Secondary school Admission appeals - advice required

[geek84]

Hi Folks

Please forgive me if this is the wrong forum to post my query -

I have twins who are in year 6, so today they found out that they will not be going to their preferred secondary school. They have been allocated a place each on the school marked as 3rd choice on the application form.

Do you think it is worth appealing against this decision? The school in question is a Church Of England school and presumably they have already looked through the Supporting Evidence Form from our faith leader, but do you think I should try and gather more information from my faith representative in order to present it at the appeal (if I decide to go ahead with it).

Also, if I do appeal, I have the option of taking someone with me. Who would be the best person to take with me? Would it be someone from the Education dept in the council or my faith leader, or somebody else?

If my appeal gets rejected, do you think I should not persue it more or can I have some sort of a 2nd appeal?

By the way, I'm a governor at the school !!

Thanks in advance for your response.

You have the right to appeal. However, being a governor at the school and preferring it to the allocated school won't make a good case.

There are two ways to win an appeal:

• show that a mistake has been made and your children should have been admitted

• show that the prejudice to your children through not being admitted outweighs the problems the school will face if they have to cope with two more pupils

The most likely mistakes are placing your children in the wrong admissions category or getting the home to school distance wrong. The letter you have received should have told you why you didn't get a place at this school. Check it carefully. If it doesn't have that information you need to ring the school and ask.

If no mistake has been made the other approach is to show that this school has features which make it particularly appropriate for your children. Does it, for example, offer subjects in which they are interested that are not available in the offered school? Does it have after school clubs which will be good for your children?

I doubt you will get someone from the Education Department to go to the appeal with you. I would recommend going alone unless you feel you need moral support.

Sorry - forgot to answer one of your questions.

If your appeal is rejected you can refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman but they will only intervene if there was a problem with the way the appeal was conducted, e.g. the panel considered evidence they should have ignored or ignored evidence they should have considered. It is not a full second appeal. They do not act as a second appeal. They won't examine the evidence again to decide whether or not the panel got it right. If the LGO did decide in your favour they would usually order a fresh appeal.

You do also have the option of going for judicial review but that costs money.

Excellent advice already from prh47bridge.

In your shoes, I wouldn't even think about asking someone from the LEA to accompany you to the appeal, as it would put them in an invidious position and so I very much doubt they would agree to it.