Help! School appeal hearing

[Ultimate123]

hi. I have appealed for my child to a fairly new school. I have received school case. No idea how I can challenge/weaken it. My hearing is on Thursday. Any advice welcome. I’m attaching pic below of school case. Have omitted school details.

I know that in 2021 they had 151 students in yr 7 and 129 students in yr 8.

Just to let you know, you’ve left the name of the school in one of the bullet points, so you may want to ask MN to remove your post and repost it

im not one of the experts, who I’m sure will be along shortly but generally you need to look for things the school offers that will particularly benefit your child, that the school you’ve been offered doesn’t have. Things like an orchestra if your child plays a musical instrument. Is there anything like that which could be relevant for your child?

This is actually a very poor case being put forward by the school. The school have to prove their case over and above reaching the PAN of the school. I am struggling to see much of a case for the school other than the school cannot afford to employ any more staff. They then go and say entirely the opposite in terms of needing to employ extra staff for pupils with SEND.
I would at stage 1 of the appeal, ask the school to explain their reasons over and above reaching PAN not to admit and hope that the panel also pick up on the weakness of the school's case. Forget about pupil numbers in other year groups they are not relevant at the appeal.
I would not bother too much about other questions in part 1 because the panel will probably find (just) that the school have made their case.
At stage 2 is where you have the opportunity to make as strong a case as possible to admit. You need to be being very positive about the school and what the school can offer your child. Think about sports opportunities and clubs that are on offer etc. Steer away from talking about transport as, unless it is an extreme case of multiple bus rides etc, it will not be relevant.

I did respond to your PM yesterday. I agree with Admission that this is a poor case. In addition, there is clearly confusion about PAN - it is stated on here repeatedly that PAN is 150, but on both the school's website and the council's admissions booklet it is said to be 120. If they have admitted 150, that confusion doesn't help. However, if they have only admitted 120, it clearly does.

I disagree slightly with Admission regarding the numbers in other years. They are well over PAN in Y8 as PAN was definitely 120 when that cohort was admitted. They are also over PAN in Y7. That suggests they can cope with at least some additional pupils.

The talk of pupils with SEND needs making up approximately 15% of the cohort doesn't get them far. The national average for secondary schools is 13.5%, so their expectation is broadly in line with that.