Fair Access Protocol

Under the admissions code, own admissions authority schools must inform the LA when they receive an in-year appeal and the outcome of the application, so they don't require your permission I'm afraid.

They must also tell parents about the process for appeal, you are correct. If they have not, that is very poor.

As others have said, I suspect the most productive way forward would be a chat with the LA - given it is so close to the end of the year, an appeal may not be organised before the end of this term, and a conversation with the LA may produce something quicker.

Is it only this school you and he will consider?

Check School Admissions Code.

Section 2.22 does indeed say that the school, if its own admission authority MUST - ie it is a legal requirement to - notify the LA of the application and its outcome. They must also inform you of the right to appeal - which they have failed to do - but the school is right to notify the LA.

Thanks for the clarification, user. That's not relevant to this poster's situation, is it, nor was it made clear in your post that you were referring to specific units, not to the main school. Given that you were referring to specific units, perhaps your comment about other posters living in a different world was at best inaccurate / unclear?

Glad to have cleared it up, though.

For example, one school states in their In-Year admissions policy:

"The Local Authority or individual school will write to parents, normally within 10 school days, of the form being received to notify of the decision. In the case of an Academy, Foundation, Free or Voluntary Aided school, the school will also notify the Local Authority."

Another county states:
"In accordance with Section 2.22 of the School Admissions code December 2014, a school must, on receipt of an In-Year Application (INYA), notify the local authority of both the application and its outcome. "

So it sounds to me as if forwarding the outcome of the application to the LA is absolutely normal, in fact required.

Can you clarify? these are specifically allocated places in units

You need to find out what your LA's policy is on in-year admissions. In some LAs in-year admissions are handled by the LA, so you apply to them; in others in-years are handled by the individual schools.

In the policies I have seen that should read.

In the process lhe cues I have seen students entering in Year during year 11 or those who have been home educated for more than a term are automatically referred under FAP

Some free schools have limited understanding of SEN and admissions policies. It could be that the LA directs them to admit under the FAP, but others have given very good advice about how it works. If you still struggle to get anywhere it may be worth complaining to the Education & Skills Funding Agency who can investigate whether the school is discriminating against SEN students - it's more common than you would think with free schools for a variety of reasons, such as they are new and vulnerable financially so they may not wish to take the risk on SEN students, they may worry that if they have high proportion of SEN they may get a reputation as a particular type of school which could affect pupil numbers and thus viability.

It's not right, or lawful in many cases, but it is more likely to happen in free schools than academies or maintained schools.

Who is the admissions authority, and who manages / co-ordinates admissions?

LA co-ordinate admissions at the usual point of entry for all schools, and are responsible for the FAP. So if the school thinks that your child should be considered under the FAP, they are doing a sensible thing in passing the application on to the LA.

Look at the in-year admissions process for your chosen school (should be posted on website under Policies if not under Admissions). Has it been followed?

I genuinely do think thqat a conversation with the LA is the best way forward, regardless, as you are a non-standard case and entry into y10 may be in your DS's best interests anyway. Unless he has reached at least the mid-point, and probably nearer 2/3 of the way through, his chose GCSE courses while you have been teaching him, there is pretty much no way he will be ready to take GCSEs next summer, so he will reap little benefit (and possibly much disbenefit) of being in school for Y11.

Looking at admissions policies for a couple of schools, out of age group admissions often require significant extra documentation etc and does tend to be at the discretion of the school based on the strength of the case presented. Would the school have offered a Y11 place? What documentation from professionals etc did you submit in support of the out-of-age-group request?

I would say that, as he is therefore an unusual case - out of correct year group, with specific needs, with a history of school-related difficulties due to his conditions - you could do with advice rather than / as well as relying on the 'standard' in-year application process.

Definitely worth contacting LA, SENDias and any other organisations that posters could recommend in order to navigate the process effectively for your son.

(Not an expert) - but asking him to be admitted into a different year group might be the problem, not sure schools have an obligation to do that.

Sendias is employed by the council but are supposed to be independent. Some are helpful, some not but it can't hurt.

Are you wanting him to enter Year 11? Or to re-start Year 10? Start of Y11 is a HARD point to start a school - perhaps for his own benefit you might rethink that part?

Sorry, should also have said that of course, if a student has an EHCP and the school is to be named on that, the school can argue that it does not have the facilities to support that learner (and thus shouldn't be named on the EHCP) or that by naming the school and being admitted, the student with the EHCP would have a detrimental effect on the learning of other students (IME, the barrier for a school to argue that one successfully is, rightly, high). This COULD be because the facilities used by that student are very specific, very limited, have very high capital cost and absolutely strained to the limit.

However that doesn't say 'there is a fixed quota for students with Down's syndrome, though we could admit other students with moderate learning disability / autism / sensory impairments because those quotas aren't full yet'. To refer to spcirfic numbers seems to show a fundamenta misunderstanding of admissions law.

[Tbf, I have known Heads with very poor understanding of admissions, so user being a member of school staff with an unclear understanding would be, sadly, far from unique]

Ahh you're the TA who thinks your school is overfunded. I'll treat your posts about school admissions with the same level of scepticism as your posts about school funding

user

Let's see those categories in the Code then?

Oh you haven't got them to hand right now. Funny that.....