Tips for a school appeal

[Hotandsunny]

I'm trying to get my DD into a different school than she was offered. The appeal is coming up soon. Has anyone done one and can give me an idea of what to expect, any preparation I should do or any tips. Thanks ☺️

So from looking at the Ofsted report and the school's website, the school would meet my DD's needs:

It is welcoming, inclusive, calm, relationships between staff and pupils are positive, bullying is rare and if it happens staff deal with it.

It specialises in Art which is DD's special interest. There is a wide range of enrichment and extra curricular activities. Pupils with SEND follow a broad and ambitious curriculum. Leaders know how pupils with SEND are best supported to learn. Disruption to lessons is exceptionally rare.

It has strong pastoral care, for example learning mentors that can support with transition which is difficult for DD due to anxiety and autistic traits. The school has a counsellor which would be good for my DD who has had regular sessions with the play therapist at her Primary school which helped her enormously.

The headteacher says about the school 'we are family', 'we seek to nurture the individual talents, abilities and possibilities of the students', 'we enjoy a close positive relationship with our families', 'we are ambitious for every young person'

@prh47bridge - ok, great, so I can email the school with questions. It did say on the .gov.uk it was updated in Sep 2023 so assume those figures are reasonably accurate.

In terms of adding to my case do I need to send that in writing to the school?

Thank you so much for all the help. I've struggled to find information for so long (hence my appeal being late) I should have asked here before!!

Ok, great, thank you. I did think that and also access to lunchtime clubs there should be space if they under occupancy.

So questions for the school:

How many pupils are there and specifically how many in year 7 and how many classes?

Anything else I should ask?

@Hotandsunny it's really hard when you find a school that sounds perfect and you just know your child will thrive there. However, the panel's job at an admissions appeal is to:

1. Hear any representation that the admissions policy for the school is not in accordance with the admissions code.

1. Establish if the school is full. If the school is nominally full, establish if the school can reasonably take any additional pupils.

1. If the school is full, establish if a mistake has occurred during the admissions process that means that this child has missed out on a place that would fairly be theirs if the mistake had not occurred.

1. If no mistake was made, establish if an individual appellant's case is stronger than the school's case that they are full.

1. If the panel has decided that a school can take extra pupils, decide which pupils have the strongest case for admission.

That means that your case has to be really strong and really clear. For example, the school 'specialises in art' is great to hear. As an ex-panelist, I would have wanted to hear what difference that makes. What does this school offer that she couldn't get at another school? What evidence is there that art is significant to the child?

All schools have to be assumed to be suitable for educating children - a panel can't say 'oh yes, x school is dreadful, let's give the child a place at this school'. So what is special about this school, and what evidence is there that your child needs it? For example, there may well be a learning mentor, but what evidence is there that your DD will need it? Do you have evidence that she has needed extra support at primary school?

Bullying is again assumed to be dealt with similarly in all schools. If you raise the 'no bullying' point, what evidence do you have that your DD needs this particularly?

What I'm saying is that you need to make sure you're not just saying that this is a great school with a great ethos, but that this is the school your DD needs and this is why she needs it.

Yes, and also ask for a breakdown of each class by numbers to see if any are over and any are full or under. You may be able to make some points based on the numbers.

You need your old minister to write a supporting letter stating you attending weekly for x number of years until you could no longer attend due to your ds autism. For others reading this you should really have had them fill in the form at the time stating zero attendance but with the supporting letter. They then would have likely awarded you points based on historical attendance.

Anything else I should ask?
It's probably going to come down to whether (assuming Year 7 is full) the case not to go over-full is stronger than the case to admit your child.

In reality this means demonstrating that the school you're appealing for is able to offer something your child needs that couldn't reasonably be provided elsewhere.

For example, many secondary schools have pastoral mentors/learning mentors/student support workers (titles differ). The existence of the team doesn't mean an individual student would automatically be allocated one of those staff, nor does it mean that one school is better than another in terms of evidence that a particular child should be at School A over School B.
But if School A has a comprehensive art therapy/Lego therapy/enhanced intervention within their SEN base, School B doesn't and a parent had evidence that their child needed the intervention so much that it would be detrimental to the child to go to School B (and that School B were unlikely to be able to provide that intervention) then the parent's case would be stronger.

It's a bit of both. You need to know why the numbers are different. They can still argue that there are only 30 computers in the computer room so 31 students means sharing and therefore less computer time for existing students. But they can't argue that the corridors are congested or that there aren't enough seats in the canteen.

Thank you for that explanation it is very helpful.

The school specialises in Art and therefore their facilities are much better than the offered school. I have asked her play therapist to put in writing how important Art is to her. It has helped her deal with the trauma she suffered from being separated from me when I had a mental breakdown. It is also her special interest which is important to her due to autistic traits. I can't get evidence from school about this as they are not allowed to support an appeal. I could show some of her artwork?

My DD will need a learning mentor to help with the transition to the school as she struggles with that due to anxiety and autistic traits. She had to have a lot of pastoral support at school but again I can't evidence that as school isn't allowed to help us.

Re:bullying. The school she was offered has an Ofsted report saying the school has a bullying problem and the pupils are too scared to report it and are afraid when in unsupervised situations. My DD finds it hard raising issues with a teacher as it is. She had to have a sign on her desk that she could signal if there was a problem. But again I can't evidence this as school can't help.

