In year school appeal yr 9

[Eq23]

Hi guys, I’m a newbie here and need help, any advice or help would be most appreciated in relation to the following.
I’m just in the process of appealing to get my child moved to her 1st choice school due to;
Bullying at her present school on both personal/academic level(high achiever)
Social- primary school friends.
Medical- referred to CHAMS due to stress of above and Asperger assessment.
The appeal code states that priority can be given to pupil premium children; of which she falls under, in the schools over criteria section. However, the local council admin criteria does not include this as a consideration.
Should I mention this at the appeal or in my statement or leave it because it doesn’t apply.
In anticipation, anxious mum.

For your appeal you need to show that the disadvantage to your daughter from not going to this school outweighs the disadvantage to the school from having to cope with an additional pupil. Pupil premium is irrelevant to that. It will give the school a little extra funding but not until 2020. Also, you have to deal with the admission criteria as they are. You can't argue that they should give priority for your child because she attracts pupil premium. They can do so but they don't have to.

Primary school friends are also not relevant. Even if she was still in Y7, staying with primary school friends is not considered a good argument for appeal.

You need to concentrate on the bullying issue. The panel will want to see documentary evidence (e.g. copies of letters/emails you have sent the school) showing that there has been bullying, that the school is aware of this and that the school has failed to stop the bullying. Without that kind of evidence the panel may discount the bullying.

You also need to look for things this school offers that your daughter's current school doesn't that are particularly relevant to her That could be subjects available, extra-curricular activities, etc. This will help to strengthen your appeal case.

Thank you so much for your advice,
I have emails requesting them to implement their ‘zero tolerance’ to bullying; their written response was to state; the girls are ‘sly’ concerning their bullying tactics and evidence of a meeting with deputy head to discuss issues in year 8, 2 assaults from 2 boys that I or the year head was not informed about. They had no suggestion on what to do ref: academic bullying; ‘that she should take it as a compliment’. And I now have video footage of 3 girls, hiding their identity saying;’ f?&k off you sl?g’ and ‘ Sl?g, Sl?g’ that I need to email them before term begins.
The appeal school has an excellent pastoral care, with mental health nurse/counsellor.new state of the art music department. A ‘no put down’ anti bullying policy and majority enter and remain at her academic level, normalising her compared to her T&G status which is less than 5% of her year group and alienates her from peers.
Her grades and attendance dropped in year 8, recovered last term but she is reluctant go back and spent a lot of time in pastoral to avoid them. Can pastoral or year head help in anyway? Can you suggest any other evidence?

You should be emphasising the pastoral care in your preferred school as a positive and the new art music department building if your child has any level of competence in those subjects. Look at the website and ask around for what are the other key attributes of your preferred school as what else you could quote as positives. It is key that the appeal is for the preferred school and not just a knocking of the current school but bullying is an issue that can be raised.
The evidence of bullying is definitely the kind of written information that an appeal panel will want to see before they give any level of credence to what you are saying. I am afraid that far too many parents have tried to use bullying as a reason to move schools, so panels have to some extent become immune to such comments unless there is clear evidence of the bullying and the current school not handling it well.