NEED HELP WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL ADMISSION APPEAL

[Madisonmaysmum]

Hi is there anyone on here that could help me with a primary school reception appeal? Or knows much about them!🥺

What are your grounds for appeal? Can you show that the admissions procedure hasn't been followed?

If it's reception, and the PAN is a multiple of 30 (or even 15 if it's a small school with mixed year classes) then you can only win on 3 grounds:

1. A mistake was made that cost your child a place at the school.
2. The admissions arrangements are contrary to the admissions code and you didn't get a place because of it.
3. The admissions authority made an unreasonable decision by not admitting your child.

Did you provide information about her social difficulty in the original application, or only at appeal?

If they had the statement from the nursery when they were allocating places you could argue they were unreasonable not to put her in that school. However if it's new information, they acted resonablely based on what they new at the time, so would not meet the criteria for appeal.

No I only added it to appeal I didn’t realise you had to submit information like that at the first part of the application stage 😩

Do they teach in mixed year groups?

Are you in an area where people move or decline their school place for any reason? Wondered if they had a waiting list and whether you could find out what number she is on this. Could be another option? I was surprised how much movement there was at my son’s school in the whole of the first term.

the children are taught in their year groups for maths and English but mixed groups in the afternoons.

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear. Are all 21 children in year R taught together, or are they mixed with year 1s or year 2s?

An infant class can only have 30 children in it at any point in the day. They can't go over unless some of the children are 'excepted'.

I’ve just asked a TA from the school and she said..
No reception are on their own all day. Y1 & Y2 are together in the afternoons. However this year may be different due to Covid so not all set in stone yet

Not that I'm an expert but...at my sons school the PAN is 45 so its a year class of 30 and a split class of 15 except for reception. In reception its one class of 23 and one of 22. So for your school it sounds like their PAN is 21 but the maximum amount children allowed in the classroom is 27.
I believe PANs can often change dependent on the needs of the school so for all we know there are 6 year ones that need to be in the reception class next year.

That's interesting. You might need to ask for clarity as to why this is an infant class size appeal.

On the face of it, year R is PAN of 21 - that's not infant class size.

A school can claim 'future prejudice' if the children in the admission year later combine with other children to form an infant class size of 30. An example may be year R of 15, but then yr1 and yr2 combine to form one class of 30 - although the year R class isn't infant class size restricted, the organisation of the yr1/2 class means that it is ICS for the future.

However, I can't see how this works in your school. YrR 21. Years 1&2 together is 42.... So that's more than one class of 30. On the face of it, I can't see how they would claim infant class size.

I agree with Lougle. If Reception are on their own all day I struggle to see how this is an infant class size appeal. Combining Y1 & Y2 would need two classes so that really doesn't make sense and still wouldn't make it infant class size.

If you want to tell us exactly what their statement says or send it to me in a PM I will be happy to take a look.

If it really is an infant class size case I'm afraid your arguments are unlikely to be successful. You have a better chance if it is not infant class size. However, even then some of your points won't help. The appeal panel won't be interested in childcare difficulties, for example. Again, if you would like to tell us your case in more detail or send it to me in a PM I will be happy to advise.

Hi phr47bridge,
I have seen your comment on other posts I’ve come across and was really hoping you would comment as you seem like you know your stuff. It’s a little long winded but could I be cheeky and ask if I could send you my statements and theirs and you could tell me what you think.

I’ve just double checked and it’s definitely a ICS appeal. And they have given me a list of how many children are in the other school years.. year 4 has 23!! I just really don’t understand all this.
Feel very underprepared and need too write my statement by next week😢

You need to report your post as you've published your child's name and address op!

Oh rubbish. Didn’t think. Tired and stressed will remove now

All your child details are there - name, dog, address etc.

I've reported it but you need to as well.

Reported for you aswell.
Glad prh47 is here to help you.

If dd is so shy why didn't this get passed over from the nursery in their report to the school. Not a legal issue, no right to complain re an official appeal, but come on! That's poor. Have you spoken to the nursery about how let down you feel?

I reported it last night. Looks like it’s been removed can anyone else still see it? Will repost with name address and school choice cut out later. I’m abit annoyed about all of it tbh but nothing can be done now it’s also not the school who choose it’s the county council so if their would of been no point in them sending anything to the school about DD lack of confidence and feeling like she will do better in a smaller school.

I'm happy to help. Feel free to PM me.

I can't see it anymore so it's been removed.