Infant Class Size Appeal - might we win?

[Hasbobble]

Apologies long post - any help much appreciated. We are appealing for our youngest who has not been offered a place at our preferred school as we applied late. Application was late as our oldest daughter was moving from our in catchment school due to problems with bullying ( well documented and acknowledged in writing by the school) . Disastrous but unavoidable timing meant school move for eldest coincided with application process for youngest) so we needed to know which school oldest child would be in before we decided for youngest - as a result we have not been offered a place at the same school, despite the sibling link as we are out of catchment and we were late - only by a matter of days.

I am aware that children with on time applications have been offered a place - out of catchment with no sibling link. The school is now full. And have filled 60 places.

I am appealing obviously.

Have contacted admissions authority to see if I could argue that there were exceptional circumstances regarding the late application - and that it should have been considered on time.

I also think there could have been an error in the process - we have been sent one letter from authority with our on-time application that does not include the preferred school, another online on time response that DOES include preferred school.

The school published admission number was 50 - but they have admitted 60 - not sure whether that helps or hinders (shows they are flexible but now full!) They have also admitted there is a lot of movement higher up the school and have surplus capacity. I think but am checking they have had 3 reception classes in the past and do have space on site.

Just filling out appeals form now so any help much appreciated. We are on the waiting list anyway. Trying not to stress too much but having been forced to move our eldest in Year 4, the prospect of waiting list, late moves for our youngest fills me with dread..

You applied late. The only obvious argument you have therefore is that the LA should have treated you as an on time applicant given the situation with your oldest daughter and that they have been unreasonable in not doing so.

I'm not sure I understand the stuff about letters that do or do not include the preferred school. Can you explain that more fully please?

Did they admit 60 in the initial round or have they admitted the additional 10 later?

I'm afraid arguments about movement higher up the school and surplus capacity don't help with ICS appeals.

Your youngest should be at or near the head of the waiting list. Make sure that is the case.

Hi thanks for your help so far. Apologies it is complicated. We submitted an online application during my eldest daughter's transfer that listed 3 schools, my eldest daughters existing school, another in catchment and a third we hoped my eldest would get a place at, this was on time. We also did an online application (late). by which time my eldest had been offered a place at a fourth school not on the original list . I have had two responses from the admissions authority - both claiming to have dealt with on time applications. The written response lists the three schools from the original application, the online email states they had considered the fourth school too. This is where the confusion lies. If it was considered on time and included the fourth, preferred school I think we should have been offered a place as we had the sibling link, and other children have been admitted for the reception class, out of catchment and no sibling link which puts them lower down the criteria.

The school's published PAN for this year is 50, they have admitted 60 already in the first round, late applications are only just being considered.

Thanks again for any advice

To win on the basis of a mistake you need to show that the mistake cost your child a place. If the email means they considered you as an on time applicant but forgot about the sibling link that gives you an excellent case. However, if the email was wrong and you were not considered as an on time applicant for the fourth school it doesn't really help you.

Just an update that will give hope to anyone trawling these threads for advice. We did get a place at our prefered school and didn't end up going to the panel. We were third on thw waiting list and there was movement at schools elsewhere so we were offered a place before the new term started. Good luck to anyone in the same situation, I have never known stress like it !

We have a daughter in primary school and my son at nursery in the same school. His application to stay in reception has failed and he has been given another school from September.

We didn't chose this school but ended up there when despite originally applying to all local primaries for a nursery place for my daughter we didn't get any offers. We got this school after intervention from our MP. My son got in last year with no problem but nursery numbers were down because of the nursery tax (£12/day). Now school is free all the kids have come out of the woodwork.

When we applied for him to stay in reception we asked for a reasonable adjustment on the grounds of my wifes disability to be considered. She simply will not be able to do the school run to two different schools at the same time but wants to take them to school for as long as she is able. It allows her to be normal twice a day.

Our request for a reasonable adjustment to be considered was flatly refused in writing.

The Schools Admissions Code clearly reminds Admission Authorities that Equality Legislation must be complied with when Admission Arrangements are determined but ours have ignored this and so have not included any way of allowing reasonable adjustments.

I think as a result they have dug themselves into a hole that they can not get out of.

I managed to force, via a subject access request, sight of advice given from their Equality Manager to their Director of CYPS confirming that in her view reasonable adjustment should be considered.

Adjacent Admission Authorities both have oversubscription Criteria that include medical/social reasons. They have both confirmed that parents disability would be considered under this criterion. Ours don't have this.

I am off to appeal next week but do not know what to expect. There is so much at stake for us so it is very hard to be in this position.

In my research I have also come across other more general issues. There have been two different catchment area maps in circulation and our distance to the school has been quoted as 0.65 miles and 0.69 miles in different correspondence. I can not prove this would have got us a place but clearly it is not fair and who knows what effect it has had.

