Fair access portal secondary school in year

[Myspace123]

Hi some of you might remember my post before I was doing a appeal to get my daughter back to her original school after moving her (which ended up being a big mistake) I lost the appeal and that was enough for my daughter to completely lose it and I had no choice but to de-register her from the school , she has now been home schooled for 8 weeks , this is not what we wanted and my daughter is desperate to get back to her original school still, I reapplied 1st aug for her to stay on the waiting lisT again , I keep in contact with the admissions lady at my daughters original school where she wants to go back to , she told me to go the route of fair access protocol as she has been out of school for so long . Can anyone tell me about this and if this would be any good for my daughter , she should be starting year 9 in September this is such a important year , I just need her back to school ☹️

Oh, OK then. You go and strop out at the Director of Education who is calling since you complained about Admissions. I'm sure it will help you get your own way, rather than listening to people for whom Secondary Admissions is literally their job.

He must follow the Admissions Code and relevant law. He can't just admit your daughter unless there is a place available and she is at the head of the waiting list. Maybe something has come up. Or maybe he is thinking of classing your daughter as out of education and using the FAP. But it could be nothing useful. I'm afraid you will have to wait and see what he has to say.

Some posters replying to you (not me) are experts in school admissions.
You’d do well to listen their advice.

Sorry it wasn’t aimed at you , it was meant for the person who posted before you

@NeverDropYourMooncup sorry it was aimed at the person before you ,

The director of education has to respond to your contact as they have to deal with any contact within x number of days, it doesn't mean they can do anything specific.

Have you made an in year admission application for your preferred school and been refused? That's when you would have been advised if your daughter's application fell under the fair access protocol. I'm taking it as you've said that your appeal failed that the application didn't fall into the fair access protocol categories.

Therefore, staying on the waiting list or doing a new appeal is really the only option for this particular school

I can understand how awful this feels right now but I wonder if you need to sit down with your dd and properly explain to her that you cannot instantly sort this out for her in the way she wants. Most children have no idea about things like how admissions work.

I think de registering her from the new school was perhaps a mistake as you now have no school. You must have felt there was a good reason to leave school 1. However it now looks like this was a mistake as she wants to go back. It could equally be a mistake to leave school 2. If you can't get her into school 1 for now. Maybe you could
Ask the la for a place in another school
Keep your dd on the waiting list for school 1
Explain to your dd why she needs to attend school 3 and that she will need to stay there until a place comes up in school 1.
Work with the school to resolve any issues and build some resilience in your dd.

As so often, I agree with prh47bridge.

Your child is de-registered and receiving education at home, so any provisions in the FAP about being “out of school” won’t apply to her. Even where the FAP is used, it’s about placing the child in the nearest school that can accommodate an extra pupil. Parents don’t get a choice and (in your instance) it’s unlikely to be a school which has recently satisfied an appeal panel that it can’t take an extra pupil.

I’m sorry this is still such a mess, but for now your options are to continue home educating or persuade your daughter to consider whatever school your LEA might be able to offer (via the FAP or otherwise). You can appeal once for any school year.

@PanelChair thank you for your messages , just a update I got my dd into a local catholic school just after the end of summer holidays , she has been there just under 3 weeks and yet again it’s nothing but stress . She has missed 7 days already is late everyday (up to a hour late) even though I’m dropping her to school (it takes me a hour to basically make her get ready ) she has been in exclusion twice already for arguing with a teacher 2 detentions and everyday I’ve had a phone call from different teachers about her behaviour, sometimes she’s crying and upset and other times it’s because she’s been in trouble , I literally cannot deal with this anymore . She has told every teacher she wants to go back to her original school and she has explained what happened the last year to them , the waiting list is ridiculous now she started at number 3 and just after summer holidays it went up to 13 . I’m literally at my wits end with all this now she’s not even learning anything or behaving and all she’s interested in is going back to her old school , this year has been a absolute nightmare for me to the point where I need to go to the doctors myself , my dd has a appointment next week with camhs , my question now is is there anyway her school can just do a manage move after 3 weeks of attending? They all no her situation and tbh if they don’t agree now I’m certain it won’t be long until It gets to the point where they want her to go , please explain to me how manage moves work . Is it the head of year who arranges it ? He already asked me if I have spoken to my dd old school about the situation and I said they do know it’s just a case of they can’t do anything as the Borough sorts the admissions out , but her old head teacher said if he could just bring my dd he would but it’s out of his control , this is getting worse and worse now , please help

Managed moves are a school -school agreement, so current school approaches 'other school' normally senior leadership do this. Then, it's up to 'other school' to agree and paperwork to be completed and signed. BUT at any point in the managed move 'other school' can end the managed move and your daughter would have to return to current school. Managed moves normally last around 6 weeks and have a series of targets the student must meet (normally around behaviour, attendance) also tend to be for students who are at risk of exclusion.

‘PanelChair’ is retiring from the MN education threads, so here are my last few thoughts.

The first thing you need for a managed move is a school which will agree to accept your child. The school you want satisfied the appeal panel that it did not have a place for your child, so it would be surprising if they said they now had a place for her. But, the situation has changed in that she is back at school and clearly struggling there (and you say the headteacher has said he’d be willing to take her back) so it’s worth starting that conversation about a managed move.

