Appeal stage 1 hearing

Hey, I am in exactly the same boat, we are appealing to 3 schools! So I have 3 x stage 1's coming up!

To be honest, from what i know, I wouldn't fixate too much on the stage 1 - as all the parents appealing will be asking question collectively?
For our appeals; school 1 = 101 appeals being heard, school 2 = 46, school 3 = 31.

So lots of questions will be asked.

Our consultant raised a good point about finding gout average absence rate - its usually around 5%. So if Y7 has capacity for 180 kids, 9 will be off each day.

I guess my point is rather than focus on arguing school's case, I would focus on how your appeal meets criteria of the appeals code AND why the allocated school materially disadvantages your child.

Any points about PAN aren't unique to your child.

DFE guidelines are roughly 2 square metres per child, though varies with age of children and if it is a speciality room.

Once the school has knowledge of the children's abilities, it is likely that higher ability children will be taught in larger groups and lower ability in smaller ones, so they will more than likely have classes over 30 even at PAN.

If the school has a large number of students with EHCP or SEND, there may be a need for extra adults in those classrooms to support their needs, particularly if they are supporting wheelchair users or those with hearing or visual impairment. It is more complex than a simple 30 per class arrangement.

When should schools submit their case? I haven’t had that for my appeal yet. I have a date my evidence has to be in by - will the school have the same date for them to submit too?

The extra 35 children is tricky, and not necessarily ideal for you. The school is presumably arguing they are pushed right to capacity now, whereas before if the PAN was 145, they were aiming for 5 classes of 29, but could cope with 30 per class, so could manage up to 5 from appeal. You could try to argue they voluntarily took more pupils, but I think their response would be 'yes now we are completely at capacity'.

From what you have posted, the school are making the point they can't go above 30 in a class. They don't seem to be making wider overcrowding points, although maybe they have too. The extra class would add to general overcrowding, but it's the extra 5 taking it to 30 per class that might be the bigger issue.

As a PP said, you might want to ask beforehand to get information. Do they always cap their classes at 30 everywhere in the school? If they sometimes have more than 30, did it cause any incidents? If their smallest room is 39m2 and they manage 30 in there, but other rooms are bigger is 31 really so unreasonable?

Im not an expert..

• ask for sizes of all classrooms (now, not at appeal)
• what is the overall capacity of the school

Yes, appeal date through, end of May. Another round of waitlist allocations before then. I have submitted appeal and all the evidence, gone over it countless times. It’s the waiting I can’t stand. I like to feel I am doing something, but there is nothing I can do x

That sounds strong. At stage 1 I think you would need to ask questions around capacity e.g. what are the numbers in other year groups? Do they ever teach classes of over 30 e.g. if they do sets, sometimes top sets will be slightly bigger to allow smaller bottom sets. Whilst some of their rooms are small, are others slightly larger so could accommodate an extra pupil? Basically if you can establish they sometimes manage a class of 31/32 for whatever reason, it weakens the case a bit.

What's the basis for your appeal? You'll need to be able to argue that the detriment to your child is greater than the detriment to the school/the other children of admitting an extra child.

I can’t be of any help specifically but in the same situation with appeal so hanging around to see any advice. Good luck, it’s shit isn’t it?!?! Xx