Young Carer - Grammar School admission

[busySunflower]

My elder son who is a young carer has qualified for grammar school, the admission criteria says:
"Children who have exceptional medical or social needs (e.g. registered young carers), which can be met only at this school, supported by written evidence from a doctor, social worker, educational welfare officer or other appropriate person. "
Can some here guide me how do we mention that this school can only met the needs ?
Has anyone been through this journey, do we need to fill EMSAR ? EMSAR considers only one grammar school and it has to be top preference, our 3rd preference specifically prioratise young carer but we realised this very late.

This is for Bucks

Only if you can show that the school is the only one that can meet his needs.

On what grounds does his caring responsibilities mean that he needs to be at that specific school? Why can't this be met at the other schools?

What are his specific responsibilities as a carer? How will the specific school impact this?

Fair Access Protocol applies if there are no schools with places available to offer within a reasonable travel distance, not for the general Secondary Admissions process.

@Serencwtch Bucks have already ruled his needs can be met at other schools.

@LIZS Not sure if you picked up this is Bucks. We don’t know where op lives, but we do know he’s passed the Bucks 11 plus but has not been successful in getting the grammar they want prior to offer day.

He’s obviously not been allocated any school yet. On 2 March, he may or may not be offered a grammar in Bucks. I believe they will allocate places in accordance with published admissions criteria. If dc isn’t in Bucks, then there will be a catchment school that’s not a grammar because only Bucks has grammars, adjacent LAs don’t. So it’s perfectly possible for Bucks not to offer a grammar if dc lives too far away.

If not a Bucks resident, op should have applied for her local comp, or could have applied for a Bucks secondary. We don’t know what she’s applied for. I’m certain Bucks acts legally with its grammar school admissions but not all dc passing are offered places because the schools fill up via admission policy application which usually involves a distance criteria being applied. If op wants to appeal if dc doesn’t get into a grammar (lives too far away?) then out of catchment living in another LA means it’s unlikely to be successful. Again, I doubt Bucks gets this wrong and there’s ample info on their website about school allocations and appeals.

Yes .i was aware. My comment was in reply to op hoping FAP might be relevant. Agree it won’t be in this scenario nor for an appeal. It feels as though op is clutching at straws as chances of success based on 11+ score and catchment are borderline at best.

@LIZSYes - straws. Bucks publish their admission distances going back several years so op can see patterns. Obviously people get hopeful that there’s a low birth year or a low pass year, so distance increases, but quite frankly, all the grammars here are extremely good. I’d always recommend living in catchment. Most parents are happy with their allocated grammar too but living in catchment means there’s transport available.

Unfortunately we havent got the desired grammar school we missed it by 1.6 miles, we are appealing for it.
any suggestions mums

Sorry you didn’t get the school.

You need to appeal why the school is the right school for your child, not why others are not suitable.

The elevenplusexam.co.uk website has good advice on appeals. .

What are the specific grounds for needing that school.

A large proportion of children will have at least one disabled sibling so that's not usually grounds in itself.

What are the specific caring responsibilities and how does the allocated school v preferred one impact that.

How much further away is the school you've been allocated

@busySunflower So which one did you get? There are NO bad grammars in Bucks! What can possibly be wrong with another grammar? What grounds do you think you have for appeal? Frankly, I’d not bother.