Admission appeal for yr 7 place

We won our appeal and was offered a place today at our first choice school I am just so relieved!

@SummerHouse I think I know the school, and it is a very unusual admission process and have always taken an additional class at appeal.

We appealed for our DD2 who got allocated our second choice as she didn’t get sibling priority because DD1 had already left before we applied. We weren’t successful at appeal but the school she is at is a better fit in retrospect.
Someone we do know got in on appeal and they commute from some distance by train each day.

@SummerHouse I feel your pain, dreading the appeals too, we have two to get through. My DP isn’t taking part at all as he finds it too stressful and so it’s down to muggins
Is your DC ok with it all? My DS is quite anxious about it all which doesn’t help the pressure!

@SummerHouse our process was confirmed as paper only as the LA said they trialled video/telephone conferencing but it wasn’t always stable and apparently a paper appeal with right to respond via email is more fair.
We are number 10 and number 4 on the waiting lists so desperately hoping we may get a place that way. Do you know your numbers?
I don’t know about you but this whole process is taking over my life

@SummerHouse - just checking in, how are you? We find out our waiting list places tomorrow but I’m not optimistic. Ive submitted the appeal paperwork now but the LA sent me a letter today saying it will be a paper appeal only (ie. no hearing) which I now need to argue. Just finding the whole process draining. Thinking of everyone else going through this process x

German (for a complete beginner) and friendship groups (without significant support that not going up with his friends) wouldn't get you anywhere near an appeal in any of the schools in the area I work with. Not a chance. Neither would after school activities (most currently still suspended due to covid) or 6th form provision.

A friend of mine chose her sons school based on the language option at GCSE being the same as her family (he was fluent by 4 years old) but by the time the GCSEs were chosen they'd removed this language from the curriculum: he ended up taking it independently and did appallingly badly as the language he learned (familiar, conversational) was miles away from the formal requirements of a GCSE, much the same as we can speak English but not get A* at GCSE.

@SummerHouse what area are you in please your appeal is going to be heard at a similar time to mine

@SummerHouse rightbackatcha
My hearing won’t be until May/June, the waiting is impossibly hard

And I agree with prh47bridge’s point about the lack of a sixth form. By all
means mention it in passing, but don’t go overboard, because you don’t want (in effect) to be saying that a school without a sixth form isn’t good enough for your child. That may well be your view and the view of many other parents but the panel can’t endorse it, because otherwise they’d effectively be saying that nobody need ever go there.

@LolaSmiles thanks, I didn't read it as negative, just honest. It seems like we have a few small ish, reasonable issues which I hope combined would weigh in our favour. And yes he works at greater depth across the board, with particular interests in geography and history which is why we feel he shouldn't be limited.

It just seems to me that the school we've been offered would reduce his opportunities so much with the curriculum on offer. Going through the offered school without the potential to do more really depresses me; academic aspiration is very, very low round here. And I know GCSEs etc are all a long way off but we don't really have much else to go by, those are the key markers. I will look at progress scores again though thanks. And thanks to @prh47bridge too

Does anyone have a view on us making a big point about our chosen school having a sixth form, and the offered one not? Ideally our son would stay in one place all the way through to a levels, can that be considered an important factor?

You can make the point but I wouldn't major on it. An appeal panel won't give it much weight. A lot can between now and your son entering sixth form.

GCSEs are stronger but even those are a few years away. You can improve your case if you can find more immediate things your son will miss out on.

And agree with PanelChair's response to minniemoocher.

Neighneigh
I realised I sounded more negative than intended. Sorry.
On curriculum and results you'd need to be more specific, eg If your child is identified as highly able, what's the progress score like for highly able students? If your child had SEN does part of the preferred school meet their needs as part of the curriculum? If your child has a particular aptitude that the school excels in, how will they be disadvantaged by going to a school that doesn't have that provision?

A parent wanting their DC to do History and Geography in 3 years time for their options / a parenting having an issue with a school offering lots of vocational courses would be unlikely to be enough based on my anecdotal evidence, but legal people and panel members will be able to offer better insight.

Neighneigh.
My understanding is you might on the narrower curriculum, but then that argument could apply to anyone who wanted to go to that school and didn't get it. Same for results. If wanting a school with better GCSE results was enough for an appeal then everyone would be successful.

Because sixth forms have their own admissions, at least all the state ones near me do, I can't imagine preference will be given to someone because their parent has already decided where they would like their 16 year old to do their post-16 education in 5/6 years time (depending on time of appeal). So much can change between a Year 6 student viewing a secondary and a Year 11 student choosing their post 16 pathway.

@LIZS I have started the process but even his Educational Psychologist isn’t optimistic he would get one.
There are lots of SEN and emotional/mental health reasons why the preferred school can meet his needs and the allocated school can’t, The preferred school also offers mandarin as a language which due to its pictorial nature is preferable to phonetic languages for my DS so I’ve put that in too as the allocated school doesn’t.....

Ugh we are in a similar situation. Our given school's GCSE options are very much more limited than the one we are appealing for, for example you have to choose between history and geography; many of the courses are in fact vocational btecs rather than GCSEs. Average GCSE grades are 20% lower too. We're arguing that reducing his options at GCSE will have a significant and negative affect on his future education.

Does anyone have a view on us making a big point about our chosen school having a sixth form, and the offered one not? Ideally our son would stay in one place all the way through to a levels, can that be considered an important factor?

Thanks and hand hold for everyone else in this

haha I cross posted with the knowledgeable @PanelChair 😀😀

Things like a subject offered only at the appeal school, where genuine interest can be shown, or an orchestra/choir st preferred school abd child is a keen musician, are all reasons which may win an appeal. It's a different story at primary I know.

Appeals are not about increasing PAN. They are about going above PAN in circumstances where the panel judges that the prejudice to the child in not attending the school outweighs the prejudice to the school in accommodating an additional pupil. We were talking about increasing the PAN in the specific context of this school, where it seems they fill a bulge class every year with pupils admitted on appeal, rather than (as they should if this is a long term pattern) raising the PAN and filling the spaces in the usual admissions round.

The point about procedural error is correct for appeals for primary school places where the infant class size rules apply, but the scope for allowing appeals in secondary cases is far wider.

Could you apply for one?