Anyone used a solicitor for a school appeal?

Thanks , I am new to this forum and did not know I should start a new thread , have sent you a PM … but will start a new thread tomorrow ☺️

@caperucita I'm happy to help but, as @Lougle says, you should really start your own thread rather than resurrect one that started in 2017.

You need to start a new thread. Give an outline of the circumstances and people will help.

@prh47bridge can you help me please? I have to do my son's appeal and don't know what to do.

This is an old thread. Did you get the school you wanted? If you didn't and need help to appeal, it would be best to start a new thread.

During the time of Year 7 school admission, when I applied online, the website kept logging me out every single time of the application, and it was really frustrating. After so many attempts, I called the admissions team to report this situation, and we managed to resolve it on the last attempt. I had to rush to fill out the application, which gave me very little time to research the schools I wanted for my son. I only put in his first choice.

@Worriedmummy26 you need to start your own thread for this. Scroll to the top of the page and choose "Start a new thread" from the drop-down menu.

As per the advice given to the previous 'piggybacking' poster, you really need to start your own thread, entitled something like'Appealing for School X, please advise' and use the '@' at thr beginning of theor username to tag those such as prh47bridge or PanelChair, who will be able to give you the best advice.

Hiya prh47 would you mind if I pm u my current situation and if you can offer some advise please

Aha! Have just spotted that you have indeed reposted. Best Wishes,

You have tagged your post onto quite an old thread, so it might be better to repost it under a new thread title and @ in some of the advisors.

prh47bridge

admission

PanelChair

lougle

which will give them a fighting chance to find your post!

good luck.

Please can someone help with secondary school appeal. We are appealing on the basis of admin error / miscommunication.

-10 October: Contacted the admissions team and asked them if its acceptable to supply only the rental agreement before the deadline as we would not have last 3 months Gas / electricity bills as mandated on the website, response was - That's fine, we will work with you to gather all the remaining documents.

• Moved on 28th October and submitted rental agreement - 6 months contract
• 17th Nov: Admission team asked for 3 documents - standard document evidence list from website ( Rental agreement up to March 2022, Disposal of old property / no access and at least other two other documents out of DL GP Registration Usage bills etc.
• 19th Nov: we responded with what we had - DL, GP Registration, and reason why we can not rent our property - Had survey done and it required extensive building work and was worked upon by builder initiated in early Feb but delayed due to covid and the time the builders take to respond, plus the fact one of us were furloughed , we mentioned of our intent to extend the contract in shorter interval if possible.
• 14th Dec: Admissions Authority - Individual - She was not satisfied with the address evidence we submitted and asked for usage bills to satisfy address evidence.
• 15th Dec: we provided usage bills as requested in the same reply to her email
• 12th Feb: Admission Team generic email id not the Admission Team official who previously asked us the documents in December, responded to 19th November email mentioning acceptance of DL,GP but require Rental document up to Mar 2022.
• 17th Feb: our response was a big surprise to get it very last minute
• 17th Feb: Now Admission Authority - The official and not generic email id, responded with an apology that she then accept the evidence we sent through so far, and the admission team was not CCd.
• 17th Feb to 26thFeb: we didn't think we needed to provide anything more
• 26th Feb: Admissions team generic id - asked for a contract extension again at 15.30PM
• 26th Feb: we responded to check if there is a miscommunication and if this was going to affect our offer on Monday. Admission team official's email was on auto response on out-of-office and no response from Generic EMAIL ID in any form till March 9 on that.
• 1st March: Looking at the offer we assumed that you are waiting for contract extension document.
• We sent several email explaining all the previous communication and review and offer the place.
• 9th March kind of Authorative email, having gone through all communication and correspondence, we ask you to provide Disposal of old property document in addition to Extended contract agreement referring to November email which lists all the documents but not considering to mentioning above review in December or their address evidence acceptance email on 17th Feb. and for admissions purpose they will consider us from old address only till we submit further evidence, but they will be happy to review the situation if we provide further evidence in future.
• taking additional burden having to pay rent and mortgage, we took the risk to extend the contract till April 2022 in one stretch, and since we were in touch with letting agent after last month's email from admission team, we could now get the extended contract in couple of days and submitted but work on Previous property was ongoing, which the authority knew, hence we could not submit this before 15 April deadline.
• Building work was completed on 12th April and contract document signed with Agent for letting out property and a copy of this submitted to Admissions authority to show our intent and update on progress.
• We rent out the property on 28th April and submitted the Lease Agreement on May 4th and requested Authority to review the situation and offer the place.
• Now a standard response we are receiving from Authority saying DS is on Waiting list and that we have lodged an appeal will process that request accordingly.

