Anyone used a solicitor for a school appeal?

For a secondary school, unless you can show that a mistake has been made (which is highly unlikely for in-year admissions), you need to show that the disadvantage to your son from not being admitted outweighs any disadvantage to the school from having to cope with an additional pupil.

I am very surprised at the comment from admissions. If the school is below its admission number and genuinely has two places available your son should have been admitted. However, if the school is genuinely full in your son's year there is no guarantee that an appeal panel will agree that they can take two additional pupils.

Presumably your son has been given a place at another school. You therefore need to look for things that the appeal school offers which are missing from the offered school and are particularly relevant to your son.

You have, presumably, already submitted your argument for the appeal. You should receive the case to refuse admission shortly if you haven't done so already. If you have any documentary evidence you want to use you need to submit it immediately if you haven't already done so.

You need to look at the admission authority's case for weaknesses you can highlight during the hearing. The admission authority will present their case first, following which you will have a chance to question them. This is your chance to highlight the weaknesses in their case. After that you will be asked to present your case, so you need to think what you are going to say. Don't read your written case - the appeal panel will have read it already. You could simply say you don't have anything to add to your written case or you could use the opportunity to highlight the important points. The admission authority and the appeal panel will then ask you some questions. Both sides will then be asked to sum up, so you may want to prepare a short summary of your case.

If you need guidance on your case, you will need to tell us:

• do you own the property you used for admission purposes?
• if not, do you rent it?
• do you actually live there?
• did the admission authority contact you and give you a chance to explain the situation before deciding to use the address of the property you own?
• what is happening with the property you own that is 22 miles away? Do you rent it out on a long term lease to someone else?

We have been struggling with the accusation of the address of convenience for local secondary school
They simply refused us because we own another property in 22 miles away and they are saying is viable to travel everyday

We have now appeal next week and I am a bit confused about what to do

Anyone got any advice, please

Unfortunately you are looking at a thread about secondary appeals. You are talking about a primary school appeal. As they have admitted 30 the appeal will almost certainly be an infant class size case. That means you can only win if a mistake has been made or the decision to refuse admission to the village school was so unreasonable as to be irrational. The school may want the extra children but admitting them would leave them with a class of over 30 in Reception which is illegal.

If their admission number is 30 this is definitely an infant class size case, in which case I'm afraid it is unlikely you will win. However, if the admission number is lower than 30 it may be that they can accommodate the additional children by mixing years. If the school says that in the hearing it should be possible to win.

Hi am new here, been reading this thread with interest and hope..

Prh47bridge said previously (9/3/17 14.42)
'Appeals are not just for mistakes. The OP can appeal on the basis that the disadvantage to her son from not getting a place at this school outweighs the problems the school will face from having to cope with an additional pupil'

I think this is the relevant issue for our appeal.. 4/5 children have not been accepted into our local village primary school within a very tight knit community where everything revolves around the village but the L.A has only offered 30 places there. The school are fully supportive of us, encouraging us to follow the appeal process as they want to take the extra children?
The school we have been offered is 3 miles away in a town and is taking a double intake class size of 60 for the first time this year.
Would be so grateful for any professional advice or help to support our situation. Thankyou.

Admission appeals for reception year are very much dictated by whether any admission appeal will be an infant class size appeal. For infants there is a law that says that there cannot be more than 30 infant pupils with one school teacher other than in certain situations, which you certainly do not meet from your post.
If the school has an admission number of 15,30, 45, 60 then it will be an infant class size appeal. You can only win such an appeal if there is an issue with the admission process and an error has been made which if corrected would mean you would have been offered a place.
Given that your four preferences were all out-of-catchment schools it seems unlikely that a mistake has been made.
If the appeal is not an infant class size appeal, then based on what you have said that the appeal will be about using a local childminder then I would say that you have a very low level of chance of success as panels are told clearly that this has to be given little weight in the arguments for a place at the school.
You should get your name down on the waiting list for the schools you want but I think you need to be looking at other more local schools that may have places available.
Sorry that is not good news for you.

Admission
My son has been turned down for all 4 schools due to out of catchment area and this reason was used to reject his places. We don’t have any good schools near us and I want to appeal for his 1st choice. I won’t be able to pick him from school as I will be at work and his childminder lives near his 1st choice of school where he attended 2 years nursery too and he is well settled in that school.
Do you think I have grounds to appeal?

