Infant class size appeal

[Vinsanto]

We have been rejected for our first choice of school. We will appeal but absolutely not holding our breath for success. There were 45 spaces but 52 applications. I’m looking for advice on what grounds to appeal on. I know this sounds dull but how will I know if the authority made an error within the process? How will I find what the correct process is and what the authority did? My son suffers with huge anxiety but doesn’t have a specific diagnosis (this was mentioned in the initial application). Is it worth trying to appeal on these grounds? Has anybody been through the appeals process and can tell me the questions you were asked in an attempt to help me prepare? This could not have come at a worse time - Covid19 has changed everything... I am trying to work from home with 2 small children so am struggling to find the time to research and prepare to do this appeal justice. In addition to this, the actual appeal won’t be held in person (social distancing) and schools are closed so no transition visits are available to help my son prepare for his offered school. I’m crest fallen, struggling and would be grateful for any help. Thank you all.

There is loads of time for transition visits, even if it is done in the Autumn before a delayed start.

Unless you had professional letters of support, such as stating that school 1 was the only one to offer a particular programme to help his anxiety, and there is a social need category it is unlikely your note carried any weight or affected the category he was placed in. If you missed out on distance for example, does your letter state what yours was measured at compared to furthest child admitted - is this correct?

Thanks for your reply. Distance would definitely have been a factor as we are just out of catchment. There are no measurements on the letter though. None at all. Should there be?

You will need to call the LA and ask them what the last distance offered was and what distance they have measured to your house. You can check the obvious; is there a safe walking route that is closer that the LA overlooked, have they used the correct address etc.

For an ICS appeal you have to show that the authority made a mistake in not offering a place. As you admit you are out of catchment it sounds like this was not the case.

Have a look on the primary school thread. Lots of advice there on what evidence you need for an infant class size appeal. Afraid the fact that your child is anxious won’t carry any weight unless you had a letter from a professional at the time of application, as the previous poster said. Worth finding out where you are on the waiting list as there’s often a bit of movement.

There are questions from your post. The first is whether in fact this is an infant class regs case or not. Look on the school website and try and work out what classes there are currently. Normally for a PAN of 45 the school will be running two classes of 22 and 23 in reception and then three classes across year 1 and year 2. The classes in year 1 and 2 will have 30 pupils in each class and therefore will under what is called future prejudice be under the infant class regs meaning no more than 30 in any infant class. If the school is running any other kind of class structure in the infants then it might not be an infant class regs case.

Any anxiety issues will carry no weight at an appeal but you need to approach the appeal at present on the basis it is not an infant class size appeal. So you need to be looking for positives about the preferred school that are not available at the offered school. This would be things like clubs etc that your child could attend.

If it is an infant class size regs case then the only way you will win an appeal is if a mistake has been made and you should have been offered a place. In terms of a mistake, the only two parameters that seem to fit with what you are saying is that you were considered at a lower level of criteria than was the case. You say that you were outside the catchment zone, so you need to check again that you were definitely outside the catchment zone and you have been placed in this category. The other issue potentially where a mistake has been made is on distance from school to home. The IT system used by the LA is very accurate and is usually from what is called the seed point on the school building to the seed point on your home. The distance will not be wrong unless they have measured from the wrong home. As you say you do not have any info at present, so email the LA admission office and ask for the distance of the last (45th) pupil admitted and the distance for your child. Does t seem right - check on Google, though it is no where near as accurate.
In the interim, make sure in writing that you are on the waiting list. Given that there are 45 places and only 52 applications there is a possibility that you are high on the waiting list and a place will become available, so make sure you are on the waiting list. Then apply for an appeal saying that you believe that there may have been a mistake made. You can confirm that you will give more information in due course that will give you time to better organise your appeal when you have checked everything.
Being realistic not many mistakes are made so your best chance of a place at the school is via the waiting list or at appeal if by any chance it is not an infant class size appeal.

Thank you everybody for your replies. I really appreciate it. I have one more question. We have thought about not appealing (it really does seem pointless) BUT instead moving into the catchment area, as close as we can to school. Obviously our son will attend his second place school while we are on the waiting list for his first choice.

My question is will this house move give us any advantages? Will it make a difference should we go to appeal? Will it make a difference to the waiting list? I suppose I'm asking if the waiting list will rank us on our address at the time of application (out of catchment) or will the new in catchment address be reflected on the waiting list and therefore place us as a higher priority? I hope this makes sense. Once again, thanks for your help.

