In year primary admission appeal - advice needed

[JamieR69]

Hi,

Have seen some great advice here from prh47bridge, panelmember and others, so wondered if they or others with experience could offer guidance on my case.

We are appealing after our in year admissions for September (Yr 2, Yr3 and Yr6 places) was rejected as the school is at its PAN. We are hoping to relocate to Bath and as a Crown Servant I was able to apply using my posting letter, but the appeal are using our current address (in London). I am able to work from London, but we would like to move for a better quality of life, and were not willing to move without securing school places first.

The school encouraged us to apply and appeal as they have previously exceeded their PAN and I am hoping that this precedent will help our appeal. But I am concerned that the appeal panel will use our current address rather than my local address on the posting letter - is that going to significantly disadvantage us? It just seemed too much to risk moving the whole family and potentially have the children split between different schools. Will the panel be sympathetic to that view? I did consider renting a flat and working from Bath during the week, but we had already stated on the application that if we lost the appeal we would not take the children out of their current school, so I felt uncomfortable misrepresenting our living arrangements (and couldn't really afford it anyway).

We have a letter from the children's current headteacher supporting our application, highlighting how they are all active members of the school community, top of their respective classes and are generally an asset to the school, which will hopefully help to demonstrate that they will not prejudice the education of other children at the new school or impact on resources. We will argue at the panel that they would be a net gain to the school. We are also active at their current school, regularly volunteering to help on school trips and with class assemblies - would this help our appeal or do the panel just look at the children? We don't want to overdo it!

Any advice on how we can maximise our chance of success at appeal would be very gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

Jamie

When we moved despite my dh having a permanent contract they would not even consider us until we had a signed rental contract (or exchanged purchase contract). They would need exceed their pan because there was schools within the city undersubscribed and offered places at 2 different schools with simultaneous start times (had the cheek to suggest i ask my mother to do one of the drops - she lives 300 miles away! I went to appeal, told them that as I could not accept their choice I would home school - magically they found 2 places at the nearest school

For appeal purposes your address makes no difference at all. The appeal panel shouldn't care how far away you live. If you are worried you can tell the panel where you will be living. The panel will know the rules that apply to Crown servants.

However, arguing that your children will be an asset to the school won't help, nor will your activities at their current school be considered relevant. I would keep away from that argument.

If the admission authority argue that your Y2 child is an infant class size case and you are UK service personnel, you can argue that they were being unreasonable not to admit your child as an excepted pupil as permitted by Admissions Code paragraph 2.15(g) (which means they don't count towards the infant class size limit). The admission authority would have to come up with some very good reason for not treating your child as excepted.

The fact they have previously exceeded PAN certainly helps but won't win your appeal on its own. You need to show that the disadvantage to your children from not attending this school outweighs any problems the school will face from having to cope with additional pupils. You need to identify how your children will be disadvantaged if they aren't admitted. Are there things this school offers that are missing from their current school and that are particularly relevant to them, for example? That is the kind of thing the appeal panel is looking for.

Wanting all your children to attend the same school won't be a factor in the appeal. Most parents want this. Appeal panels cannot take it into account unless there is expert evidence showing that the children have a stronger need to be together than other families.

Just to emphasise, you cannot minimise the disadvantage to the school by suggesting that they (and you) will be an asset to the school. The panel cannot take that into account. At best this won't help your case. At worst it may rub the panel up the wrong way, making them less likely to give you the benefit of any doubt.

When we moved despite my dh having a permanent contract they would not even consider us until we had a signed rental contract (or exchanged purchase contract)

The rules are different for the children of crown servants.

I went to appeal, told them that as I could not accept their choice I would home school - magically they found 2 places at the nearest school

I can pretty much guarantee that there was no magic about it. The LA would not regard home schooling as a threat. The fact that places became available was, almost certainly, entirely unrelated to anything you said about home schooling. If the appeal panel awarded you the places it would have been unrelated to your comments about home schooling. Unfortunately this kind of thing fuels the persistent myth that you can force the LA/appeal panel to give you the school you want. As hundreds of parents find out every year, that isn't true.

Thanks prh47bridge, that is very helpful. Their current school is great, so it is not so much that the school we have applied for offers something more, it is just in an area we would like to move to. If we lose the appeal and stay in London I will be splitting my time between London and Bath, which will have an impact on the children (and me) and my partner. Moving offers us the opportunity to afford a bigger house and to have a shorter commute, meaning we spend more time together as a family. Would the panel regard that as a disadvantage?

In terms of the specific school we applied for, of all the schools in the area it was the one the children felt most comfortable in and in part that is because it is (mariginally) more diverse than the other schools. This is important to us as our children are mixed race and we want to make their transition to a new school as smooth as possible-which is also why we are keen for them to stay together, as separating them would have more of an impact than I imagine for most siblings. Would the panel take that into account?

Bottom line is we very much want to move for a better quality of life, but don't want to risk taking the children out of their current school without being sure they will have a place in a similarly good school. It feels like a bit of a Catch-22 situation, but I'm sure many parents will have experienced similar so advice and experiences gratefully received.

Getting more time together as a family is unlikely to be something the appeal panel would consider significant. After all, that argument could be used by anyone who wanted a school nearer home than the one allocated.

You might be able to make something out of the school being more diverse, but only if it is more diverse than their current school. The panel are unlikely to see that as a reason for keeping your children together but it is just possible you will be able to persuade them that going to a less diverse school is a disadvantage.

You would probably be better placed going for appeal if you went all out for a move to Bath. That would force the LA to offer you something which could give you real potential to show that it doesn't offer your children the same things as your preferred school. You would then be talking about which school in Bath they should attend as opposed to whether or not to move to Bath at all.

As it is your are talking about moving to Bath for a better quality of life but only moving if you can get places at a good school. Whilst that is understandable, unless there is evidence that the school in Bath would be much better for your children than the school in London the appeal panel is likely to take the view that their won't be any significant disadvantage to your children if they aren't admitted.

That doesn't necessarily mean you will lose. If the school doesn't put up much of a case to refuse admission or says things which indicate to the panel that they would like your children admitted you may still get places. You should definitely give it a go. You have nothing to lose. But, unless you can come up with stronger arguments, you shouldn't build up your hopes too much.

Thanks again-will let you know how it goes. We are viewing a house the day before the hearing, so maybe we will end up going all in and committing to the move-can we untick the box saying we won't take the children out of their current school if we lose the appeal on the day?

No-one is going to hold you to anything you say about what will happen if you lose the appeal. You can certainly tell the appeal panel you have changed your mind or that circumstances have changed.

Just to update, we were successful at appeal and the kids will start at a new school in a new town in September-just have to move house now!

Thank you @prh47bridge for your advice, it was invaluable in helping us to frame our argument. The most decisive factor though was the supporting statement from the school-they are increasing their PAN for reception from September and they detailed how they would manage with this increase, effectively rebutting the Local Authorities case that admitting our three children would impact on the existing pupils.

Every case is different but for us the Headteacher had encouraged us to apply and appeal and that was what made the difference.