My DD is particularly vulnerable due to trauma when I was unwell, her own mental health problems from Long Covid and her autistic traits. She needs a particularly supportive school with good pastoral care and according to the Ofsted report, my own experience speaking to the school as well as the head teachers talk and experience of touring the school, the school she was offered is not strong in this area.

As you mention your own mental health issues, can you provide any evidence of this as well? You don't need to provide private information, maybe an appointment letter for a MH clinic or if you take medication, a copy of your prescription, that sort of thing.
The extra evidence needs to be sent to the admissions department, not the school as they will be sending the information to the panel in advance of the hearing.

Oh, I didn't know that. I really struggled with the admission process.

I do have a supporting letter from the pastor.

Yes, I have evidence to support that I have a serious mental illness. I will get that sent over, thank you.

You mention your DD sitting the 11+. Is the school a grammar school, and if so, did she get a high enough mark to get in?

That's great that you have the letter. I sympathise I do think there should be a specific part of the form for disability/ill health.

No, it's not a grammar school, but they do take a handful of pupils who passed the 11+

It's so difficult. I don't have a support worker (probably won't get one again as the position isn't being filled again) or a care coordinator (waiting for re-allocation) and our case was closed with children's services, although the ex-social worker did write me a supporting letter. I was referred to adult social care when the children's services closed our case but I'm still waiting for assessment. And school aren't allowed to help!

Hello, my experience of a school appeal was that it went on for hours and hours.

Part one was listening to the school representative advising why they couldn't take more children (with other parents there, then some were seen individually on the same day, others had different dates with a morning slot or an afternoon slot, no actual times given).

For our individual slot, we had to attend on a separate date in the afternoon. Got there for 12, but weren't seen until 5. If there are lots of other people also appealing, be prepared for a long wait, make sure you have childcare and take something to occupy yourself, food and drink.

Good luck.

School may not be able to directly support you with the appeal, but they must have an SEN plan that details your DD's additional needs? You should be entitled to a copy.

Oh my goodness! My appeal is over Zoom and I have a time but it says it might not be at that actual time. I can't believe yours was 5 hours late!

Oh, right, I'll speak to them.

If they won't give you a copy, you could SAR it to get the information depending on what your time frames are. I know from some parenting groups that some people have found that a useful way of getting information regarding their child.

I had my appeal today. The school refused to give me any information and her therapist had a family emergency so also couldn't. But I made that clear to the panel.

It started with the usual problems with technology so was half an hour over before it started. Then halfway through they couldn't hear me and I had to swap from my laptop to my phone.

The school's part was very frustrating. The teacher didn't answer my questions but just kept repeating year 7 is full. She also would contradict herself. Especially when the clerk would help her out and suggest something to support her case that she would then agree with which contradicted what she had already said. Part of the school's argument was that their rooms were small and they had sent a list of all the rooms and their sizes. I tried to question what the rooms were used for as it makes a difference as to how many pupils could fit in the rooms and for example if it would be 6th form the classes are smaller etc. The panel ganged up on me to tell me that was irrelevant. Why send the list if it couldn't be questioned or clarified? So I think they all hated me at that point and I was getting very frustrated.

The second part which was my case went much better. I read out my statement. And then they asked me questions which I answered easily.

No idea if I've got a chance but I did my best. I will be told the outcome within 5 working days. No idea what we will do if the appeal fails. I'm having to home educate her and I'm not coping.

If the appeal school refused to answer your questions to help you prepare for the appeal, that is a clear breach of the Appeals Code. The clerk shouldn't have helped the school's representative, and the appeal panel shouldn't have stopped you asking questions. If you lose and want to take it further, you can refer it to the ESFA (if the school is an academy or free school) or the LGO who may order a fresh hearing with a different appeal panel if they find that you have been disadvantaged.

The appeal school told me to ask the LA as they don't have that information and the LA told me to ask the school as they don't have that information. Then I was told I had to do a FOI request. Finally the information was found by the LA! In one of their booklets. I actually had looked in there but it was so long I didn't know where to look.

But what I actually meant is my Dd's primary school wouldn't give me any information as they said the LA doesn't allow them to. Which I made clear at the beginning of the appeal.

It was very much the school deputy, clerk and one of the panel were on the same side. And then another one said my questions were irrelevant. They sent a list of the size of all rooms and said many are smaller than the standard 60m. But that is for a class of 30 in a non-specialised classroom. So I was asking about the use of the rooms, what size groups the children are in, which rooms 6th form use etc. 6th form is undersubscribed by 100. I was told they use classrooms all over the school. So I argued corridors couldn't be too crowded if there was room for 100 more pupils. She said the 6th form is completely separate and when I queried that based on her telling they used classrooms all over the school, one of the panel said I have to accept her answers and apparently I just didn't like her answers. The clerk stepped in twice to answer questions for the school deputy as if he could see she was 'losing' so tried to help her. She'd been saying how they wanted to increase numbers in their 6th form, they were looking at ways to attract more students, she could get another 10 in her classroom etc. But changed her tune once the clerk had said the set capacity of the school was too generous. She didn't seem to think so before!

Thanks for the information.