Do you have direct experience of the school he has been offered (ie an older sibling)?

No. None. We have no link whatsoever with the offer school.

But you’re vehemently against it to the point of uprooting your whole family from their home to move slightly closer to another school?

I don’t know the situation well enough but if it were me I would be really throughly considering starting him at his offered school and seeing how he gets on. You can then put him on a waiting list for the other school if it comes to it.

Yes, I can see why you'd think that. Basically, long and boring story but... my son has been in private pre-school nursery since 6 months old. This nursery is just down the road from our first choice school and his sister is now also at the nursery. My son, for the last 2 years, has been attending nursery in the school daily and then picked up by the private nursery where he is cared for for the rest of the day. He has established, secure friendship groups in the first choice school as he has been attending nursery there for 2 years and many of his friends from the private nursery have also gone to this school. If he attends his second choice school then it's extremely likely that we'll also have to uproot our daughter and put her in a new nursery as we can't do the journey from our house then in one direction to nursery and then back in another direction to school. At least if we move, despite my son still being in the second place school, we will be better able to keep our daughter in her current nursery with the bonus that we would be in catchment and hopefully move up the priority in the waiting list. I stress the word 'hopefully' - I'm hoping that someone can confirm that a move into the catchment would be an advantage in the sense that the new address would override the one made on the original application.

Yes if you move closer this will be reflected in your position in the waiting list.
It won’t get you in automatically though, even if you would have gotten in at the time of application, ie if they offered a place to a child living further away than the new address (but closer than your current address) they won’t take it away from him to give it to you.

Thank you. This is what I was hoping.

It may make a difference to your place on the waiting list, depending on where the other people on the waiting list live, but it won’t make any difference to an appeal.

You might be first on the waiting list now, if so obviously moving won't make a difference - and it is a small waiting list. Also bear in mind if you do move, someone else could move closer still and bump you off the top of the waiting list.

Moving won't make any difference at appeal.

Thank you all for your replies. I'm reassured that it'll make a difference to the waiting list. A part of me thinks I should appeal. I feel like I owe it to my son. But another part of me knows it's pointless. Thanks again.

Whilst I can understand your reluctance to appeal when you do not see any good reason to appeal, my advice would be to appeal.
You asked how would I know whether a mistake was made and the simple answer is if it was blindingly obvious you would spot it but mistakes do get made on occasions which are not obvious until you see the whole of the schools case not to admit. You are only going to see that if you appeal. You will get the information off the school about a week before the appeal and if you still see no real reasons to appeal, then withdraw but their information just may give you cause to believe a mistake has been made.
I still think that with a PAN of 45 and only 52 applying that there is a reasonable chance that there will be some movement on the waiting list.

I am not an expert on appeals so won’t comment .

However unless there is a really big issue with school 2 I would put him in. I am assuming school 2 is closer to home as they grow older this is a real advantage.

My Ds went to school from nursery only 2 children went to that school . He had no interest in either. He made friends very quickly changes groups of friends.

As for moving by our Dd nurseries again I think they benefit from something new .

I honestly think so long as you are happy Beothuk school 2 the rest will fall into place far easier than been uprooted. My Ds a year of 60 admissions. One child left in the whole of that year . Depending on area . He could still not have ca place by year 2. Also if he is anxious and does settle in school 2 would you then want to uproot him again.

Not my decision but worth thinking about.

We had this last year. Only nine other kids from he playgroup setting are with him now. We appealed on the grounds that he is an anxious child and we do not follow the faith (church of England school) we went to the hearing and was told that they in no uncertain terms could increase the intake numbers for early years. I was heartbroken. However I can not fault the school we are at now. It was a blessing in disguise.

Once again, many thanks for all your input.

This might be a stupid question but how will I find out what set up the school has for their infant classes? I can't see anything about this on the website. I'm wondering, for appeal purposes, if I need to gain this info in writing from the authority or from the school itself. I'm just thinking about what forms of evidence are acceptable should I go to appeal. I don't want to find the info just to find that it's dismissed by the panel as it's not from the correct/accepted source.

You can ask them. They have to answer any reasonable question you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. But you won't need to provide evidence of this at appeal. The appeal isn't a court hearing. And it is quite likely that the case to refuse admission will include the class organisation. If they want to argue this is an infant class size case they will definitely need to include the class organisation in their case.