DD with mobility issues has been offered school with no lift!

If only all schools were as accommodating as yours, keiratwiceknightly. Unfortunately some are unwilling to do anything to help pupils with disabilities. Some don't even bother telling their staff when a pupil has a disability that is not immediately visible. I could cite, for example, the school that didn't tell their staff that a pupil was deaf in one ear resulting in teachers thinking the pupil concerned was ignoring them or worse and being repeatedly disciplined.

I understand that your preferred school is the one with the lift, however to reassure you, I work in a large secondary with multiple buildings most of which don't have lifts. We have several students with mobility issues and at least one in a wheelchair. All their lessons are scheduled to take place in an accessible part of the school - the teachers move to a ground floor classroom when teaching those children. It works fine.

There is a MNer who several years ago won an appeal in almost exactly this scenario. Maybe she’ll find this thread, too.

By all guns blazing I mean they gathered loads of evidence from primary school, doctors etc about her requirements. She didn't have an EHCP either.

My friend's daughter was in a similar position. Went to appeal all guns blazing and it was literally a case of...she needs an accessible school and she got in.

Thank you, SlackPanther. One of the reasons I (and others) do this is as a corrective to the number of people who turn up on these threads and confidently give advice that is wrong and, if followed, wouldn’t assist the parent at all!

(I have a child with a mobility disability, no EHCP, and got places in two suitable schools on medical SEN need.

(Admission is also an expert)

Prh47bridge, Tiggy and PanelChair are experienced experts.

Some Other PP have posted observations that are plain wrong.

You can get started by gathering your evidence. Get two letters from relevant Health Care Professionals. They are busy people: I drafted up what to say and sent it in a Word doc. (Each letter differently worded). The letter should briefly name or describe the condition and what the effect is. Then the reason for the need to attend the school. (E.g difficulty with steps, balance, slowness, tiredness in struggling with steps, tiredness and difficulty with journey to allocated school).

The letter should say “in my opinion” or “it is my view” or “in my judgement” “xxxx school is the only school which suits xxxx’s needs”. It should not say ‘her mother believes she should attend this dchool’ Or ‘her parents have told me ...’.

Tell them how well your Dd does at primary where it is flat and no adjustment is needed and this helps her confidence and therefore her academic progress (if true).

Lay out what you have told us here about putting it in tne application and the LA saying it wasn’t taken into account.

Tne reasons why the preferred school will suit her and the other one will not - the way they dealt with your concerns included.

Good luck!

What happened in terms of the initial application is now irrelevant unless the LA have made a mistake in the admission process. From what you have said it would appear that you are just outside the distance of the last place allocated and whilst 28th may seem a long way down the waiting list at present it is not unusual in secondary schools to be considerable movement. You might just want to check that the distance that the LA have quoted as the distance to the school preferred does seem sensible.
However what you need to do is concentrate on the appeal, as this will probably be your best chance of getting a place at your preferred school. Many secondaries have appeals and in many instances the appeal panel do admit deserving cases - roughly 30% are successful on average.
So the first thing to do is contact the school where you have been allocated a place and ask them to confirm that there is no lift to allow your daughter to access some of the classrooms and what appropriate adjustments need to be made to accommodate your daughter. From what you have said, that is not going to be very helpful.
The preferred school can and will make appropriate adjustments so you need to make that a central part of your case. In this particular case it will actually be an advantage to use the negative response from the allocated school to just confirm they do not seem to be that interested in the welfare of your daughter.
You also need to talk about the friendship group that your daughter has that will be going to the preferred school, who act as an aid to your daughter going around the school. That then leads onto the question that the panel will need to ask and understand and that is just how bad are your daughter's mobility issues.As there is no EHCP plan it would appear to not be that bad but you do need to convince the panel that there are issues that would significantly affect your daughter's ability to move easily around the allocated school, especially given they do not seem very helpful. Anything that you can get from physio and especially a consultant confirming a level of mobility issues will be an advantage.
I would normally say that trying to personalise an appeal is likely to backfire badly but in this particular appeal the reality is that if you can convince the appeal panel that your daughter does have mobility issues and that the preferred school have been incredibly helpful then you have a good chance of winning at appeal.

Agree with PanelChair. This sounds like an appeal you should win if your daughter's mobility issues mean the offered school is clearly unsuitable. It sounds like the preferred school is onside and wants to help. That may also help your appeal.

You need to have the email conversation PanelChair suggests in order to get things in writing. That will help you at appeal.

Has your first choice School got a lift?

You can appeal for any school, for any reason, once per admission cycle. You have strong grounds, but you really need some medical evidence that says your chosen school is the only suitable school to seal it.

Don’t castigate OP for not using the medical/social category - not every LEA has one. Oddly, really, the admissions process doesn’t pay attention to what’s in the “other information” box, if there’s no med-doc category.

OP - assemble evidence of your daughter's mobility issues, ideally with a letter from her consultant (if she has one) saying that she needs a school with a lift, namely your preferred school. Also look for other evidence that they’re better placed/more willing to make adjustments; if you haven’t already, have an email conversation with them about how they would make the necessary adjustments. You could ask them to confirm your understanding of what they told you on your visit.

Generally, appeals are about the preferred school, not about the unsuitability of the one offered, but if things are as clear-cut as you suggest here I’d be surprised if you lost your appeal.

You don’t need “grounds to appeal”. You can appeal to any school on your list that you didn’t get.

Hopefully admissions, tiggy or prh or one of the other experts will be along soon to advise you.

You may well be at or near the top of the waiting list when it starts then :) And hopefully that will get you a place. Your notice of appeal needs to in by 29th though so do that.
MyBoysAndI is wrong about grounds for appeal. Certainly at anything above KS1. You just have to show that dd will suffer more by not having a place than the school will suffer by admitting her.
However you have to appeal for the school you want rather than against the school you've got.

A reasonable adjustment doesn’t necessarily mean having a lift in the building. It might mean only using the stairs before or after the other students have, always being accompanied, having her classes timetabled for downstairs classrooms etc. or any combination of these. Having said that it’s definitely worth appealing.

Do let the school know, as they may be able to make accommodations. My school doesn't have a lift either, but the children with wheelchairs or sticks are only scheduled rooms on the ground floor. If you let them know now, they can take account of it in timetabling.

I don't think you have any grounds for an appeal as the school has followed it's admission criteria. Unless you have a statement/EHCP then you can't apply or appeal under the SEN rule.

I really don't know why there is a bit to add comments on application forms as it gives parent's false hope that their opinion count.

You could start the EHCP request as it has to be completed in under 26 weeks so you'd then go to the top of the waiting list

I think I would have completed the adjustments section by stating " no requirement to go up and down steps".
However, you need to get on with the appeal process asap.
You should get in touch with your MP asap. They should be able to put you in touch with someone who can help you with the appeal.