Secondary school appeal

Also, op, do both parents have evidence that you have no choice but to work late sometimes, e.g. is it in your employment contracts?

Could you hire a flexible local childminder/babysitter with a car?

Or use a taxi service to either home or grandparents home.

@Anneycul if you both work till 8-9pm on a regular basis, what does your DS do now? No afterschool care is available to that sort of time, even in primary. Or is his primary school near his GPs?

Is there any way you can between you flex your time a bit going forwards, so one parent is at home by 6-ish every day?

Are you sure there is no after school club bus? . Our school bus is run by the council, but the school uses a minibus to transport kids who stay late back to our village.

@Tiredalwaystired that doesn't seem at all relevant. Whatever plan would have worked for the 7-mile-away school is unlikely to be significantly more difficult with an 8-mile-sway school.

@YireosDodeAver But the OP said her closest school is already seven miles away in her original post so that would be the same for both schools.

It's true that the logistical aspects of transport and childcare aren't usually taken into account but it might be the case that you can argue that these particular transport issues mean your child will be totally unable to participate in any extracurriculat activities and will therefore be socially isolated/have to abandon a promising talent in (insert extracurricular thing your DC thrives at) etc because xxx is the only school where it's at all possible for him to stay after school and do a club and still get home. You'd have to be really convincing on why it's genuinely only possible at that particular school - how would DC get home from grandparents house if at the preferred school and why can't the same method with a relatively small bit of extra driving work with the other school? The appeal panel won't be convinced if this is clearly being used as a fig leaf when the actual reason is "but we want our dc to go to the naice school not the one the rough children go to".

If the teenagers living between the two schools can walk to the other one how far would your son need to walk to get to his grandparents/ a bus to the grandparents?

This is the downside of rural living. Can you move? It's not just school travel - just think about the next 7 years. Until he can pass his driving test, how will your son meet his friends and increase his independence without you taking him everywhere? Rural living can be anathema for teenagers.

So he can get a bus straight there, and straight home?

No, there is no such thing as rule. But I am stating it on observation and discussions with many many parents. They do not succeed on that basis. Of course it varies case by case as there are many other variables in each case. However, in a busy metropolitan area it is not challeninging to find a tutor. The success here is less than 20 percent.

If that is genuinely the case, the appeal panels need better training. That is not the kind of assumption appeal panels should make.

Does your DC, for example, learn a musical instrument and only the first school offers peripatetic lessons? Or learn a language that is only offered at the first school?

Where I live people have zero success with that because of the assumption that a child can enroll in paid extracurricular activities

nobody will have an evidence that it affects the child's ability to take that trip. No doctor, no teacher, nobody will provide that kind of statement because... they are not witness to it and they don't live with them - I tried that.

I am also appealing on a similar grounds but we have a formal diagnose on the paper of dyspraxia, add and in the same letter which states diagnose a suggestion to follow with Camhs checking for Asperger.

How late do you work? You may find that your child isn't getting in until about 4.30 anyway? The school may have clubs and a late bus a few times a week?

If there are additional needs involved then obviously it's different, but secondary school children are expected to be able to stay "home alone" for a couple of hours each evening.

FWIW, I do think the school system penalises rural families in a lot of ways, but there's not much you can do about that!

If a child is having peripatetic violin lessons at primary school and wants to continue them, then doing them at the secondary school is one option, but doing them outside of school is another option. There would have to be a very good, evidenced reason why they could only do them in school, e.g. because they were heavily subsidised and the family had a low income.

If the same child is already having violin lessons outside of school (rather than peripatetic lessons) it obviously weakens the argument.

In the music example, if the school facilitates peripatetic music lessons, especially if these are undertaken as time out from actial lesson time, rather than during lunchtimeor at the end of the s hool day, then it could reasonably be argued that that school regards learning to play a musical instrument as a bit more than a hobby.

"you can win by showing that the appeal school offers things that are particularly relevant to your son and that are not available at the allocated school."

"Does your DC, for example, learn a musical instrument and only the first school offers peripatetic lessons? Or learn a language that is only offered at the first school?"

It would have to be a strong case, that outweighed the school's case for being full. Assuming this school is experienced at defending appeals, and puts up a reasonable case that they don't have spare capacity, a case based on hobbies and interests is relatively weak - especially if they are interests that can be pursued outside of school, or are based on curriculum subjects that the school might offer now but not in the future.

Unless the child has a significant need I don't believe lack of childcare would qualify. Secondary-aged children aren't generally considered to need childcare. My DD has been getting the bus home, letting herself into an empty house and staying by herself for an hour or two since starting secondary.

I would make sure you stay on the waiting list and consider if there are any other aspects of your first choice school that could help you with an appeal. Does your DC, for example, learn a musical instrument and only the first school offers peripatetic lessons? Or learn a language that is only offered at the first school?

As others have said, transport and childcare issues don't win appeals unless there is professional evidence that the child is unable to make the journey to the allocated school due to SEN, disability or similar. A child of secondary school age is generally expected to be able to make the journey to and from school independently and to not need any after school care.

Assuming there hasn't been a mistake, you can win by showing that the appeal school offers things that are particularly relevant to your son and that are not available at the allocated school.

Just to clarify ... that's professionally evidenced anxiety, at a level that would severely impact the ability to travel to school, not the very common situation of a child or parent feeling anxious about travelling to school.

ADHD is very common too, so there would have to be professional evidence that it impacts the child's ability to travel.

Professional evidence needs to be independent and credible - not just echoing the opinion of a parent.

transport issues are generally not taken into account for appeals
@ThatBeverleyMacca

Yes they are, but for the kids with mobility issues, coordination issues, children with anxiety and ASD etc etc.

What you are describing probably is similar to pretty much every family, working parents/after school issues/transport issues. So no I can’t imagine it’s worth an appeal on those grounds