They also compare distances to nine decimal places to rank applications. This is literally comparing distances on the bases of less than the thickness of a human hair. Clearly it is impossible to determine distances over 0.5miles to this microscopic accuracy. The nine decimal places are an artifact of the calculation in Excel and should have been rounded. The effect of this is that distance ties are hidden artificially and as a result applications are ranked out of order. If the distance data is compared on the basis of a more realistic two decimal places ties pop up all over the place. In a distance tie the AA says age will be used. Again I can not prove this has prevented us getting a place but again it is clearly not fair. If two applications ranked 30 and 31 are indistinguishable by any reasonable measure the one ranked 30 will win when maybe the one at 31 may actually be nearer.

The more I read the more I get concerned that this is chaotic. The AA are unreceptive to complaint. They pump out the same spiel and simply do not listen. They are impossible.

Will the appeal panel be more knowledgeable easier to communicate with?

tiggy tape and not fluffy.

Thanks for your comments.

The schools admission code repeatedly reminds AAs of the need for admission arrangements to comply with Equality Legislation. I agree it does not make the medical/social OsCat compulsory though. Presumably other methods could be used.

For some reason there is a general view within this sector that AAs are only accountable to the arrangements and are somehow immune from any other legislation.

I struggle to see how this can be.

It really is not hard to comply as our adjacent AAs have demonstrated. Obviously a protected characteristic isn't a free pass to the school of your choice but gives a legal entitlement for consideration.

My appeal has been delayed while the AA try to scrabble a response together which is nothing more than confirming the method of determination. I think they must be going to use the argument that if it was unlawful I had chance to point this out during public consultation.

There are two more appeals although as far as I know these are on grounds of inconvenience only. The Secretary of State has been made aware of my case and has advised he is currently relying on the appeal panel to resolve any discrimination. The EASS have also sent a file for consideration by the EHRC. Everybody outside of the AA can understand the issue.

On a lighter note based on my experience over the past few months I can not help but imagine the AA staff skulking about the town hall grasping the Admission Arrangements like Gollum and his ring. It really has been that bad. I will have to be careful that I do not refer to the AA's rep as Sméagol at the appeal.

Thanks again for the comments and advice.

Of course an admission authority is not immune from other legislation but it is difficult to hold them to account without going to judicial review. Most appeal panels will deal with the admission arrangements as they stand unless they clearly breach the Admissions Code. In that respect it doesn't help that the comments in the Admissions Code regarding the Equality Act mainly surround things the admission authority must not do. There is also a real question as to whether the legislation means a medical category should automatically extend to include parental disability.

Having said all that an appeal panel may be willing to say that in the circumstances the refusal to admit your son was unreasonable. As tiggytape says, some appeal panels will lean over backwards to help in cases like this even if it means breaking the Appeals Code and admitting a child when strictly they shouldn't.

I was surprised to read recently that the limit of 30 in KS1 isn't as hard and fast as I thought:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23006196

I didn't win my ICSA last month, nor did I expect to, I just wanted an opportunity to tell the admissions authority (the governing body as a vol aided school) what I thought of them. However, a friend of mine did win hers for another school! (she lost the one at this school too). I think the argument was that as the school was getting a student teacher, this allowed them to go over the 30 in a class rule, as the legislation says you mustn't exceed 30 for each teacher, and if you research the definition of a teacher in this case then a student teacher counts. So worth doing some research as to whether the school will be having a student next year.

Another factor which allowed the school we didn't win at to admit an extra child, no.61, was that they only admitted 59 against a PAN of 60, the reason being that one child from the current reception class was being held down a year (for various reasons). However, my knowledgable friend pointed out to the school that the child in question should count as an exception to the class size rule and she was right and so the school admitted another child, the next on the waiting list, so none of us who were appealing, but still, could be something else to consider when trying to get your child into a particular school. So my two examples above are perhaps in line with the bbc news article that Tetris posted above.

All the best with your appeal, I know how stressful and upsetting this time is, so I wish you the best of luck. The school my daughter will go to is a car journey away, rather than walkable, as the one we appealed for was, but it is a nice school, so I can at least be happy about that - not looking forward to 3 years time though when I have to look again for a junior school place for her (school she is going to is infant only) and infant school for my twins! Not sure I'll get them in the same school, so thanks to the school who prioritised siblings over location to school, I will then not be able to have my three young children at the same school, but no one cares about those with siblings coming up behind the child for whom you're looking for a place.

#whynotjustgiveachildaplaceinitsclosestschool? #insteadofsillychoicefiascowhichdoesntactuallygiveparentsanychoice

Yes, a student teacher counts as a teacher for infant class size rules.

However, I do not agree that a child held down is an exception to the class size rule. The exceptions are:

a) children admitted outside the normal admissions round with statements of special educational needs specifying a school;

b) looked after children and previously looked after children admitted outside the normal admissions round;

c) children admitted, after initial allocation of places, because of a procedural error made by the admission authority or local authority in the original application process;

d) children admitted after an independent appeals panel upholds an appeal;

e) children who move into the area outside the normal admissions round for whom there is no other available school within reasonable distance;

f) children of UK service personnel admitted outside the normal admissions round;

g) children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is admitted otherwise than as an excepted pupil;

h) children with special educational needs who are normally taught in a special educational needs unit attached to the school, or registered at a special school, who attend some infant classes within the mainstream school.

Unless the child held down fell into one of those categories they should not be treated as an excepted child.