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Original poster

2nd Appeal granted Secondary Year 7

29 replies

Hayl3e · 25/10/2019 13:17

Hi everyone,

I have been granted a 2nd appeal in this academic year due to a house move. The appeal is for the same school I lost my 1st appeal to.

This is for year 7 and I have just moved closer by about 2 miles, making us now in catchment priority 1 for the school. The school is oversubscribed overall and currently is at full capacity for year 7, so if I was to be awarded a place on appeal, my daughter would be added as an extra making the appeal harder to win.

This has me thinking that I need to base my appeal on more than just a house move but I'm struggling to know what points to raise.

The school is a SEN school meaning they take more than average SEN registered children so I have that to contend with too. My daughter doesn't have any extra needs or medical reasons I can present.

My daughter is currently 1st on the waiting list for the school and has been for a few months. I have recently been told that the LA have requested that the school admit another child. I understand that this child will have priority over my daughter, and I'm not entitled to know otherwise due to GDPR. It's still frustrating all the same and I feel I'm 'clutching at straws' to get her in. I don't want to make a bad impression and be negative in the appeal.

My daughter is currently home educated and has been since September. The LA take the view that this is acceptable so basically places my daughter at the bottom of the list of priorities. I get less than no help from the LA -although they claim to offer help and advice, I find I get brushed off as she is receiving an education.

Can anyone offer any help and advice as to what I can present in my appeal? I understand I need to convince the panel that my daughter will be more disadvantaged by not being in the school, and that outweighs the problems the school will face, but how do I do that? I'm stuck for what to say other than I've moved and she lives closer.

Thanks

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 25/10/2019 13:46

The school is oversubscribed overall and currently is at full capacity for year 7, so if I was to be awarded a place on appeal, my daughter would be added as an extra making the appeal harder to win

That is the case for all appeals. If the school wasn't full in Y7 they would have to admit your daughter so there would be no need for an appeal. Your appeal is no harder to win than any other appeal.

For appeal purposes, the fact you now live closer will carry little weight. You need to show that the disadvantage to your daughter from not attending this school outweighs any disadvantage to the school from having to deal with an additional pupil. As MarigoldGlove says, you need to look for things this school offers that are particularly relevant to your daughter and that she will miss out on if she isn't admitted.

TeenPlusTwenties · 25/10/2019 13:35

She excels in languages and they allow for 3 MFL at GCSE

TeenPlusTwenties · 25/10/2019 13:32

Moving closer is not a good enough reason.
Nor is the fact you presumably turned down an offered school and instead you chose to home educate. In fact from what I have read here you doing that could annoy the panel as it smacks of trying to blackmail them 'my poor child hasn't got a school place'.

Anyway, you need to find reasons why this school is particularly good for your child.
e.g.

  • She excels in languages and they allow for GCSE
  • She has an interest in animals and they run an animal care course as a twilight activity
  • She has diagnosed anxiety from the doctor, and the doctor has a supporting letter saying she needs to attend a school < 2 miles from home, and this is the only school that fits the criteria
  • She plays chess at county level and this school has a chess club

If the 'only' reason you want the school is because it gets better results then that isn't normally, from what I read here, good enough to win an appeal.

MarigoldGlove · 25/10/2019 13:29

What did you base it in last time?

Is there anything that the school offers that other schools don't that your dd has an aptitude for?
Latin
Athletics squad
Mandarin etc.

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