Appeals process...what do I need to know?

[mooncupflowethover]

My 3 1/2 year old DS starts school next September. I am a christian, C of E, and very much want my DS to attend a C of E school. There is a C of E school out of my catchment area, but fairly close (2 miles). The intake is small, 15 is the limit.

Last year 30 applied and 15 were successful. Prior to discovering that fact I was pretty confident I could get in, not sure why I was really. Now I feel defeated before I've even applied, the odds seem to be hugely stacked against me.

Our catchment area school has problems with behaviour and discipline, it scraped though with a satisfactory. There are other schools fairly close, but they're not much better.

I have an adult DS whose schooling was an absolute disaster, at an underperforming school, when I was too young and immature to give much thought to how important schools were. I am desperate not to repeat the experience, for myself and for my other 2 DS's.

I now feel quite despondant. We can't afford to move nearer to the C of E school. I am going to apply anyway.

I'm pretty sure he won't get in, so I will appeal. I know there is info on the net, and books available to guide me through the process, but the amount of info is making my head spin!

I'm asking here because posters on MN seem knowledgeable about pretty much everything! Does anyone have any experience of the appeals process? Where do I start? What things will I be asked? What preparation do I need to do? All advice very gratefully recieved as I'm panicking a bit!

first things first...

Have you checked what the admissions criteria are? Is it a Voluntary Controlled (VC - controlled by the LA including admissions) or Voluntary Aided (VA - the governing body control admissions)
VA schools typically require church attendance for some of their criteria.

Work out which criterion you come under now & if you can move up the list (for example by attending church more frequently - although you are probably too late for this now...)
Find out which of the criteron they reached capacity on for the past few years & if you can also find out how far away the last child was admitted (some of this info may be on school/LA website, or a friendly chat with the school secretary will often reveal this information :))

Are there any social/medical/etc reasons why this school is most suitable for your DC? Most schools have some sort of "exceptional reasons" catergory near the top of their admissions criteria.

With an admissions number of 15 then any appeal would probably be "infant class size" (ICS)- by law no infant class can have more than 30 pupils - so I'm guessing that the school has mixed year classes ? These appeals are very difficult to win as you basically have to show that a mistake was made in applying the admissions criteria. This is why it is vital to find out now if you stand a decent chance of getting in & if not you can work out what plan B will be (which isn't necessarily your catchment school).

If it isn't an ICS appeal then your chances of winning an appeal are greater - you basically have to show that the prejudice in NOT admitting your child is greater than the prejudice the school will suffer if they DO admit your DC.

I'm sure the admissions gurus will be along shortly with some more top tips, but if you have any more specific questions please post them :)

Thanks so much Betsy . The school is voluntary controlled. I can't find the admissions criteria anywhere, it isn't on the school website (all it tells you is how many are admitted) or on the county council website...I've spent ages trying to find it, so frustrating. I may just ring the county council offices on Monday and try to find out that way.

There are no medical reasons, but socially I would much prefer him to be at a school that actively has daily worship. Christians are something of a 'dying breed' unfortunately. At my church I am the youngest (I'm 40) by a long chalk, probably 25 years or more! My DS goes to a little group, a sort of Sunday school..but there's only a few children there. That being the case, it would be fantastic for him to attend a school to worship with his peers.

The school has 3 classes, infant, lower junior and upper junior. I don't think it has mixed year classes. I wasn't thinking of going down the ICS route, it's the C of E aspect that makes the school important to me (it's also a lovely school in general).

The problem that I forsee is that I imagine most people who appeal will do so on religious grounds. So who is more deserving than the other in that case?

If it is an ics case, which seems likely, appeals on religious grounds won't work. As Betsy says an appeal will only succeed if a mistake has been made. Most ics appeals fail. You have no say in whether or not this is an ics case. That is entirely down to the sizes of the classes at the school.

Even with ordinary appeals religious grounds are unlikely to work. And it isn"t generally about being the most deserving.

As Betsy says, you should be doing whatever you can to improve your son's chances of getting a place rather than worrying about appeals at this stage.

Have you visited the school (schools in your area)? Do you have a copy of the prospectus, and the admissions criteria? In my area the LEA also produces a centralised document listing all the admissions criteria for all the schools.
If the school has 3 classes as you describe, they are mixed age. Normal non mixed aged class schools have 7 classes between the ages of 4 and 11 (reception and years 1,2,3,4,5,6).

Also just because your church has a falling role does not mean Christians are a dying breed. Locally we have several churches with more than 100 children every Sunday, there maybe far more children from committed Christian homes than you knew.

Do go and get all the facts.

The admissions criteria for the school are:

1. Children in care.

1. Children living in the normal area served by the school at the time of application and admission (including those living in another council's area).

1. Children not living in the normal area served by the school but who have brothers or sisters attending the school at the time of their admission.

1. In the case of voluntary controlled church schools, children whose parents request a place on religious grounds.

1. Other children whose parents have requested a place.

prh47bridge..thanks for your imput. You said I should be doing whatever you can to improve your son's chances of getting a place rather than worrying about appeals at this stage, and I understand what you're saying..but aside from actually moving to the normal area (I can't afford to), could you give me some suggestions as to what else I could be doing? Many thanks

mummytime ...The 'christians are a dying breed' quote came the vicar at the previous church I attended, I hope I didn't offend you. I have attended several churches and found that people of my age group and children were in the large minority. I accept that in other parts of the country this might not be the case.

I have visited the school, and have finally found the admissions criteria. It's not great from my perspective, which is why I wanted as much advice as I can get, given that (I'm assuming) it's unlikely my DS will get in.

Improving your prospects would have to be under point 4, since you can't move or suddenly produce an elder sibling. So make sure you have all the paperwork you need to show your Christian commitment: letter from the vicar to the effect that you are a regular churchgoer, other letter from Sunday school teacher that your ds attends regularly etc etc.

We had an excellent case under the social and medical needs but still had to go to appeal because one letter from GP was not deemed enough (secondary school, so much easier to win appeal- but very stressful and best avoided).

So spend time on your application.

You are jumping to conclusions before the admission process has really even started.

Could I suggest that you need to look at the admission numbers in detail. The LA has a booklet about admission to primary school, which will certainly detail the admission criteria for this school and every other school in the LA.

Part of the information that has to be there is to confirm the number of applications they had last year. So you are aware that there were 30 applications for the 15 places but in theory each pupil was allowed to state three preferences. Now it is only the first preference that they really want to go to, not the second or third, so what you need to discover is how many were actually first preference. If it was 30 then yes this may make it difficult but the other bit of information that is important that is in the booklet is what criteria the last pupil was admitted under. Now that could be under criteria 5 at a distance of 10 miles, so you probably being under criteria 4 at 2 miles does not seem so bad.

The other interesting thing is that there is only one class for the infants. If the school is continually full then there would be 45 in the infants (3 x 15) but assuming that the school is operating to the ICS regs and reception has 15 pupils, then year 1 and year2 can only have 15 pupils between them. So is reception just one of those freak years where there are lots of applicants or has something changed such that the school has suddenly become popular.

I agree with Cory, work on the faith side fo this to ensure that you are in category 4.

The problem is that year to year there is variation, so I do think you need to seriously look at the alternate school which you are in catchment for.

OK, don't lose hope before you've even started.

I agree, make sure you're able to show you fit into category 4.

You don't know how many children will apply, your year may be a lean year.

Also, even if you don't get in during the first round you may still get a place if you stay on the waiting list. People change their minds all the way up to september and beyond. We have just been offered a place for DS in reception for a catholic school. We're not in the parish and it was oversubsribed.