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?

Thanks again.. I'm going to try and a different approach.. Hopefully will have a sympathetic panel.

Hello there, PLEASE HELP

This is my first time using this website, I have found many useful comments but wondered if I could get some specific advise.

My daughter has been allocated our third preference primary school. However I am wanting to appeal as I know a child that has been allocated our first choice school and she lives further away than us, I have searched on crow fly mapping and this is definitely the case. we both live just outside of the catchment, neither of our children have any siblings at the school, it isn't a church of England school so its not due to religious reasons that the other child has got in ahead of us. I've also talked to the parent of the other child who said they didn't have any special, medical or social reasons on their form. Is this right??

You need to
Check how the school measures distance... It may not be as the crow flies but shortest walking distance by path for example

Thank you ive just contacted them and they have said straight line as the crow flies, they are looking into it again for me.

Thank you all, i am sure that the other child doesn't meet any of the higher criteria, when i rang the local council, they have said that the computers are down but when they looked at the distance they and i had they said that there was a substantial difference in the miles and that on rechecking it it appears there may have been an error. Waiting for a call back. Fingers crossed. Thanks everyone.

Marking my place as there is a lot to read on here that seems really helpful and I don't want to lose the thread!!

Thank you. This is such a helpful thread!
Can I ask...would there be any potential to appeal in the following situation...
Two siblings already at a primary school and third child does not get in. School is catholic. Previous years the last admitted child has always been non catholic with sibling category. This year all Catholics got in. One intake of 30 children.
Eldest child has diagnosed asd and could not be moved without great stress. Pretty impossible to be in two places at once to get to different schools. Children's parent is school governor and has been for two years. Child lives within catchment and within walking distance.
Should the application have been considered under social and medical need based on need to be in same school as sibling with sen?
Any grounds at all for appeal that you could think of??

OMG Hellokittycat. It sounds like you are talking about my situation. My ds has not got a place at the school my dd both attend.
Same situation, Catholic school and one class entry.
We are literally 5 mins walk away.
Both my dd are asd, younger one is more profoundly than older one and that is my concern tbh.
To break her morning routine of walking to school may have disasterous effects on her settling at school. We have been talking to her about ds starting school so she will be ready for it but now he hasn't got a place I am panicking. She is moving up from infants to juniors so a lot of preparation is needed to prepare her for the move ( new classroom, new teachers, new area of school) I don't think I can spring a new morning routine on her too!
Even with the car someone will be late.
It's taken her a year of being in her class for her to finally talk to the teacher. I don't know what I am going to do.
My older girl is also asd but seems to cope a bit better although she will get stressed.

Thanks Tiggy,
How would I find out about bulge class options ( school is closed until Monday so I am unable to find out why my son didn't get a place but I imagine it is class size).
I will have to ask how high he is on the waiting list and what my options are.
I am not exaggerating when I say this will cause huge stress to all of us if he has to be taken to a different school.
My ds will be gutted that all his friends and his siblings are all at a different school but the effects on the girls could be awful.
My eldest has a statement because she is doubly incontinent as well as ASD and she will be taking her SAT's next year, and as I said my younger daughter has profound communication issues and really gets stressed at change.
I'm afraid I am not hopeful from what you have said though. I can't change faith. I will just have to hope he is near the top of the waiting list. Another stressful storm to weather.
No wonder I have a heart condition!

My daughter didn't get any of her choices in London but instead allocated a school 2.6 miles away, we will need to go past 10 other primary schools to get there. And it will mean a 40 minute, 2 bus ride commute because of the times. How my council can think that is acceptable for a 4 year old to commute that length is beyond me. My LA though has allocated local schools to children who live up to 4 miles away but they won't allow me to put her name on the waiting list as I didn't put it on the original application. I was due to move and had to split my choices, unfortunately my house buying fell through on the 30 January. I did notify the council but they said there was nothing I could do. I'm stressed as I am a single parent who has to work in Leeds one day a week. I have a good network of friends who can do pick up as I have no family here but not sure what I am going to do when she/if she goes to this school. No one will be able to pick her up and that means I won't be able to do my job as it is stated I have to go to Leeds regularly. Does anyone have experience of the council not allowing them to put names down on waiting lists? Anything I can do?

Inshock can I ask why you split your choices between (what you thought were going to be) new and old addresses? I can see that it makes sense that you would choose schools half way between the two, to cover all bases. But I don't see a good reason to choose some schools near one address and some near the other.

Unless you thought or were told that it would make a difference when you moved, either to your ability to go on waiting lists, or to your ability to change your choices when being treated as a late-with-good-reason applicant.

If you were told this by the LEA, I am pretty sure they were wrong. I have no idea whether that would be the makings of a successful appeal though.

For clarity, the Schools Adjudicator ruled a few years ago that the LA can restrict the number of waiting lists you are on (much to the surprise of many admissions experts). So if you are already on the maximum number of waiting lists they can insist you come off the waiting list for one school in order to go on the list for another. But they cannot stop you from going on the waiting list for a school simply because you didn't name it on the original application. If your LA continues to refuse tell them you will refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman based on their clear breach of the Admissions Code.

I split them as I was due to move to Bromley before the 15 February deadline. This means I would have been able to change my address and get the local school near the house I was due to buy. Unfortunately the sellers opted to take an increased offer 5 days before exchanging. I wasn't able to increase my price. I notified the council on the 30th January but they wouldn't allow me to change anything at that point. I am on the waiting list for 3 Forest Hill schools and 3 Bromley. The 3 Bromley do me no good now and would prefer to swap them for Forest Hill. The LA advised me to put different ones down as I was due to move in the specific time frame. I've been advised that I can withdraw my application and resubmit a new one with Forest Hill schools. I will then go on the waiting lists for the local schools on distance which is what I want. Functionally I can't send my daughter to this school. Has anyone done that? I can also keep her at her private nursery until January if needed in the hopes I getting a place.
prh47bridge - They have said, I'm not able to. Is it best for me to go to the LG ombudsman now?

But I think that, if you were allowed to change the address from which your application was being considered, you should also have been allowed to change the schools. You should always have matched the schools on your application to the address used for admissions purposes.

In that case, you should have listed only Forest Hill schools, and then if you had moved before the deadline, and Bromley were happy to accept your new application as late-with-good-reason, you should have been able to change not only your address, but also your choice of schools. Then in the fairly foreseeable event that you didn't move before the deadline, you still have the Forest Hill schools and address on your form.

I'm not in any way criticising you for doing what you have done. I suspect you have been given poor advice by the LEA, and I'm wondering whether that poor advice has led you to miss out on a school place (if you had listed six Forest Hill schools, would you have got one of those six?). If so, that might be grounds for a successful appeal.

I don't think they have said you can't go on the waiting lists you want. They have told you to submit a new application listing the schools you now want and you will then go on the waiting lists. That is a reasonable way for them to do it. They are saying that you can only be on 6 waiting lists so a new application tells them which 6 you want.