Appealing a secondary school place

It would be better to see schools properly funded in the first place.

"The marginal cost of one extra appellant is neither here nor there "

I disagree. They add up to thousands of pounds, and too many people on these threads are being encouraged to "have a go" on spurious grounds. Schools are on their knees as it is and being forced to defend appeals against grabby parents who are trying their luck is costing them a fortune. They have no control over these costs.

It would be good to see the appeals system move towards a "loser pays" model in future.

Appeal stats from previous years are not hugely helpful in and of themselves. There’s no way of knowing the strength of the cases in previous years. A school that hadn’t admitted an appeal for years could end up admitting several if the panel found the cases strong enough to outweigh the school’s.

It is however useful to know if they have gone above PAN in previous years (whether due to appeals or for other reasons) as that may show they have experience of coping with additional students.

Generally you have to give reasons why the school is right for your child, not why others are unsuitable.

Is your daughter already doing some of these activities, or has an interest? For example, learns the violin and school has good orchestras etc. I think you need to prove the activities will be beneficial.

If you appeal, do you stay on the waiting lists?

We were offered 6th choice so we are on 5 waiting lists. One of the schools may have a chance of appeal. But I'd take any of the others if they came up. Does anyone know?

@Mevy - there is no way you can know the strength of the school's case without it going to appeal.

The marginal cost of one extra appellant is neither here nor there - the school's case for whether it is full is the same whether there are two or twenty appellants. You have a right to appeal. Do not be put off that the exercising of your rights means that schools and admission authorities must respond

@Mevy you can appeal on this basis, but unless the school puts up a weak defence you're unlikely to be successful. In the meantime you'll be wasting your own time and (more importantly) the school's time and money. Each appeal costs the school several hundred pounds and several hours work.

So the question is not can you appeal, but should you appeal. I suggest you ask the school for its appeal stats for the last few years. If few of their appeals are successful, their defence against going over PAN is likely to be robust.

Enrichment activities change over time as teachers cone and go, so it is a weak argument.

Good schools guide appeals this article might help.

Your case will be stronger if you can evidence a genuine interest. You can submit some physical evidence for this if you have it, but some of it they will take your word for. What makes a case fairly weak is if you are just saying she is interested but hasn't pursued before.

For example this would be a stronger case: school offers water polo. She attends X swimming club twice a week and recently won a medal at X competition. She tried out water polo at a summer camp and loved it and wants to pursue it but there are no local clubs. You could provide a copy of a certificate or a photo of her receiving a medal.

This would be a much weaker case: She is really interested to try dancing and gymnastics. She has always loved doing these at home. The panel might wonder why you never took her to an out of school class, as these are fairly common activities.

Yes, like @meditrina says my sister had letters from my nieces sewing teacher and she submitted one photo of a jumpsuit my niece made and a letter from her year six teacher about her artistic leanings. My niece is in her first year at the London School of Fashion now.

With my friend she didn't have any actual evidence as her son wasn't taking french lessons or anything as it was something that was just happening organically. But she wrote about it in her statement for appeal.

Also, bear in mind that this is the first batch of offers - hardly anybody has had a chance to accept or decline them yet - so you could easily be offered a place by shortly after Easter, never mind all the way up to September (and beyond, the Year 7 waiting list has to stay in place at least until Christmas). You will have a deadline for returning your appeal form, so it is best to

a) accept the place you already have, as this ensures that, whatever happens, you don't have a child with no school place at all in September - it makes no difference to the likelihood of success at appeal, as it isn't taken into account. Your acceptance may be automatic, but your offer will tell you if you have to accept it or whether it's assumed if you do not contact them that you've accepted.

b) ensure that she is on the waiting list for the preferred school (this may be automatic, but it's worth checking with your local authority admissions).

c) contact the preferred school admissions appeals contact (it'll be on their website) and start the process if you haven't already completed an online form/requested details/said you wish to appeal.

