HELP!!! Have got appeal date through for DS2 school place - IN HUGE FLAP!

[octo]

DS1 goes to school in next village as there were 38 in his class in our village and we moved him 2 years ago. DS1 didn;t get offered a place - and the appeal date has come through for 19 April - ds3 due 15 April!

I am going to put forward the following at the parental presentation:

1. ds2 already at school and settled. Going into Year 2 in september - important year for tests so cannot move him.
2. cannot be at 2 schools at the same time for collecting/dropping off
3. ds2 attends preschool in the other village
4. ds2 attends rising 5s in the other village
5. ds2 plays in the other village football team
6. ds2 is friends with all the other children who will be in his class
7. ds2 is familiar with the school and teachers from dropping ds1 off
8. I am on school pta
9. I help with reading at the school
10. loads on how much love school ethos and how it suits ds2

The timing isn;t particularly great but glad its not July - has been driving me potty for about a month! Just praying am not in labour at the time or may have to find myself a new birth partner and send dh to the hearing!

I am after technical stuff for appeals if anyone has any - did post a while ago when found out but was hoping he would just get in!

I am such a flap I don;t know what to do with myself - maybe it will bring on labour today

i won an appeal such as your where my son was already at a v. ood school - we moved but i kept him there and then wanted mytwins to start there - they were refused a place.

my main argument was the detrimental effects of taking my son out of a school and how his education and social skills would suffer

and also how i couldnt possibly get 3 children to 2 diff schools at the same time - and i was NOT taking my eldest out of school

which meant that the twins would be late by an hur every morning.

i won

calm yourself love

you'll make me have a baby at this rate (and i'm due before you so it'd be perfectly fair )

I think onlypoints 1 and 2 have any relevance for an appeal TBH.

I think you could reasonably ask them for an appeal date which is not the same week as your due date - phone them and see what they suggest as there's a high chance you'll miss that data if you're in labour.

Agree that the date is sh*te and should be changed!

ellie - am not calm!!

The headteacher told me to put down as many things as possible that link us to the village community - hence all the other stuff. If the appeal is unsuccessful we still get to stay on the list.

Just rang admissions and spoke to a girl who really didn;t know her stuff and had convo about why I hadn't applied to any other schools and that he may never get a place if doesn;t become available ... she didn;t get the two places thing at all but did manage to get out of her that if appeal fails he stay on the waiting list until september at which point i need to go through the school.

I know there are places in my village school but don;t want him to go there and if I apply and he has a place the appeal may be weakened...

I need wine - yes, thats what I need! Come on baby - time to come out!

The problem with changing the date is a little thing called sods law! I want to get this over and done with as is driving me potty and don;t really want to be thinking about it after baby has arrived - but I also don;t want to be in labour! If in labour may have to send dh - its only for 40 minutes - and get someone else to stay with me for that time .... oh god, its all too much ... flap flap flap flap flap flap flap

Octo, crap timing isn't it?

Your strongest point has got to be that the admission criteria should include some sort of sibling priority at this age. Is the admissions just based on distance - if so presumably this issue has coem up before?

You need to find out what the admissions criteria are and how many children were admitted under each criterion. I assume siblings probably come after distance/catchment area for your 2nd child not to get in. You need to ask the education authority a few questions such as how far away does the last child to get a place live. Did other siblings get turned down for a place etc. This will help you build your case as I believe you will need to demonstrate that they have made an error in applying the admissions criteria.

12 local siblings (within 2 miles of school)
14 geographical (closest to school)

We live 4 miles away - but people 1 mile away got in ... so getting closer!