Thank you , I am 1000 per cent positive my dd will do everything right possible if they did Mm her back , honestly this is all she has wanted since , to be back at her original school , she is so angry with everyone including me because she wants to be back there , I feel like her behaviour and anxiety is getting worse and worse because she’s so frustrated and angry and she realises what a huge mistake she made , all my family life is being torn apart by this , it’s ok people saying she made the choice but she’s young and didn’t realise the consequences, well she’s learnt a very big lesson now , and now I’m paying for it ,

@Myspace123 contact the current headteacher and ask if they are willing to broker a managed move. That's the first step, as @PanelChair says, the 'old' school have to agree. I've known youngsters go on managed moves after appeals fail as managed moved don't count in their pupil numbers in the same way. This process can only happen between the two schools and your daughter needs to understand that the 'old' school can still refuse, it's nothing to do with the admissions team or local authority. If they refuse to do this then unfortunately and knowing that it's going to be a tough lesson, she won't get her way by behaving badly at current school (something teenagers struggle with when they want something badly)
Best of luck to you

Thank you so much for your information, my daughter spoke to her head of year today and told him she wants to manage move he said there’s a waiting list for managed moves ? Is that right because I have been reading up on it and I’ve not seen anything about a waiting list for Mm 🤔, she also spoke to another teacher who told her he will call her old school tomorrow and have a chat with them about it , annoyingly she doesn’t know his name or who he is at the school but I’m presuming he must be part of the pastoral or safeguarding team 🤷🏻‍♀️ @Lightuptheroom

@Myspace123 you'll need to ring the head or deputy head to talk about it, I'd be surprised if they would discuss it just with your daughter as you have to be in agreement etc. If you're not able to phone then an email asking them to call you when they are free is also good. Every school does these things differently as it's literally up to them how they do it and who they arrange it for, a lot depends on the working relationship between the 2 schools as it can be helpful to them to be able to 'swap' pupils over.
As to who discusses it, ask that question of the head/deputy head as different teachers can have responsibility for different things. Please try to not let her build up her hopes too high at this stage but explain that you're contacting different people

goodmorning @Lightuptheroom ive spent this morning crying my life is literally falling apart due to this (and other reasons) my daughter won’t go to school today I spoke to her head of year on the phone he just always seems like he’s in a rush going to meetings , he did say he spoke to my dd yesterday as well as the assistant head teacher (so that must have been the person my dd was talking about ) he said there’s a waiting list for manage moves to that school , is that true ? I’ve never heard of Mm having a waiting list and I’m not sure I believe that to be right ? He said he’s going to speak to the assistant head this afternoon and call me (although sometimes he doesn’t when he says he will 🤦🏻‍♀️) my dd told me this other man (who must be the assistant head) was calling her old school today and the head of year told me he is dealing with mya to and he will ask him about Mm as he knows about those things more than he does , I just have never heard of Mm being a waiting list .

@Myspace123 it's possible, though using the wording 'waiting list' is a bit misleading for parents. It simply means that they are having discussions about managed moves for other students as well as your daughter, where the discussions have already started but not yet been finalised, so they would need to add your daughter to the 'list'
I suppose they have to have a way to prioritise these things somehow.
I'm a parent too so understand your feelings but the wheels don't turn as quickly as your daughter would like and she's going to have to accept that conversations take time (teachers are often very busy etc)
Try to stay calm, if he's unable to phone you today then follow up with a polite email on Monday.

Are the difficulties in the school your daughter first went to, resolved now? I would worry that she might go back to a situation that caused her problems before, but she’s looking back at that school with rose coloured spectacles.

It is often difficult for teaching staff to respond during the day, because of their teaching commitments and meetings if they’re SLT. Of course you will be anxious to get a resolution to this situation, but it does sound as though the current school will be amenable to trying to work with the first school. If you don’t hear today, email on Monday, as PP said.

@PanelChair Hello - I am fortunate never to have needed your advice directly but find myself following the fortunes of others on here. You and the other education experts on MN have been so amazing in giving of your expertise, time and knowledge so generously, patiently and freely. I wish you a very happy 'retirement' and know how much you will be missed by so many.

The fact that your dd is misbehaving and demanding a managed move does not mean that the school need to get on the phone on her command. Arranging a managed move is the school's decision. It is not the usual first response when a child is not doing well. You must have had a reason to pull her out of the original school. They may also not be that receptive to having her back.

My daughter and her friend went to another school together (but her friend had a Mm which I didn’t know about) I’ve explained what happened at the start of this thread, she made a very stupid mistake in leaving basically , and there would be no reason for her original school to not be receptive of having her back ,the headteacher already said he would take my d back but it’s beyond his control due to admissions , as well as misbehaving she’s also very anxious and upset All the time , this year has been very traumatic for not just my dd , me to , the assistant head told my d he would call her old school and see what he could do ,

The school probably have a few children who they have been supporting and working with for longer than 6 weeks and a higher priority than a child on their 3rd school in just over a year, particularly where they seem to be behaving deliberately to get what they want. The school she left because she fell out with a group of friends, is obviously popular - they may not want to accept a managed move (it is easy for a headteacher to deflect and say would like to have her back, but can't because of admissions).

Looking back you don't say at all why she left. I am struggling to believe she would be a prize for her old school considering how she is behaving now.

Myspace123The head will tell you it is due to admissions because this is true but that does not mean he particularly wants her back either. If all was lovely before then you wouldn't have moved her would you?

Her behaviour wasn’t bad in her original school. She did her homework went to school on the bus on time , worked well in lessons ,she left with her friend to another school and I didn’t know until after the move that her friend had a managed move , yes was the most stupid mistake she’s ever made but it has affected her greatly the last 8 months , she has been out of school for 4 months until I got her into this school , the head is meant to be hearing back from my dd old school today as he called them Friday ,