Secondary school Appeal for a place?

[Julezboo]

What can we expect? What to wear to make a good impression and how not to cry!

We had one 3 years ago. In terms of what to expect, I would say formal but understanding. There are procedures to be followed and everyone has a role to play, so you can expect it to be structured and formal. We were treated with kindness and understanding, but the atmosphere was quite business-like.

DH wore a suit, I wore a skirt/top/jacket.

Not crying is difficult because it is stressful and emotional and we certainly felt quite desperate! I wrote lists of things we should not forget to say to make sure that we didn't feel afterwards that we'd forgotten anything important. We managed to hold it together during the appeal.

Good luck :)

Thank you. Its a week today. I am so nervous! DS has SEN and the next school in line is on review by Estyn and has been since Oct 2010! It appears to be getting worse tbh so I really want him to get in. We are out of catchment area, but he the primary he is in is a feeder school for the secondary we want him to go to. So fingers crossed!

We were very nervous too, as so much depended on it. Ours was held in a medieval hall at a vast table I could not have accommodated anywhere in my house, even if we had no internal walls! So it was a bit intimidating, but everyone was kind.

We tried to anticipate the questions, but there were a couple that took me by surprise. The one that sticks in my mind was whether we'd be prepared to move our older DD to the school at which DD2 had got a place - my DDs are in consecutive years but we didn't initially get them into the same school.

Just remembered that there was a box of tissues on the parent side of the table so they were clearly prepared for tears!

Do you know how many appeals there are etc? It seems an odd time of year to have an appeal but I'm no expert.

No idea but they are running over three days, we are on final day. We have copies of his school reports, ed psych report and a report from his occupational therapist team.

Sounds as if you are well prepared. At least if you are on the final day you won't have too long to wait for a decision. I hope it goes well for you.

I sit on appeals panels. What parents wear has no impact whatsover. The most important thing is evidence. If you have reports, letters etc from third parties stating why your DC should attend a particular school make sure you have submitted it. Remember you are trying to show why s/he should be at THAT school - not that the other school is not suitable.

The panel will ask you questions to try and help you state your case, they are not trying to trip you up or interrogate you. Personally I am pleased when it is possible to allow an appeal - unfortunately it does not happen that often.

Just wondering how it went? Did you manage to get through it without tears? Hope it went well.

Well we BOTH cried! But I got am email this morning saying he has now been offered a place! So we won! 23 appeals, 7 dropped out, for 11 places and we got one of them! I am soooo sooo happy!!!

Thank you :o

Well done.

Really pleased for you. Well done!

Great news Julez