing visible dip in attainment in yr 3 etc)

prh47bridge - can I pm you? I've namechanged as I was going to post my info on this thread but it will still out me as a mner if any of ds's teachers see it!

Schools can't admit everyone, my DCs school tends to have at least twice as many applicants than it can take, even if it took 20 extra, how would you choose which 20 got in? The appeal system is the best way to do that.
To find out about after school clubs, talk to people with kids there. Also consider exactly what is going to be in any new buildings (eg. Music pratice rooms, or music technology rooms), the library facilities and so on. I find it hard to believe that a grammar and the alternative comp have no difference in GCSEs, maybe different boards? Sitting an extra Maths qualification? Other languages?
Maybe pastoral aspects? The way the school day is organised? House systems, and exactly what the houses do (is it jst 1 a year sports day or competitions throughout the year)?

SchoolsNightmare - For most schools it is actually the LA that makes the decisions. The rules are that if a mistake has been made and it only affects one or two children they should be admitted automatically without an appeal. However, most LAs still insist on an appeal so it is then up to the appeal panel to decide whether or not the school should accept the additional children. Similarly it is the LA that opposes the appeal in most cases. If you think a mistake has been made tell us the details and you will get advice from myself and the other experts on the strength of your case. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post the information publicly.

As VivaLeBeaver says, it is useful to know if any year groups are over PAN because this indicates that they can cope with a few extra children. You can also look at things like how the pupil numbers compare with the school's capacity, whether there have been any changes to the school since the capacity was set and so on. Again, if you tell us what the case to refuse admission says you will get advice on weaknesses in that case and how you might go about attacking it.

this thread is excellent - we're also intending to appeal so will watch this thread

Viva, having been in your position 2 years ago, I feel for you.

We appealed (successfully), but it was for a comp - so I probably couldn't give you any relevant advice. But, I would say be as prepared as you possibly can be for the appeal. I did a lot of homework to argue against the LEA's reason for not admitting my son which I used with all my reason for admitting him.

If a mistake affects a large number of children and the school could not be expected to cope with all of them the parents of the affected children will have to appeal. It will then be up to the appeal panel to figure out how many children the school can accept and decide which ones to admit.

I'm afraid I doubt you will win an appeal on that basis.

Ask the school about after school clubs. They should be happy to tell you.

People win appeals for all kinds of reasons. It is very difficult to predict the outcome of any appeal. Sometimes the case to refuse admission is so weak that any appeal will succeed, sometimes it is so strong that even the strongest appeal will fail.

If there is no mistake, all you can do is show the ways in which your preferred school is the most suitable school for your child. You should look at everything. It may offer subjects the other school doesn't which would be good for your son. There may be after school clubs or similar activities which would be particularly useful to your son. Look at everything about the school that makes it different from the offered school and see if there is anything that makes it particularly suitable for your son. If you can back it up with independent evidence showing that this school is better it will help.

Thanks prh.

Apart from if the LA has made a mistake with their admission policy, I wonder how people win appeals and for what reasons??

Just to add to admission's comments, an appeal panel will not like it if they feel the parents are trying to bully or blackmail them into allowing the appeal. That won't find against you just for that reason but you are less likely to get the benefit of any doubt.

And I agree that friendship issues are very unlikely to win an appeal.

frankie3 - You can certainly ask the school what they can offer to help dyslexics but I would be surprised if you win an appeal on that basis. You need to identify things the preferred school offers which the allocated school does not. I may be wrong but I suspect you will find that there is little to choose between them in terms of what they offer dyslexics.

This is very interesting to me as my ds has dyslexia and I am also thinking of appealing. Do you think I can contact the sen department of the school to try and find out what advantages the school may have for dyslexia, would I just be able to phone them do you think? My ds has an ed psy assessment that is 4 years old. Do you think there should include is with the appeal?

Well having also sat on appeal panels for the last 5 years the issue of friends as part of a reason for appeal would carry little or no weight. The other comments previous to this have been really useful as pointers for an appeal with legs!

Well having also sat on appeal panels for the last 5 years the issue of friends as part of a reason for appeal would carry little or no weight. The other comments previous to this have been really useful as pointers for an appeal with legs!