Admission appeal

[MumsVoice]

Hi all,
I am in desprate need of some advise I have 3 children (1 in reception 1 in Year one) my youngest is in nursery and I was told last week that she did not get in... I have been to see the head and she has told me that the school is over subscribed and she was not choosen. I live a good 10 minutes walk away and a 5 min bus ride. I have to appeal in the school as well as independant appeal??? I have just read that they said they have 8 class rooms and all the classes are full of the 30 in a class year group? Also I have found something that they had a portacabin put in the school with two class rooms for an extra year 1 class. They have said on the sheet that they have no other avalible class rooms yet I know they have a extra class room in the portacabin! I have no idea how to deal with this situation can someone please help?

Nightmare for you, I am so sorry. How many on the waiting list ahead of her?

She was 6th on the waiting list last monday and speaking to the head today she said that the list wil change tomorrow becasue of the people that do not want the place... She also stated that she will not go down on the list no matter who comes onto the waiting list?
Very stressed out.....

"She also stated that she will not go down on the list no matter who comes onto the waiting list?"

Are you sure? Isn't cared for and then catchment first?? What local authority are you? Have you spoken to LA?

It is 30 by law in the infants. I don't think the portacabin will make a difference as they would need alot more pupils to equal the cost of another teacher.

There were 109 children applied for this school, The waiting list is over 40 at the moment!!! I said to the head are you sure she wont go down the list even if the children are of higher priorties she said no to me and my husband today!!! I have also looked at another factor that is some of the school classes have 27 children and I know 3 parents that will be moving in the summer!! a total of 6 kids out of there older classes!! so can I appeal because of the older classes have not got full classes?

Im all over the place today? sorry!

Mumsvoice, sorry, but you won't be able to appeal if older classes lose children because of infant class size regulations which mean that yr R,1&2 are restricted to 30 pupils per class.

There is only one appeal. You should have been sent details of how to appeal when you were told that your daughter didn't get a place.

As there are 30 children in each class this will be an infant class size appeal. This doesn't stop you from appealing but it makes it very difficult to win. Basically you have to show that the admission authority (the Local Authority for most schools but some schools such as faith schools are their own admission authority) made a mistake and that your daughter would have been admitted if they'd got it right. You can still appeal even if you can't show a mistake has been made - it is possible that something will emerge in the hearing that will persuade the panel to admit. But to be realistic your chances of success are small.

I'm afraid the vacancies in other years don't help you. From the information you have posted the school isn't currently operating classes with mixed year groups. The appeal panel can't dictate how classes are organised. They have to work with the organisation the school is using.

The Portakabin doesn't help you either. The appeal panel has to work with the admission number that has been set.

If the head has told you that you can't go down the waiting list she clearly doesn't understand how the waiting list works. It MUST be ordered according to the admission criteria. So if a child of higher priority comes along they go ahead of your child on the waiting list. If they are doing anything different from that they are breaking the regulations.