Secondary school appeal help

Its also worth noting that whilst a local authority approves PAN, it's up to the individual school to decide what their PAN is. It's quite normal for schools to go slightly above PAN like this.

i do know that the 5 extra allocated were given it based on it being their first preference
Are you sure of this? If you are sure they did this then this is absolutely against the admissions Code (para 1.9c).

Well, yes and no - the OP went on to say that the 5 extra offered at one of the schools named that school as first preference because of distance. So say those 5 used all three or however many preferences and were in the top 'PAN plus 5' in ranking for two of them, this school would have been allocated, because they had named it as a higher preference than the other school, because you can't name any school higher than first preference, so to speak.

But absolutely, had the LA said, Okay, so these 5 people named school A as first preference, so they get the extra places (and ditto for the other schools), regardless of where the 5 ranked against the oversubscription criteria, then it would be a breach. I would be very disappointed in an appeal panel that didn't establish exactly how the extra places had been allocated.

@ForLilacSheep if it isn't clearly explained in the school's appeals statement how the extra 5 places over PAN were allocated, and the appeal panel (who will go first with questions) don't quiz the presenting officer on this, then ask this yourself in stage 1 of your appeal.

As you only named the one school (and assuming that all places were allocated correctly at each of the schools taking 5 over PAN), your DC's allocation will have been decided after all those for each of the other schools who had actually expressed a preference for it. So even if you might have been offered a place at one of the other 'less undesirable' schools, had you named it on your CAF, places had all been filled by the time the LA was looking for the nearest school to your home address with a place remaining to offer.

OP, there are a couple of reasons why things might be different this year vs prior years. One is if a large amount of family housing near your preferred school recently became available. The other is fewer children across your area opting for private school, given VAT and cost of living.

Is your preferred school your closest school? Do you know how much further awsy you are than the furthest distance admitted?

Ah ok thanks for clarifying about “first preference”.

Ok, so I agree with PP I don’t think you can base an appeal case on saying they shouldn’t have asked schools to go over PAN when one school was still undersubscribed.

I understand this looks odd or like an admission that the undersubscribed school is bad, but there may be other reasons behind it, like wanting to share out the extra places equally from a geographical perspective.
Or as pp said, perhaps the 5 extra places per school were agreed before applications were in, so they were going off expected numbers and nobody knew one school would end up undersubscribed in the end. I can imagine this is quite likely as it would be difficult to negotiate extra places last minute.

From a technical perspective a change in PAN or schools going over PAN isn’t a change in or breach of the admissions criteria and it doesn’t breach the admission code. As long as their admissions criteria are compliant with code/law and they followed those criteria in allocating the extra 5 places there is no error or breach you can rely on.

Also - even if it was a breach of code - you would need to prove that your child would have got a place if they hadn’t done this. And it doesn’t sound like this is the case. The only effect on you is possibly making it harder to win an appeal, but that’s not the same thing.

All that said, there is no harm in asking at your appeal why there were 5 extra taken at other schools when your offered school is not full. The answer might contain something useful, you never know.

What is your second stage “balance of prejudice” case if you don’t mind sharing?

It happens especially when there is a high birth rate. If you want a different school just pop their name on a waiting list, but if you’re happy with the school you have I’d leave it especially as they sound all in good commutable distance.

Have any of the schools got a slight selective advantage ie being able to play a musical instrument, sport, drama or religion?
Areas of high demand sometimes create more of a lottery for close schools to stop parents buying / renting places in close proximity to certain schools (parts of Berkshire implemented this for Secondaries a couple of years ago, not sure if still valid).

You would have the legal right to withdraw him from religious education at the Catholic school.

