Any tips for primary school appeals?

[smallmotherbigheart]

This is my first time doing this, and I want to do this right. My son didn't get into any of the preferred schools that we listed? Has anyone done an appeal before?

Thank you annh and tiggytape
He didnt have his hearing test til a week after the forms had to be in and the speech therapy til 3 weeks after so it wasnt on the form.
I dont know what sort of priority they give to special needs.
Would it be a waste of everyones time even appealing then

thanks tiggytape there doesnt seem to be much help for dealing with this sort of thing, ive spoken to the council school people today they werent that much help. I think we'll give it a go like you said we've nothing to lose but wont get my hopes up.

Thanks for all your - I will definitely appeal.
I actually found something in the admission policy:
If you look at point 2- it asks to check with the priest re boundaries which is what I did some time ago and also he signed the SIF form where it was marked ( by me but still) that i live in the parish- he counter signed it and this was submitted to the school.

The more interesting thing is that point 2 states:
-are committed and practising Roman Catholics who reside/worship- which can be understood that it is either reside or worship rather than both.
Point 3 actually mentions living outside parish.
That is even more ambiguity when you red those points as they can be understood as stating the same.

2 Baptised Catholic children, including baptised children belonging to all Churches in Communion with the See of Rome, where one or both parents/guardians are committed and practising Roman Catholics who reside/worship in the Parish of Our Lady. (See the Parish Priest for clarification of Parish boundaries).
3 Baptised Catholic Children, including baptised children belonging to all Churches in Communion with the See of Rome, where one or both parents/guardians are committed and practising Roman Catholics living outside the parish but worshipping at Our Lady . (See the Parish Priest for clarification of Parish boundaries).

Fingers crossed! I will be writing it all up this weekend!

Hi

Much advice needed please. Found this thread and have learnt tons from all you experts.

My son is due to start reception this year. Results came out today. We applied for 4 schools through the local authority and one free school. The free school has a separate application as this September will be its first intake class.

I was sure I would get my catchment area school as it is close to my house, but instead we are one of the 1% who has not been allocated ANY school by the local authority. No idea how or why that has happened. I assume all schools we were applied to were over subscribed and that we didn't qualify by distance, but I thought even then we would be offered a school even if not on our preference list?

We have been given a place by the free school but my understanding is that this would not be known by the Local Authority as it was a separate application? I actually think the free school will be good, just it has no historical standing and I am curious what other local school I will be offered.

Any advice of our position or what to expect since no school is offered at present? Will we still get a letter advising why we have been rejected from the four schools we listed, i.e. how far we are and the latest distance offered?

Thanks for any help.

evvkas - I agree with Tiggytape that the wording you have posted appears to mean you meet criteria 2 and should therefore have been placed in that category. They may have meant "reside AND worship" but that is not what their criteria actually say. And telling parents to see the priest for clarification of boundaries is not good if the priest himself doesn't appear to know. There is no guarantee the appeal panel will see it that way but I think you have a good case.

Waney - I have a little more experience/knowledge than Tiggytape in this area!

Free schools are required to take part in the co-ordinated admissions scheme run by their LA. However, a new free school may be set up too late to take part in the co-ordinated admissions scheme. Instead of being required to wait a year the new school will be allowed to run admissions itself, outside the co-ordinated admissions scheme, for the first year only. In that situation parents who receive an offer from the free school should also receive an offer from the LA if they get one of their preferred schools - after all, neither the LA nor the free school has any way of knowing whether the parents rank the LA offered school above or below the new free school.

In your situation you should get a letter advising you why you have been rejected from the schools you named as preferences. Whether or not you will be offered another school is less clear. The free school may have notified the LA of the children being offered places in which case you probably won't get another offer. However, if the LA is not aware of the free school place they should offer you a place elsewhere.

Thanks for the quick responses.

prh47bridge - will wait for the rejection letter and decide if worth appealing the preferred local school. I'm guessing the school was over subscribed and perhaps there was an usually high number of siblings as we live close and those on my road usually get a place. Not sure we'll have much of a leg to stand on if that is the case.

If LA does need to offer a place elsewhere, any ideas if that will be before the 2 May deadline when school offers need to be accepted? The free school place is obviously preferable to no school place! Or if I accept the free school place does that prevent us appealing on the preferred LA school place? As you say the LA would not know how we would have ranked the more local school...

As with any primary school appeal, the question is whether it will be infant class size. If it is you are unlikely to win unless a mistake has been made.

If the LA is going to offer a place there is no way of telling whether it will be before 2nd May. They may wait to see what rejections they get before offering places to those who didn't get an offer initially, particularly if they have more applicants than places and need some to go independent (or to the free school) to make it work.

Accepting the free school place will not prevent you from appealing for any other school, nor will it affect your chances of winning an appeal.

Hi,

Please help, my second child did not get a 1st choice even though we have older child in year 1 in first choice school,

we recently moved to another county and had to do a in-year transfer for our oldest child back in December 2012 but we did not get a place until end of Jan 2013 but when we applied online for our youngest deadline was 14th of Jan so we could not select the sibling option but we added on to notes that we have applied for in year transfer for our oldest so they can review before making decision.

we would like to appeal as there is no way we can be at two schools at same time and the fact that they did not look at our notes for in year transfer, thanks you

Thanks Tiggytape, I have spoken to LEA and confirmed he is on top of the waiting list...

and confirmed they did not see our notes regarding our oldest child's in year transfer and now they have included our young one to sibling criteria which means he is treated as sibling

But still like to appeal and what chances have i got?

