CofE School Appeal - help!

[whatwillbewillbe]

I wonder if any one can help and advise about the appeal process for the admission criteria for foundation year 2 or who has had a similar experience to us?. Sorry it?s a long story!

Here goes? My son currently attends nursery at a CofE school, we were advised to submit an application for a full time position and being a church school we had to ask our church to complete a supplementary form to confirm our attendance and for how long, so we did? The vicar sent the form direct to the school so we weren?t to know what we know now ?the vicar didn?t support our application and our son wasn?t allocated a place at the school?. We are so upset!

I will explain a little about our history?. We started to go to church in Jan 2010 when my husband experienced a life threatening illness and we thought God was on our side and saw us through the whole experience. From then on we attended regularly, in Jun 10 the vicar left and the church was without an incumbent until April 11. We still attended weekly but due to the lack of continuity in services, between Apr ? Jun 11 we started to explore churches more local to us whilst continuing to attend the other church every other week. (We moved house 5 years ago but still attended our church where we were brought up). We eventually decided to join our local church in July 11 (this is the same church associated with the school); the vicar of this church supported our application from July 11 ? to date. The admission criteria we were in required 1 year 3 times a month church attendance in any parish.

We got in contact with the vicar of our previous church and although our involvement predates his incumbency at the church he has checked out the situation regarding church attendance and commitment and he now fully supports our application and appeal. We believe the reason why he didn?t support our application in the first place was due to breakdown in communication between the wardens and not researching our involvement and commitment with the church and unfortunately this has now left us having to appeal for a place. The situation of flux is what also complicates the paperwork but our attendance was still the required ?three times a month? but of course spanned various churches.

We fully understand that the admission process by the school was adhered to based on the information supplied to the school by the churches at the time of application. We are to blame as we should have followed up with the new vicar to make sure he knew our involvement and not just assume. It?s a shame we couldn?t have been told by the admissions team there was a problem with our supporting application when the supplementary form was given to them. They informed a few parents they didn't fit the criteria and we are now wondering why didn't they explain to us so we could resolve the problem in time.

Anyway ? we have now submitted the support letter from the vicar with our appeal statement but it has left us with some concerns whilst we wait to hear our appeal date.

Our son is on the school waiting list but we believe in the same position based on the original paperwork processed by admissions, they have not advised us the position yet? should they have done so by now? Will the new supporting paperwork prioritise him on the waiting list? With the new supporting documents confirming our attendance we know that we meet the criteria more than other children that are on the waiting list but will the other children on the waiting list be given a place ahead of our son if a place becomes available whilst our appeal is being heard or does the admissions team wait for our appeal to complete? So confused!

Am I correct in saying? if the school has allocated all the places, our appeal will still be heard but given that the school has adhered to the admission process correctly at the time of application the appealing board will agree with the School and we will then be put on the waiting list. Why are we appealing then? Would really appreciate some help! Thank you

sorry not sure why my message shows lots of question marks? some of them should be apostrophe's (')

Taking your questions in order, I would not expect admissions to advise you of your position on the waiting list. However, they should take into account the new evidence you have submitted. If a child is admitted from the waiting list when your son should have been at the head of the list if they had taken the new evidence into account that is a clear mistake that should allow you to win an appeal.

Whether or not you need to prove a mistake depends on whether this is an infant class size case. But you have evidence of a mistake anyway.

Firstly, this is a CofE school. From the sounds of it the church that filled in the paperwork incorrectly is an Anglican church. They fell down on the job. That means the admission arrangements were not administered correctly.

Secondly, you say that other parents were contacted and told there were problems with their application. The school cannot pick and choose who to contact. If it is going to contact some parents to give them a chance to correct problems it must do so for all of them. Had they done so you would have been able to ensure that correct information was provided and your son would have been placed in the correct category.

Go for it!

Thank you so much for your help it's very much appreciated. I will update the post once I have more information from the school.

Thank you

Just a little update and to ask a little more advice if you wouldn't mind? we are waiting for an appeal date but in the meantime we contacted the school with regards to our sons waiting list position, they confirm at the moment he is 4th on the Open waiting list.

We were very confused as to why the ?open? waiting list so I asked if the supporting letter from the Vicar puts us in the correct foundation criteria and they said ?no although the vicar supports your application the letter was a bit 'general' and they require the a supplementary minister form completed?. We have contacted the vicar to kindly ask that he completes the form so we can return it to the school. The vicar said he has no problem completing it as it?s just confirming the dates and duration of our church attendance, as mentioned in his supporting letter. (This is the same form that should have been completed correctly in the first place) we feel like we are going round in circles. :(

Do you know if the schools have a waiting list for foundation places as well as one for open places? At the moment our son is being place in the open category until they receive the form back from the vicar.

We were told by the school that the new evidence will not have an impact on the open waiting list position, so will our son be prioritised on the foundation waiting list (if there is such a list?). I?m so confused.

Also is anyone able to give some advice on what to say and what not to say at our appeal? how would you suggest we tackle the situation and what do we need to be equipped with at the appeal?

So nervous and really need them to see the mistake that has been made.

There should be a single waiting list ordered in accordance with their admission criteria. If they are saying that the new evidence will not impact the waiting list position it should mean that the children ahead of your son on the list are already in the category in which you should have been placed, or possibly in an even higher category. It could also mean they are prejudging whether or not your evidence will be accepted, which would be wrong. I would question them about all of this.

At the appeal your case is that your son should have been placed in category X but was actually placed in category Y because the vicar at your last church failed to fill in the supplementary information form correctly and, as he returned it directly to the school, you had no chance to discover this and correct it. As this is a church school it means they have failed to administer admissions in accordance with their published arrangements. Furthermore they acted inconsistently in contacting some parents to tell them they did not meet the criteria but not contacting you, thereby denying you the chance to get the information on the supplementary form corrected.

You need any evidence that supports this case. The fact that the vicar has admitted he got it wrong is helpful. Any evidence you have that they did, in fact, contact other parents would be helpful.

As there may be other children appealing who have also missed out due to mistakes it would be worth thinking about why this is the right school for your son and explaining that to the panel.