Admission appeal for yr 7 place

@LIZS no he has a IEP but no EHCP as yet, He manages pretty well at his current primary school with additional support though secondary is a whole new ball game

[quote Thischarmlessgirl]@SummerHouse no real advice but a hand hold as I’m appealing my sons year 7 place too and it’s incredibly stressful. The school we are appealing for has only ever gone over pan by 3 in a year group before. My son has some SEN needs and emotional needs (he sees a psychotherapist) and his Ed Psych and Psychotherapist have written supporting letters saying that in their professional opinion he will be disadvantaged if he doesn’t attend the preferred school, I still don’t feel confident though and hate the waiting.[/quote]
Does he have an EHCP?

Unfortunately friendships and the availability of German are not grounds to increase the PAN. Procedural error in applying the published rules are pretty much the only reason they would offer a place on appeal, but you can go on the waiting list.

I know it's tough, ive been to appeal (different reasons) but there's usually movement in wait lists.

We all have a chance with appeals that’s what they for to be won. I lodged my appeal on Monday all 10 pages of it and am ready to fight right to the end for what I believe is right for my son. Good luck everyone in a similar position. I’ve being told appeal will be heard in may/June so guess it’s just a waiting game now

@SummerHouse no real advice but a hand hold as I’m appealing my sons year 7 place too and it’s incredibly stressful. The school we are appealing for has only ever gone over pan by 3 in a year group before. My son has some SEN needs and emotional needs (he sees a psychotherapist) and his Ed Psych and Psychotherapist have written supporting letters saying that in their professional opinion he will be disadvantaged if he doesn’t attend the preferred school, I still don’t feel confident though and hate the waiting.

Sounds like the school wants to keep numbers down, possibly to allow smaller teaching groups. Unfortunately for them, appeal panels aren't interested in that. They are interested in how many the school can hold. If they are losing that many appeals every year, they really should increase PAN.

SummerHouse - I think I've already suggested on another thread (it's standard advice here) that you should obtain figures from the school for the actual numbers in each year group. If the school has more than PAN in any year group, parents can always argue that the school has managed before to cater for additional pupils and so could do so for their child. That argument seems even stronger here if PAN is x and the actual figure for any year group is x + 30.

In the circumstances (and assuming this has been happening for several years) I think you could argue that the PAN is not credible and should not be given weight. You could then argue that an error has been made that has deprived your son of a place because, if the PAN had been raised to reflect the school's actual capacity, so would (presumably) the number of places allocated to your primary school and it's very likely that if there had been one more place to be awarded on distance, your son would have got it. Who knows what the panel will make of all this, but I think you're in a much stronger position than if you were arguing only about the German teaching.

Wow. So they have a published PAN which appears in application brochures etc but every year (for how many years?) they create a bulge class of 30? and sometimes, as I thought you said, they take 40 extra? So is that two bulge classes? I'm not disputing what you say but rather saying this indicates you have a very strong case on appeal. The usual School case of being unable to accommodate additional pupils surely couldn't be upheld if they have taken at least 30 extra pupils every year.

As a panel member, I just wanted to reassure that we are just regular people, I'm a mum and 40 something year old woman and you are not on trial here. Wishing you all the best with your appeal

It’s not best practice. If the school has capacity to take another 30 pupils every year, they ought to go through the formal process of raising the PAN and then allocating the places in the usual way.

Like admission, I’ve occasionally been on panels where there’s been a systematic error and we’ve allowed significant numbers of appeals. Even so, something sounds odd here if this is an annual event. The latest information from OP makes it sound as if this in effect a bulge class at the instigation of the LEA, but filled through appeals rather than (as it should be) from the waiting list according to the oversubscription criteria.

Anyway, OP, give it your best shot.

In terms of number of appeals, I have chaired cases where we have admitted over 30. Having said that the circumstances were very much more that the admission authority make a gigantic mess of the admission criteria order and so the pupils were illegally denied a place at the school. As such the only way forward was to grant the appeals where we could confirm that mistakes had been made.
Letting in 30 + on appeals does not happen very often if they are based on individual cases. In this situation it could well be that the school makes a decision to admit 30 more pupils rather than 30 winning appeals.
However none of this should stop you from appealing and doing your level best to get a place at your preferred school.

I'm staggered too by the idea of 40 successful appeals each year. Schools (including my DC's) around here have PAN of 240 (smaller ones have PAN of 150) so taking an additional 40 children on appeal in excess of PAN just couldn't / doesn't happen. OP, are you sure that's correct?

My eyes are out on stalks at the mention of 40 successful appeals a year - that’s very high. I wonder how as many as 10 siblings can miss out on places (but maybe this is one of those schools which places out of catchment siblings low in the oversubscription criteria). If the school is then regularly admitting 30 more pupils on appeal, it sounds as if the PAN has been set artificially low and the school is using appeals to fill these under the radar places. It all sounds very irregular, although I’ve heard of similar instances in the past.

I agree with prh47bridge that your appeal is stronger than many others that are likely to be made. As ever, much will depend on the relative strength (or not) of the school’s case not to admit, as the panel needs to weigh them both up.

I tend to agree, though, that your appeal would be stronger if you can show some existing interest in and need to learn German, beyond an annual holiday there. As I’ve said before, I think, you will boost your argument if you can show (for example) that your son is already taking language lessons.

I’m an admissions officer and I’ve had over 20 appeal forms so far that all simply state along the lines of “we prefer your school and hate the other one” or “we don’t want our child walking that far”. I’ve even had some that simply complete the form, state that they won’t attend the hearing, and put no reasons at all. Just name and basic details! Honestly I despair.

Your case sounds much better than what I’m currently processing.

We have been told that officially the hearing has no bearing on the decision

That's rubbish. If there is no hearing the appeal panel will make their decision purely on the paperwork, but what is said in the hearing definitely does have a bearing on the decision.