Hi, How can we get to the waiting list of all of them? Is it like just call any school we think is good and ask them to put our child's name in the waiting list?

@Thomas9975 I suggest you start your own thread regarding this with a suitable title, you won’t get replies here as it is a zombie thread. (But for what it’s worth unless you are armed forces I don’t belive there is any funding, that’s why there are state schools)

Hi, my daughter got admission into independent high school [year 7] but cannot afford the high fees and the school does not offer bursary. Can she get financial help elsewhere? If yes, I would appreciate your kind information .

Thank you .

@Anjelika2503 If you haven’t already, I would suggest starting a new thread in Secondary Education board. There are lots of knowledgable posters who will be able to help explain it. As you can see from this thread, the general advice is that you shouldn’t need a lawyer.

Hello
I’m new on Mumsnet so maybe you talk about my problem many times already then could you please send me link on previous pages or just help me because I need your advise . My daughter was unsuccessful with all 3 secondary schools☹️. We know that it was happen because of our location. We are in Southampton at the moment but applied for Bournemouth Schools because we are moving to Bournemouth in midsummer. So I would like to appeal on schools decision but don’t really know how to organise it all in right way. What kind of support papers we need to have? How and what to write in appeal ? Do I need to get lawyer ? Maybe someone appealed already and was successful please help me . Thank you very much

All the info on this thread is really helpful. My granddaughter has just been passed by for all 3 of her choice schools and been allocated a place at an "inadequate school". We are devastated. So my son and I are about to put together an appeal. I am glad you said stay positive as right now all I can do is focus on the negative..Also is there any chance of success if she is 35 th on the waiting list.
I really wanted to ask would the fact that she is the only Y6 child in her year group who has not been given a place at the school be a good grounds for appeal? Also she is out of authority but there is a child who lives around the corner from her and she got a place last year- she lives further away from the school and also out of authority The only other thing I can focus on is her shyness and lack of confidence being away from her entire peer group- don't know if that will cut any sway and the wonderful facilities that would be available to her- she is very arty and a good dancer. Any help or advice would be great!!.I am not sure how to go about finding numbers and class space etc?

... And moving (if you were to move, which I know you're not) isn't about moving into the borough, it's simply about moving closer. LEAs aren't allowed to discriminate against people living out of borough (except to the extent that distance criteria will favour people living closer to schools and that will often - but certainly not always - favour people in the same borough).

The admissions code and appeal code are on the DfE website. It's worth spending time reading them.

- I wonder if I should just make an 'in-year admission' in the last week of term before this waiting list is disbanded and hope to get chosen due to continued interest in the school in the New Year. Can't afford to move 500 yards into borough and DDs Bff looks about 50 yards away as the crow flies and she got in back in September...hopefully the 18 in front of us at the moment will mostly be happy where they currently are or changed their minds...

To be honest. I think you may need to stop focusing on the friend closer getting in. Being close does not always give you an automatic right to the chosen school DD is baptised catholic. Her DF is a practicing catholic. The catchment catholic school is very much on our doorstep, I'm talking end of the street we live on close. DD never got a place. The bff who lives close to the school could have additional needs you dont know about. Or there could be similar circumstances. I.e I have some friends in my life who are a foster couple, so the x number of children they have will get in anyway as their LAC. It is not common knowledge that the children are LAC so people often assume that X and Y are 'obviously playing the system' .

Re the 18 places in front, I think you're going to have to build a very strong case for your DD to get in to the school. DS was on the waiting list for his current school for a year before he was offered a place, DD was no1 on the waiting list.
She remained at the top of the waiting list for two years before getting a place on appeal.

PPs are right. You need to focus on why the preferred school is the best fit for your DD.

