Reception place appeal advice!?

[Treely912]

Hello,

I’m attending my sons appeal in a couple of weeks to try and get him into reception, and I’m wondering what chance we stand of succeeding.

He’s attended the preschool/nursery for the past 18 months so has strong friendships groups and absolutely loves school, I feel so sad for him that he might have to move schools. This is our situation.. when we first applied for his place we were living out of catchment area. We are now close to completing on a new house less than 300 yards from the school.

Also, I’ve been unwell over the past few months and been diagnosed with Crohn’s. I’ve been heavily relying on my sister for pick ups and drop offs when I’m unable to leave the house. If my son is in another school she will not be able to help me at all because her children attend the school we are appealing for so she wouldn’t have time to get to a different school. Also, we use a childminder additionally who cannot pick up from any other school.

Do you think a major change in our circumstances, the house move and new diagnoses will help sway the appeal?!

Have we got a case at all do you think?

thank you 🤞

Presumably it is an Infant Class Size appeal. Unless your circumstances at the time should have placed your dc in a higher priority group, so a mistake was made that denied him a place, it is unlikely to succeed. Logistics will have no bearing and you need to check if your medical issues fulfil criteria for a social/medical need category if there is one and it applies beyond the child. Once you move he can move up the waiting list.

If this is an infant class size appeal, you should only succeed if there was a mistake in the admissions process that cost your son a place. You may strike it lucky and get a sympathetic appeal panel that is willing to bend the rules for you, but that is unlikely. It is still worth trying as you won't lose anything if you fail, but you need to be realistic about your chances.

If it is not an infant class size appeal, you have a better chance. However, I'm afraid the arguments in your post are weak. The house move and logistics issues are irrelevant for appeal. Friendship groups will only come into play if you have evidence, preferably from a medical professional, that your son has a stronger need than other children of his age to stay with their existing friendship group. Your medical condition may help with the waiting list if the school has a medical needs category that takes into account parental health, but it is not relevant for appeal.

To stand a chance of winning, you need to show that your son will be disadvantaged if he isn't admitted to this school. You therefore need to build your case around things that are available to him at this school but are missing from the allocated school and that you can show are particularly relevant to him.

No it won't make any difference, your partner or yourself will be expected to transport regardless of ill health or work commitments.

When your house move goes through, he will likely be top of the waiting list. What's mobility like in the area? There's often a bit of movement if people move house over the summer. (It might be worth checking how you make sure they have your change of address as soon as you move - it would be too annoying if a place comes up before they get that and gets given to someone else.)

Unfortunately "this child will transfer here as soon as a space becomes available, so it would be better for everyone if he just started with everyone else so he doesn't have to be settled in later in the term" is not grounds for appeal - although common sense might say it should be! At least if he does join later in the year, he already knows other children from nursery.

Hi OP. I am a TA and just wanted to say you really, really don’t need to worry about friendship groups. At that age they are very fluid and change friends constantly. They really have very little loyalty! One minute they are best friends with X and the next they are best friends with Y and don’t like X! Your child will be fine starting with children they don’t know. By the end of the morning of their first day they will have lots of new friends.

I can't help much with the appeal; it's very hard to win these.

However, I would imagine that your move will place you very close to the top of the waiting list (unless the school is hugely oversubscribed), as distance from school is usually one of the top criteria. There is nearly always movement between now and September; people move house, change their mind about the school, decide to defer their summer-born child etc. I was a governor of a small 15-form entry school and we always had one or two kids per year group move away / change schools / and usually over the summer. All is not lost, just make sure you update the admission authority (usually the council) with your new address as soon as you move.