Primary school admissions appeal

[AshesOfEden]

Hey fellow mumsnetters,

I'm not sure whether I've posted this in the right place.
I know junior school admission appeals are unlikely to be successful but I suppose I need to try.
Split from ex husband 2 years ago, finally had his permission to apply for schooling for current year two daughter to start year 3 in September at the local school. (I moved to about 5 miles away from the former family home).

No extenuating circumstances with regards to schooling, simply the fact that although her current school is only 4 miles away it takes 45 minutes in the traffic to get there, and I work in the opposite direction so she's spending time in the car getting there early/getting home later than necessary than if she was at one of two local schools. I know this in itself isn't enough to successfully appeal, just thought I'd shed some light on it. All the usual chat about the fact she has friends/activities in our current area etc. I know they won't care, just setting the scene for you.

Any advice with appeals? Simply want to chat about your experience? I just feel I need to be a bit more familiar with how it'll work/what I say. I understand the chances of winning are minuscule, but I have to try.

Suppose to have 30 kids per class with two classes per year group. 56 admitted out of 140 applications in 2016, 60 admitted out of 190 in 2017 and 61 admitted out of 160 in 2018. (One SEN child, so potentially exempt from normal admission rules maybe)?

Thanks all.

If it makes any difference she's 1st on waiting list as we're in catchment and the other kids on the list are from out of area.

It's not 'hard' to win Junior (KS2) appeals - they are based on the need for a place Vs the difficulty for the school in admitting.

It is 'hard' to win Infant (KS1) appeals because they have Infant Class Size regulations which mandate that by law, they must not exceed 30 children to a class, save for limited exceptions.

You need to think of all the positive reasons why your DD would flourish in her local school (not logistics). When you appeal, you'll have information from the school regarding size of classes, etc., which will help you form your argument.

Oh I see, misunderstanding on my part. I was under the impression it was hard for both KS2 and KS1!
Would love to hear people's experiences.

We're just moving this over to education for the OP.

Anyone with any experience of this?

Some schools stick very rigidly to 30 in a class and this will be respected at appeal unless there are reasons why the DC must be admitted. The reasons are children in care, looked after children, named on a SEN plan etc. If you don’t qualify on these then the school can maintain its PAN. However if they regularly exceed PAN and have classes with more than 30 in them, you have a stronger case. There is no law limiting class sizes to 30 in KS2.

However, stay on the waiting list. You are first and there is hopefully a good chance of admission. The fact a school doesn’t have to stick to 30 in a class can theoretically make it easier to get a place but some schools will not allow the class numbers to exceed this. As you can see it will be used against them in appeals!

Thank your

Thank you! **

As the current school is 4 miles away your daughter is entitled to free transport unless the council can offer her a place at a school closer to home.

As this is Y3, infant class size regulations no longer apply. You can therefore win by showing that the disadvantage to your daughter from not attending this school outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with an additional pupil. Contrary to what BubblesBuddy seems to think, the school's desire to stick to 30 per class will not, on its own, be anything like enough to justify rejecting your appeal. You do not need the things BubblesBuddy mentions (looked after, formerly looked after, EHCP naming the school) to win your appeal. Indeed, if you had any of those you wouldn't need to appeal as you would get a place automatically.

If the journey to the current school is regularly over 45 minutes in each direction and there are no places available at nearer schools this is a significant argument in your favour. A journey of more than 45 minutes is viewed as unreasonable for a primary school child.

You also need to look for things this school offers that are missing from your daughter's current school and are particularly relevant to your daughter. For example, if your daughter is sporty and this school has more opportunity for sporting activities that is something you should raise.

Brilliant. Thank you ever so much for that.

Brilliant. Thank you ever so much for that. @prh47bridge do you know if its as the crow flies, or can I use the distance from google maps? For your point about the council paying for transport.

The distance for free transport is based on the shortest safe walking route. Anything over 2 miles qualifies for free transport. When your daughter reaches 8 years old the qualifying distance goes up to 3 miles.