Secondary School Appeal - In Year Transfer - Please Help!

The school case sounds fairly standard. Except in v v limited circumstances, schools can't let in another pupil when they are over PAN for the year but appeal panels can!
What you need to demonstrate is that the disadvantage to your daughter of not attending that particular school outweighs the disadvantage to existing pupils at the school of admitting another child.
You've got a fairly decent case. It's worth sending over any written evidence you have (letters from previous school, record of any GP appointments, evidence of sporting participation etc) across to the clerk ahead of the hearing. From what you've said, your key points are:

• your preferred school is the only one locally that offers the subjects she wants to study
• your preferred school offers high quality sports facilities and teaching, which is important to her as an accomplished sportsperson
• she is going through significant emotional upheaval - her parents have separated and she has been removed from a school where she was thriving and away from her friends. She already has friends at her preferred school and you are really concerned about the academic and emotional impact that having to start at a new school where she didn't know anyone would have on her at a critical point in her education.

Take some notes into your appeal - just bullet points of key info and some tissues. Please don't be embarrassed if you cry - panels are generally composed of very compassionate people.

Good luck!

It sounds very stressful. It is good that your son has a got a place at a local primary and I hope he settles in quickly. What is the school that is 6 miles away like? You might have to consider your daughter going there, at least whilst you keep your fingers crossed on the other school. However, you can't be sure a place will come up at the school you would prefer, so you might need to be realistic about it being a longer term prospect. If it is a decent school, you may need to make the best of it. Good luck.

My eldest transferred start of year ten. It took until start of year eleven to transfer to the top sets due to them being at capacity until that point. I suppose it depends if you prioritise her sports in school over eleventh educational streaming.

That's just the way it is. Those are the facts. That's why they can't just let everyone in. That's another child for the French teacher to plan and assess. Another book to mark, another parents evening.

My appeal was a primary appeal and there was a lot of information about fire exits and space and ratios and when I won there were 31 dc in the class instead of 30. My dd didn't have a peg for her coat and she had to share a tray. That's the reality really.

"Her year group is at PAN but the school is not overall. Is this any benefit?"

Only if the school's case talks about space in communal areas being an issue.

Just trio day both my DS were in year applicants to different schools (one year 7, one year 8) and weren't put in their true sets until the next academic year, when everyone was shuffled around. They were just put in the sets that the person who left had been in

"The report I have received through from the school seems very damning about them simply not being able to take her. They have cited no availability in middle or higher maths groups or no availability for her to be in the French stream in the school."

If those groups are full, adding another child will be to the detriment of others. The panel will weigh up your case against theirs.

You can't expect them to move a child out of those classes to accommodate yours - if your appeal is granted they will be pushed over numbers. That is why you need to present a strong case.

@Elfin80 you shouldn't mention the waiting list position at the appeal as the panel are not allowed to take it into account.

Via the Clerk you can ask the Chair's permission to submit additional evidence before the appeal. It is very common for people to do that and the Chair usually says yes in my experience (I am a presenting officer for an admissions authority).

You say the curriculum is a good match. If this is the only school that offers the languages she has been doing, or the only one that offers a subject for GCSE that she would have been planning to take, those are strong arguments. Also, if this school has the best opportunities for her chosen sport(s) (within lessons or in clubs), that's also something to mention. You need to be clear as to why this is relevant to her particularly - not just "there's a netball club", but "one of her main interests is netball, and in her previous school she was on the team, training or playing fixtures twice a week; this school has a netball team which would enable her to pursue this further".

If she is number 1 on the waiting list, then she stands a good chance of getting in by September (unless they have very little movement in and out of the school). I don't know whether admissions panels are allowed to take into account "she will very likely be moving to this school in due course, and granting her a place now will give her an opportunity to do so without having to go somewhere else first" - which is undoubtedly of value to her - and actually arguably for the school, as any differences in what she's covered can be ironed out before year 10 starts.

This things are exactly what you should be saying for an appeal. Especially in year nine. My sister won a year nine appeal for an oversubscribed school because my nephew wanted to do a certain subject (textiles) at gcse and this was the nearest school that offered it. She was able to show in the appeal that he participated in sewing and designing out of school. She had a letter from his sewing teacher.

So things like the sport she does will help but there needs to be some history there and proof.

There is plenty of opportunity in an appeal to say what you want to say.