Admission, I have sent a letter to the Independent Clerk to the Appeal Panel at the beginning of last week. Clerk responded with form for Appeal and notes to be submitted by Noon Nov 15. Sent letter requesting appeal after told by LA that I could appeal now, and submit and in year application in last week of term to secure process for the beginning of Jan 2018 to remain as a continued interest.
So have letter from music teacher supporting her for entrance to preferred school - just waiting on previous HT from Primary and SENCO providing statement of support too. Have paperwork from SENCO demonstrating difficulties with working memory/single word vocabulary. Her current timetable is one week and she really enjoys Math but has double Math on a Friday afternoon which is always fraught with disruption so means she is missing out on a substantial amount of curriculum on a regular basis. Preferred school operates a 2 week timetable so any disruption would be minimal. Have emails from current school talking of problems so early in transition and how psychologically this has affected her. All compounded by social aspects of being only child from primary school to attend (no previous child from Primary school has attended there before either).
This is due to PS being single form entry Church school - her year was a bulge year and none have followed since. The PS has just become a two form entry this year. I can be more specific about the timetabling of subjects offered by preferred school especially after school clubs etc. So far have found total numbers for on role which far exceed DFE capacity by approx 50. Have asked Appeals Clerk for details on PAN numbers , square footage/safeguarding in corridors etc and whether sixth form share facilities and if they are currently oversubscribed.
DD wants to go to school. I will continue to wait for place even if it becomes available in year 8 or 9. They also offer an ethos of 'growth mindset' rather than 'fixed mindset' which I know my dd used to demonstrate at PS but now is retreating more and more...all this in addition to applying for POA for ds with EHCP and caring for elderly parents and supporting another ds who is gifted and talented!

Jax,
Am slightly confused by your last post. Have you actually asked for a place at the school yet or not. From you last post it would seem not.

It is probable that there would be a considerable number who are on the waiting list who will now be settled in a school, so will not want a place if it came up. However expecting 18 to say no, is probably stretching it a lot to assume this will happen. It is also a fact that other families are bound to be moving into the area, who will definitely be looking to get into your preferred school and will go to appeal.

I think you need to make a decision whether you are going to apply for a place. When the application is rejected you can appeal and place before an admission appeal panel you best shot at getting into the school. Roughly 30% of appeals at secondary level nationally succeed but it is impossible to know what the % is at your local level.

Whatever you decide to do, you need also to be addressing the issues that your daughter has, because no matter the evidence you have there is still a reasonable chance that you will not succeed at appeal.

A solicitor turned up at an appeals panel where I was representing the school a couple of years ago.

As prhbridge suggested could happen, he made a massive fool of himself and really irritated the independent appeal panel as he approached the whole thing like he was at the Old Bailey.

Thank you PanelChair - one can get carried away with all the good advice posted on various threads here plus the negative vibes because most appeals fail - I wonder if I should just make an 'in-year admission' in the last week of term before this waiting list is disbanded and hope to get chosen due to continued interest in the school in the New Year. Can't afford to move 500 yards into borough and DDs Bff looks about 50 yards away as the crow flies and she got in back in September...hopefully the 18 in front of us at the moment will mostly be happy where they currently are or changed their minds...

I mean this kindly, but I think you have failed to understand what the appeal will be about.

The appeal is about presenting your case (with as much supporting evidence as you can muster) for your child to be admitted to the school. Assuming that the school's position will be that it is full and cannot admit another child without "prejudice" (i.e. detriment) to the children already there, it's your opportunity to argue that the detriment to your child in not being admitted outweighs that detriment and so she should have a place. It's about your child, not you. Your job and educational background will not be held against your child. Your knowledge of the school she's currently at won't be held against her either (it might help you explain why the current school is not meeting her needs, but you can do that as a parent and, again, the focus should be on the benefits of attending the preferred school, not the deficiencies of the current school).

If your concern is that the panel will think that, since you're a teacher, your child can cope in a school that doesn't meet her needs, I'm sure it won't: it still has to weigh up the relative prejudice, but it won't discount what you say because you work in education. Nor do I see why you need to say very much about family background; you need to home in on the key points, which are that your daughter has particular needs, the current school isn't meeting them and (crucially) the preferred school will.

Thank you PanelChair - have a couple of emails from Head of Pastoral at current placement but these are quite informal as I know them quite well...I worked with them during placement for PGCE and along side them mentoring Yr 10/11s with GCSE coursework under Aim Higher initiative. How would my intimate knowledge of current placement affect dds case? Would it go against dd because of my job and educational background? How much should I mention or should I just make a very short statement in the paperwork regarding family background etc?

I'm not sure that "spare" capacity in the sixth form will help you much but you can certainly explore whether any other year groups are under capacity or (over capacity without any obvious problems). Others might disagree, but I'd say no to the maps. You can mention that she has friends at the school but I suspect most panels won't expect you to turn up with a map (and might roll their eyes if you do - you want to keep the panel on side).