Secondary School Appeal- Help

[greenoak1234]

I currently live near secondary schools that are all oversubscribed.

I have applied for a secondary school place but have been offered a school that is 2.98 mile from my house, that is a two bus journey and 50 minutes away. I am aware the LA state that this a reasonable distance but it is an unsuitable school for my child as it stressful for her travel independently.

I appealed to a school nearest to us but it was refused.

My child is suffering with anxiety as she is not in school and desperately want to attend a school that she can travel to with out distress. Her anxiety will settle once back in school.

I have appealed to other schools too and I waiting for a response. Please can I have advise to be successful with an appeal?

You must be in London to have a choice of schools that close to you OP

Utter bollocks

If the move was only recent and she’s been off roll for a week it doesn’t sound like you have things much of a chance - sounds like you did the appeal etc before moving?

As PP said it doesn’t sound like she’s had a chance to settle in to it, could you organise someone to help take the other children to and from school for a week and then take the journey with her?

Lucky you, then - no secondary school that close to us and certainly not a choice of them within three miles. London has a lot of secondary schools. Like the OP if my DD got the public bus to her school (which is further away than the OP's) it would be at least two buses and a long journey. I'm not rural either.

I just thought it was standard for living in an urban area. I'm in a town, rather than a city, and of the schools dc could go to, 3 are under 2 miles away, one is under 3 miles, and one is 5 miles (but the scholars bus stops outside our house).

I think you would struggle to have grounds here. We were allocated a school a similar distance away which in itself wasn't an issue but we appealed on the grounds that our daughter (a former school refuser with diagnosed school anxiety, letters from GP etc) was being separated from the rest of her cohort and we feared the school refusal would start again.

Even this was a no-go.

So I suspect that just finding what is classed as a perfectly reasonable commute stressful will not cut it.

You need to be working with her to help her find this more palatable while waiting on the list for other schools if needs be. Keeping her out of school is just kicking the can down the road.

Would the school “ buddy up” your DD with a pupil that does the same journey? Once she’s travelling with other kids it’ll be easier for her.
I think you’ll have to put more effort into her doing the journey— she’s going to have to do bus, train, plane journey later in life.

@ChicCroissant Today 09:19 You must be in London to have a choice of schools that close to you OP,

you need approximately one senior school per approx 10-20,000 population, depending on how big the schools are. there are at least 40 cities and a fair few larger towns whose population would be big enough to warrant at least 3 schools