Secondary school appeals 2020

I had wondered the same thing @admission Not exactly Christian of them!

I will write back as you suggested. I work in local government in a completely different area and whilst we had a week or so of chaos working out how we could deliver our face to face services remotely, we were up and running pretty quickly because we wanted to make sure that families received a service. I cannot understand why they can't but I'm finding the modified guidance difficult to interpret...

That is far later than you need as a parent and being sceptical would say it is a deliberate attempt by the school to make the appeals as late as possible so that people decide not to bother appealing.
I would be tempt to write back to them and ask them to confirm whether it is September or not and whether that date matches the requirements of the modified admission appeal guidance, given that this is at least 11 weeks in the future and that they have already had 13 weeks since the initial allocation of places on March 1st. It will be interesting to see their response.

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice? I still haven't heard anything about my appeal so I emailed the school (it's a church school and they run a separate appeals system). The reply was that they hadn't set dates yet but it would likely be September

WTF am I supposed to do? I've got my third choice school sending me emails about virtual transition and uniform but no idea of where he'll be going. I know that there should be flexibility but this seems ridiculous.

@Snuggles23 - Given the way your appeal happened I would refer the matter to the LGO (or the ESFA if the school is an academy). Government advice is clear that appeals should be by conference call (video or phone) unless there is good reason not to do this. Combined with the other things you say that gives reason to suspect that your appeal may not have been heard fairly. There are no guarantees - the LGO or ESFA may decide that the process was fair despite your concerns. But it is worth a try and may result in you getting a second appeal with a different panel.

@Apollorealm - The fact you've moved up 4 places is promising but no-one can really say how much of a chance you've got via the waiting list. It depends on how many other people move house, get places elsewhere or decide to go private.

I'm so sorry to hear that xx

Gutted our appeal was refused

Appeals not being fair and schools using Covid as an excuse to not allow any appeals

Appeals are decided by an independent appeal panel. The school cannot refuse all appeals. The appeal panel might but that is their decision, not the school's.

Yes it was such a relief I hope you both get fab news too xx

That's brilliant news

Hi everyone u had the news today my appeal has been UPHELD an email was sent late this afternoon advising me u won il just wait for the letter to arrive in post which will be more detailed. I am extremely happy and wanted to let you all know there still is hope despite this pandemic keep positive xxx

I feel very disheartened about the process this year.
Have been asked to send all paperwork by 26th may but have received nothing at all from LA or any responses to the questions raised
All paper appeal here and I just can not see how we will be able to get across the points as well as an appeal in usual circumstances :(

There is a school he could go to if not but it wasn't even one we had considered and didn't go and look round. It's ok but not one we would have chosen but still much better than the one we have been offered as he will not be going to that school! Hoping that worse case we don't win our appeal he can go to this other school and we can try and move him to preferred school as an in year admission if places become available.

My post isnt regular at the moment either so that makes it worse. Not sure exactly what your situations are but if I've lost then I'm expected to send him to a school 30 minutes away where he will know no one and coming out of pandemic to that with his social issue will just make the problem bigger arghh! X

No chance on the waiting list either we are number 20!!

It's awful isn't it just feel that our chance to a fair appeal like lots of others has been taken away from us. Have an awful knot in my stomach just waiting for the post.

We had ours last week too we had it via video link I was asked no questions and just stated what they already had written from me. I'm waiting for the decision and it's the worst thing ever. I'm also worrying about covid 19 surely that has just as much prejudice on one kid as it does the whole school ? X

We have just had our appeal last wed/thurs but they wouldn't offer video or telephone call!! We literally received the objections from the school regarding our case on Monday we sent back our arguments for each point on the Tuesday but don't know if these were given to the appeal panel in time as had no confirmation. Feel very upset and cheated out of our appeal and feel that schools will probably try to use the covid 19 argument for bot taking any more pupils. Nervously waiting the post!

@Apollorealm, have you had some communication about how your appeal is to be heard now? The details of how the Surrey County Council intends to run appeals is on the website now (I'm not in Surrey, just curious as to how other areas are organising theirs).