What am i Expected to talk about at my appeal hearing.

[ermira]

I have an apeeal hearing on wednesday for my daughter in secondary school year 9 , I want her to attend a school with her brother as it is safer, but she got accepted at a school with poor standards instead hence the appeal. I was wondering what I should include in my statement as I don't really have a clue.

Make it less about how the allocated school is crap and much more about how/why the school you want would be better for her. What do you mean by "safer"? Is she more likely to do well academically there?

She would do well academically as she already has friends in the school I want her to attend, because she is shy this would be positive news for her. Safer in the sense that she is making the journey there and back with her brother and not on her own, at the moment she goes to school ten miles away with a combination of buses and trains.

Well those are good reasons - bullet point them, add what else you think the better school can offer her. Anything about GCSE options - stuff that's offered there that she can't access at the crap school?

ermira, you need to focus on reasons why the school you want is the only one suitable for your daughter. No need to even mention the other school. So, the fact that it's close to your home (I assume) and she has a sibling there are a good start. Do the school have any specialisms that your DD would benefit from ? e.g. if the school has a specialism in IT and your DD excells at IT, then take in proof of that.

You need to try and tailor your DDs strengths and attributes to the school you want, to show that only that school can cater for needs.

The fact that she has friends there is very unlikely to sway the panel. You need to convince the panel that your DD's education would be compromised were she not to attend that particular school.

Hope that helps.

What YummyHoney said is good.

You need to pinpoint the things that only that school can provide for your dd, and why she particularly needs those things.

I don't think the fact that it's closer will have much effect as she is already doing a lot of travelling on her own, so you need to be able to say why that is detrimantal to her, and why the shorter travelling time will benefit her. Has she suffered any bullying on the journey or anything like that? You do need to say more than just 'it's safer'.

As for her having friends there, that's not a bad reason, but again, you need to be able to say why the support of her friends is particularly important to her. What effect will it have on her if she isn't with them? How does her shyness affect her?

Have a look through the school's OFSTED report and their prospectus to see what they offer that would make a difference to your child, specialisms, or GCSE options (as has already been said) pastoral care, anything at all, and give reasons why your dd needs those things.

Don't be afraid to use any little reason you can think of, and don't assume that the panel will think something is irrelevant. Say everything and let them be the judges. You also need to provide evidence for the points you are making, so for example, if you say that your dd is excellent at languages and the school has a language specialism, provide school reports or anything else you have that proves she really is good at languages.

Hope that helps. Good Luck.

You have had some good advice here. The main thing I would add is that you must not be negative about your daughter's current school. You can show why the preferred school is better and how your daughter will benefit from going there, but saying that her current school has poor standards won't help your appeal.

thank you very much to everyone who has replied, Tommorow is the big day I will post up if its a success or fail when i find out :)

before i go i am required to ask a question to the school, but i havenet a clue as what to ask . any ideas

I'm surprised you have to ask a question. I don't think that's normally the case, but, if you do, you could ask them how they have managed to accommodate children in the past when they have gone above PAN (their published admission numbers).

They are bound to have taken on extra pupils in the past, and that will just remind the panel that the school can cope with an extra child.

Wishing you loads of luck and look forward to hearing how you got on.

I don't think you have to ask a question, more that you have the opportunity to if you want to.

You could ask if the school has gone over PAN before, and if so, how did they accomodate that, but if you don't want to then don't. You could just say that you have no arguement with the schools case and concentrate on your own case.

i have really good advice from all of you which helped me a lot with my statement. thank you again

Hi ermira - how did it go today?

Just an update the appeal was today and whilst I was waiting there was a women who was extremely prepared . extremely and i though she was a mum also so i wished her good luck when she left before me it turns out that she was actually my opposition . Pretty funny moment. She was very rigorous in terms of asking me questions, but thanks to you guys i was really prepared.

Well that probably unnerved her! How funny. I hope you win, but whatever happens, at least you know you gave it your best shot.

Come back and let us know.

Ermira Hope your appeal went well. Glad you felt prepared. On the subject of questions when I tried to do this at my daughter's appeal hearing (at a foundation school) the presenting officer for the admissions authority did not answer any of my questions, either could not or would not respond to any of my questions about health and safety and temporary buildings. Not sure how this will affect the outcome but expecting the result any day now (have already waited two weeks for the result !).

Hi Ermira - just wondering how your appeal went ?