SO, I am not sure if I fight my case based on the fact that they Confirmed our address evidence document as Acceptable so should have considered for first round allocation, and should been consistent with the review, as we missed out second round and third round as well.

DS is allocated a school place which is near our old property and 7 miles from current property. Whereas our first choice school is 100 feet away in catchment.

Any help and guidance is much appreciated.

Prh47:
"My wife keeps telling me I should offer my services for a fee! "

I agree. With your wife! I've been on Mn for donkeys years, and I think your advice is priceless!

Thank you.

@SQ196 at the top of this page you will see Talk > Secondary Education - click on Secondary Education and you will get the list of current discussion topics. The link to start a new thread will be on that page.

It’s my 1st post not sure what to do.

ps also list in the thread the admissions criteria. e.g. Is there social & medical need explicitly listed?

@SQ196 Start a new thread with Secondary Appeal Please Help in the title. Then prh47bridge and others can give you tailored advice.

For an appeal you need to list why your preferred school is better for her than offered school. (Why she would be disadvantaged by not attending.) That is unclear to me from your post.

Admissions Yr 7

I’m devastated my daughter hasn’t been offered a place at her preferred school, has sibling link Yr 10, attends feeder school, walking distance, SENCO visited her twice in yr 5 happy they can meet her needs but school outside catchment. I’m preparing for an appeal and have evidence of her SEN since 2015. Paediatric Consultants, Speech Language Therapists, IEP and SENCO. Detailed assessments with reports. ASD, Difficulty with Social Interaction officially diagnosed. School are applying for EHCP with my consent, recommenced by medics too. All her class have been offered places at school. I provided evidence with application but school said they’re unable to assess at selection. I’m worried and first time experiencing anxiety attacks when discussing current position, I won’t be able to argue my case although her school have offered to attend appeal with me. What else can you suggest? PLS.

@Toystorey1 - Just noticed this. As AlissKezamMoivit says, you are more likely to get relevant responses if you start your own thread. You may find that some people don't notice it is an old thread and respond to the OP rather than you.

I hope your son has an offer from the school you wanted. However, if he hasn't, the fact that it is a sporting school and he loves sport will help your appeal. The fact he is a carer of his siblings and this will give him respite may make this stronger.

I would also talk about the pastoral support, particularly if that is better than the support available from the allocated school.

I doubt that the school being on the way to his siblings school will carry any weight with the panel. You can mention it but I doubt the panel will take it into account.

By the way, I'm going to report your post as you seem to have included your son's name.

Hi @Toystorey1 you are more likely to get a response if you start a new thread rather than resurrect an old one - most people will just read the Opening Post and respond to that without realising you are asking a new question. Unless you have already found out that you have the school you want, repost this in a new thread and tag prh47bridge (who is the genius in these matters) by putting an @ in front of the username to send a notification. Hope you get some help (I am not a specialist, just interested in what is going on on allocations day)

Hi i know this feed is 2 years old but i am lookijg for some advise if possible. We have 4 boys 2 are disabled. My eldest son is going to secondsry school we find out tonight if we are going to get the school we want for him. I was wondering if we go to appeal can we use that our son is a carer of his siblings (two younger ones disabled) and that by attending the school we wanted would be rest bite for him has its a sporting school and he loves his sports. It also has a great pastural team who we spoke to when we went to look around and [name redacted] was very happy to sit and chat with them about his brothers disabilities. It is also on the way to his siblings school which is close by so would help with home and schook balance. Do you think this would come under special circumstances?

I was on a panel representing my school and a parent came with a solicitor. He made a massive idiot of himself and really it did the parent no favours whatsoever.