Buzz, you may well get the place before the appeals process starts.

You will be appealing on the basis that the LA should have given your youngest sibling priority. Given that the place was awarded in January and the LA has confirmed that they missed the notes regarding the in-year transfer I think you have a reasonable chance of persuading an appeal panel that a mistake was made.

Just to add to my last post, it may be worth going back to the LA and pointing out that they seem to have made a mistake that deprived your youngest of a place. They may be willing to give you a place without needing an appeal.

thanks prh47bridge - I did and they said we will post you the appeal forms and there's nothing we can do, I request to speak to someone senior and they advised he/she would say the same thing, I didn?t have much choice...

So pleased to see prh47bridge is still on this thread! I have a question that I suspect only you may be able to answer. My son has attended the same nursery for the last two years. The nursery was a part of a private primary school, which I fully intended on sending him to in Sept 2013. However, this summer they were granted Free School status. Therefore the school is no longer fee paying. The nursery is very much integrated with Reception, with them sharing play areas and classroom activities during the school day. The nursery is also advertised as apart of the school rather than a seperate entity. My son has NEVER attended any other establishment. I applied for a place for him fully expecting him to get a place and was shocked when he was not. They have capped their PAN at 17, even though the school has 7 classes for the 7 year groups (inc. Reception) with 7 fully qualified teachers. The school as a whole is still approximately 30% under subscribed, however the Reception class is full at 17. In terms of the admissions criteria, we were likely to be low on the list, but because of our commitment to the school we really thought he would have a place. All his friends go here, it's all he's ever known and his father and I have just separated. He is a very sensitive child at the best of times and in the space of about 4months everything he has ever known is going to change. His education will be his one constant. So really my question is, even though they have set their PAN at 17, can they agree to take more pupils from the appeal process? I actually attended this school as a child and class sizes then were close to 30, with less physical space. My appeal hearing is next week (25th) and I am really clutching at straws now. If he doesn't get it I think I will have no choice but to home-school him.

buzzlightyear2011 - There is something they can do. If they have made a mistake that has cost you a place they should admit your child without an appeal. Unfortunately most LAs insist on making the parents go through an appeal.

Love81 - It isn't a question of whether or not they agree to take more pupils from the appeal process. They don't have any choice. The appeal panel will decide how many appeals succeed. The school must admit all of them. If the appeal panel think the school can handle 30 in each year without problems they are entitled to admit 13 additional children and the school will have no choice but to accept them.

Turning to your appeal, you can't argue that a mistake was made. The school must follow its published admission criteria. They cannot take your commitment to the school into account. It shouldn't be an issue the appeal panel take into account either. The appeal panel may be sympathetic to the fact you had a reasonable expectation of your child getting a place at the school but the change to free school status took that away. If they have been over 17 in any year group in recent years that is worth highlighting as it shows they can cope with additional pupils. You should also look at other aspects of the school that are missing from the offered school and would be of particular value to your son and highlight those as well as the continuity it will provide.

Hello -
My daughter has been given our fourth place school which is 7 miles from us and only accessible by train as I don't drive. I will be on maternity leave from September and have a very small income as I've been unable to find work since she was born but unable to claim any benefits as I was previously self employed. My husband works but very long hours and we're stretched to the limit. The school we want is our nearest school but it is a church school and we are not Christians, a catholic atheist and a Jew one respectively, but I have met a number of parents who have been given places there they don't want and live further away. I have applied for a full disclosure of the decision behind the allocation and there are two other schools we could walk to which we'd be happy with and are on the list for 'continued interest', but if we don't get a place in any of them we will appeal all of them. I guess from the thread that travel and being heavily pregnant are not going to help our case, how can we get evidence that an error might have occurred, such as distance from the school being wrongly calculated or discrimination on religious grounds? Thanks for any tips, I've been utterly devastated about it and can't see how we can cope with the journey and a new born.

Hi , great info above on appeals etc, just wondering thoughts on my own childs chances of appeal. We have 1 child in yr 1 and we sent our application for our 2nd child to join reception but unfortunately the application was lat and subsequently our childs application has now been rejected. Will it be as plain as black and white that because it was late our chances are small of winning an appeal?

tenacityflux - To answer your specific questions, the LA will tell you the distance used to determine your application. Make sure you find out how distances are measured - straight line, shortest walking route or whatever - and check to see it looks reasonable. Ask them for a map and make sure they have measured from the right house.

If you do not worship regularly you will almost certainly come after anyone who does in the school's admission criteria. That is specifically allowed by the law so there is no chance of winning an appeal on the basis of religious discrimination.

As Tiggytape says, if you named this school as one of your preferences you should have got a place ahead of anyone who did not. However, naming it as your first preference does not give you priority over anyone who named it as a lower preference.

As the school is so far from you your daughter is entitled to free transport to and from school. You are correct that the distance to the allocated school and the fact you are heavily pregnant won't win your appeal. If there has been no mistake it is unlikely you will win. You can still try - you never know what might come up in the hearing. But be realistic about your chances.

Morris1982 - I'm afraid that is black and white. You applied late. Your child therefore only gets a place after all the on time applicants have been dealt with. If the school is already full with on time applicants you don't get a place. The fact your child has a sibling already at the school doesn't change that. You are unlikely to win an appeal. Sorry.