In my experience as a panel member, appeals based on extra-curricular activities are rarely successful. Many schools are already taking on extra pupils at the request of the LA because of school place shortages and coping with higher numbers of pupils with SEN.

Successful cases tend to be more of the 'my child was badly bullied at primary, needs to go in the opposite direction' or 'my child is vulnerable and needs to stay with supportive peers from primary' rather than the lack of a chess club.

So by all means appeal on those grounds, but be realistic about the chances of success. On the other hand, at this point in the year, you have a good chance to get a place through the waiting list - there is usually a lot of movement right up until September.

It always helps to have evidence in addition to parental assertion.

So get letters from eg language tutors, music teachers, club leaders showing that your DC is already doing the activity/subject and is enthusiastic/talented

However it's a very high bar and I never saw a child admitted on this basis because of subject or enrichment preferences. By law schools must offer the National Curriculum.

My sister appealed for a place at a school which offered textiles and was given a place. The school my niece was allocated didn't offer it.

My friend appealed for a place at a school that offered french as she is french at the school her son was given a place at only did German.

That might be true for Infant Class Size appeals. However, non Infant Class Size appeals for KS1, appeals for KS2, and appeals for KS3/4 are all prejudice appeals. That means even if the admissions criteria was applied absolutely correctly, and the child was rightly denied a place during the initial admissions round, they can still be awarded a place on appeal if they can show that the prejudice to them of not being awarded a place outweighs the prejudice to the school in having to take on an extra pupil.

It's vitally important that parents understand this so that they can advocate for their children. I have seen many children admitted because the curriculum offer is different at their preferred school and the bar isn't all that high if the admissions authority doesn't offer a case that makes it high.

@OShoey No, that is not what I am referring to. I am referring to the Appeals Code, which says, "The panel must balance the prejudice to the school against the appellant’s case for the child to be admitted to the school. It must take into account the appellant’s reasons for expressing a preference for the school, including what that school can offer the child that the allocated or other schools cannot. If the panel considers that the appellant’s case outweighs the prejudice to the school, it must uphold the appeal."

Most successful secondary appeals are won on the balance of prejudice. As around 21% of secondary school appeals are successful, the bar is not as high as you think.

Appeals are not there just to rectify errors. They are also there to deal with cases where a child does not qualify under the normal admission criteria but will be disadvantaged if they are not admitted.

Appeals are there to as a course to rectifying errors against the admissions criteria.

You have every right to appeal, many, many do. And of course each case will be heard and considered. But they will only succeed against the appeals criteria.

In addition to administrative errors in applying the schools admission code lawfully (ie accordingly to the admissions criteria) there is:

• admitting another child at the school would not prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.

I'm assuming this is what @prh47bridge is referring to. However it's a very high bar and I never saw a child admitted on this basis because of subject or enrichment preferences. By law schools must offer the National Curriculum.

Good luck to the OP and her child.

I honestly do t know why people swarm on to these posts twice a year telling people things that are not true. It blows my mind.

Why would there even be an appeals process with a panel if you could only appeal admin errors? That could be investigated without a panel.

Bollocks.

Show that these activities are not available at the offered school and that she is interested in the subjects concerned. That is enough to show disadvantage. Basically, you are showing that the appeal school has things that would help her perform better in the subjects she wants to pursue.

You can use plain language. Look at the things that your preferred school offer. Then state why those things are important to your DD. It will have more weight if you can be specific, so for example 'Lily has been playing chess for 2 years and is keen to progress. School x has a chess club, holds chess workshops and enters its pupils into chess competitions.', rather than 'Lily has always wanted to try chess.'

This is wrong. It would be correct if we were dealing with a primary school appeal that would be heard under infant class size rules. It is wrong for secondary school appeals as per my first post on this thread.

Please see my posts. OShoey's post is largely wrong.

Not necessarily. They may not be able to show that they would benefit from these enrichment activities. If, for example, they relate to subjects in which the child has no interest, the child is not disadvantaged.