School Appeal

[one4all]

I have just had a phone call that the school appeal for tomorrow is cancelled....... Since May we have been waiting to get our chance to appeal the decision and now I have just been told by the school that it will now happen sometime in September!!!!!!!! Can they do this??

No. This is completely unacceptable and rings all sorts of alarm bells. Why have they cancelled? Ring them back and point out that the Appeals Code states that all Primary appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the appeal being lodged or by the end of the summer term, whichever is sooner. The Appeals Code is a statutory code, which means it has the force of law.

I presume this school handles its own admissions?

If they fail to hold your appeal until September there probably isn't anything you can do immediately - the Local Government Ombudsman generally won't get involved in school admissions cases until after the appeal. However, should you lose your appeal you may be able to complain to the LGO on the grounds that delaying the appeal damaged your chances of success.

Also, for them to leave appeals this late and then cancel at the last minute makes me wonder if they appoint their own panel and have been using the same people for years. If that is the case, it raises questions about the independence of the panel. Again, that is something you can take up with the LGO.

However, that is for the future. Ring them and point out they are breaking the law.

Can't agree more with PRH this is totally wrong. The school has had months to get this organised if they do their own appeal hearings and should not be delaying till September.Even now they could arrange them for sometime in August, which will obviously not suit some families but they do have the time.

Before you ring the school I might just be tempted to have a conversation with the LGO and ask them exactly what their view is of the situation. I suspect they will not get involved until after any appeal as PRH says but they just feel this is something they can't ignore.

Then I would ring the school as PRH suggests but also tell them that you will be making a formal written complaint to both the school and the LA. To be honest i am not sure how much clout the LA will have in such a circumstance but it can't do any harm to send a copy to the Admissions Manager and it could make them take some action.

If I was being pedantic I would say that the school, as the admission authority, is getting close to the definition of being unreasonable. It is "perverse in the light of the admission arrangements" not to hold the appeal. That however is not the same as saying the school has to give you a place at the school.

My husband made a phone call to the school this morning and spoke to the head teacher. The Head informed my husband that it was unexpected and they will be looking into it later in the day!!! This he felt was not good enough and we contacted the LGO and told them the situation and they said thay can investigate this immediately as effectively it was unacceptable.
However he also contacted the authority that is responsible for this independant school and he again referred to your advice about the legal reqiurement of 40 days. They said they would look into the matter and within two hours he recieved great news that the appeal will be on for next week!!!!
I really do believe that if we did not contact the athourity that is responsible for the school we would have been waiting for our appeal until September.
Thank you very much for all your advice for now and the future. It is very much appreciated.

The school is a VA school not Independant

Glad to hear that's sorted. Good luck with your appeal.

That is good news that you will get your appeal next week.
On the negative side I think that you need to keep a very careful note of everything that is said at the appeal because having made such a horrendous mistake over the date of the appeal i worry that the appeal will be carried out with the same cavalier attitude to the regs.
I hope that you have a very good case for a place at the school.

Not sure if we do after all what has happened in the last 24 hours. I would like to say that the admission criteria on the schools prospectus states that children in nursery have absolute priority for a school place. Should we use this for the appeal as effectivly we are pointing out that they have not followed there own rules?

That is a very dodgy admission criteria to be used as the admission regs say that a school should only give priority to their nursery children if it does not prejudice those that have not been in the nursery. The general belief is that this is not easy to get round.
I would check that this is actually in the official admission criteria of the school as printed in the LA guide for admission to primary schools. If it is and you applied on time and did not get a place, then you may have a case but alternatively if there were more nursery criteria children than places you could have missed out quite correctly.

If the official version does not give priority to the nursery children but you have written proof of what is in the school's prospectus then you have a reasonable case that you have been misled by the school.

You should have had the school's case for not admitting so what did they say about your application for a place? Have they put you in the nursery category or not?

If you want to email me on [email protected] the school name and LA i will look up their admission criteria and give you an opinion on what it says.

Hello, Thank you for all the advise and the lovely offer to help me but I had my appeal today... I felt it went OK I was a little nervous but presented my case well with thanks to all your advise.