Determining a school's PAN will depend on a number of different factors and which factor or factors are most important in determining a school's PAN will determine whether the PAN can be exceeded. For example one school's PAN might be to do with the number of children it's reasonable for a teacher to teach so number of classes X 28 say, but having 30 or 31 children in a class is possible. Other schools' PANs might be to do with numbers of people allowed in certain spaces for ease of emergency evacuation, which is NOT ok to exceed. If it is felt that there is a particular reason for a school to exceed PAN, it will be individually evaluated to see whether it is reasonable in the particular circumstances. It might also be that a schools PAN is exceeded to make room for extra children who need a priority place, e.g. with an EHCP or in care, without breaking the number of geographically local kids that get admitted. You can't know why this was done without knowing details about the schools.

Are any of the schools you didn’t list in any way better than the one you have got? If so, it is possibly worth going on the waiting list for it/them.

ETA doing so doesn’t disadvantage you at appeal

But you can get free transport to school and assuming that your child won't be doing extra curricular activities every night he can get free transport home and the public bus the other days.
It's horrid that not everyone gets their choice of school but you should have put more than one school on your preference form - when you are filling it in it usually tells you to.
Hopefully you are on a waiting list too.

i do know that the 5 extra allocated were given it based on it being their first preference

Are you sure of this? If you are sure they did this then this is absolutely against the admissions Code (para 1.9c).

And if you can prove that you would have got one of the 5 places if they’d applied their published oversubscription criteria instead of giving it to “first preference”, then you have a very strong argument for your appeal.

However, I didn’t understand your explanation about how you know they must have done this? Can you explain again please?

Yeah I do know very well thank you. So was your question just to test my knowledge?

Rude. You aren’t trying to understand let’s be honest. Maybe you should calm down and not attack people because they don’t agree with you to say something you don’t like.

Good luck with your appeal 🤣

@ForLilacSheep of course, but the point is that it couldn’t be taken into account at the allocation stage because you didn’t have the info then.

Anyway.

You sound like you have quite a good case for appeal, and 5 over PAN is not insurmountable, but you are not going to get anywhere with the argument that the school/LA has behaved against the code by creating the extra spaces in the first place.

That's the same as all schools. Parents are expected to make alternative arrangements if their child is involved in sport or drama etc. What would be the alternative?

You misunderstood. Treating all preferences equally does nor mean that they assume you don't care which of the 3 you get. You will slways get the most-favourite school that you name and meet the criteria for. Equal Treatment means that if person 1 lists school A first choice, school B 2nd choice and school C 3rd choice, but person 2 lists school C first choice, school B 2nd choice and school A 3rd choice, then school A is not allowed to treat applicant 1 more favourably in the allocations than person 2 if person 2 meets the allocation criteria better, and school C is not allowed to treat applicant 2 more favourably in the allocations than person 1 if person 1 meets the allocation criteria better. However, if either applicant meets the criteria for more than schools, they will always be given their higher choice.

Some schools try to manipulate their reputation incorrectly by telling parents thar they must make sure they name that school as first choice of they won't be considered in the first round - that is illegal and schools aren't allowed to do this. They have to calculate who they could offer places to from among all the applicants who named them 1st 2nd or 3rd. The LA then work out, if a child has met the admissions criteria for more than one school, which school was most preferred on their preferences list. They get offered that school, and the other school(s) are able to make an additional offer to someone else that was previously just below the cutoff line.

I think by not listing 3 choices you have put yourselves behind the people who did make use of these slots.

Unless you can prove otherwise, the LA applied the oversubscription criteria and PAN+5 Children ranked higher than you for your preferred school.

You may well have ranked higher than others for the other schools in the +5 group but as you didn't name those schools, you were not offered them.

You were offered the nearest available space.

While you now have evidence of higher need, you did not supply that at the time of application and places have now been allocated. You now have to appeal and the school needs to prove that making an additional space for your child would be of greater detriment to them than to you. You need to argue the opposite. As the school have already taken +5 over PAN they may be able to easily argue their case. You then need to hope that your additional supporting evidence places you higher up the waiting list and wait for others to move away or turn down a place as they're going private etc.

I think that you were maybe under prepared and under informed about this process and whilst it is natural to be worried and want to fight your child's corner, you do also need to accept that your lack of understanding has played into the situation you now find yourselves in.