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?

because that would be very good parenting leaving a 7 year old to their own devices

Your child would be in a school playground with adult supervision. Nothing wrong with that as parenting.

Please don't take that attitude in the hearing. You will rapidly lose any sympathy the panel may have for your situation.

Many parents of 7 year old children and younger take them to school, make sure they are in the playground then leave. You may be unwilling to do that but don't expect the appeal panel to regard that as a major factor. If you really don't want to leave your oldest in the playground your options are:

• see if there is a place for your oldest at your youngest's school
• find another school (probably an unpopular one) that can take both of them
• home educate
• get both children into an independent school

You could, of course, get your youngest child to school late every day but that will result in you facing fines and ultimately more serious sanctions. The courts won't have any sympathy for your view that you cannot be expected to leave your 7 year old in the school playground supervised by school staff.

Many parents have to get children to two or more different schools every morning. You may not like it but you may have little choice in the matter.

thank you the county council order for school placement is 1 special needs 2 siblings 3 catchment area 4 non catchmen(without writing a essay)
cc actually said they have no record of us having a daughter at all let alone in the school(on computer system),she has been there since reception

In that case drop the stuff about transport difficulties and concentrate on the fact they appear to have made a mistake. Your youngest was entitled to sibling priority and didn't get it. Unless they can blame that on you somehow (failing to fill in the application form correctly, for example) that is a clear error which would mean you should win your appeal unless there have been a lot of other errors.

prh47bridge - can I ask for some advise please.
I am appealing in the morning for my twins to attend the school which they were turned down. The school was oversubscribed and therefore they were not granted a place. My son already goes to the school but leave in July, so I understand that this cannot help my case.

The School is 0.8miles away, but we have been given our nearest school which is 0.5miles. It is however quicker to walk to the school that we have been rejected, and safer.

My reason for appeal is my daughter suffers from Separation Anxiety Disorder, and we need to put her into a school that she is familiar with - she obviously knows this school because she has dropped her elder brother off there every morning and collected him. She knows the teachers and other children there because of the network we have built up within the school.

Separation Anxiety can be so bad, that she was in hospital not too long ago with weight loss through it. We have a doctors letter which we have supplied in the case, to state that my daugther needs a small school and one which she is familiar with. We also have a back up later to state this from the Nursery she currently attends.

I also have Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which when I get a flare up makes it so I can't take my children to school - my husband would therefore need to take them, but in order for him to do this, he needs to make use of the breakfast club - this school that they have been turned down is the only school in the area that does a breakfast club. Without this, I wont be able to take my children to school on the times when my Disease is at its worst?

Do you think I have a good case. Class Size are 16, and Y1 - 8. They combine the years. Last year, was same figures but they took 3 on appeal?

Many thanks.

Your bowel disease is unlikely to. Carry much weight but your daughter's separationanxiety is very relevant. From the information this is not an infant class size case. Provided your expert evidence backs you up you have a reasonable chance of success. Good luck!

Thanks to those that helped with my previous question. Our appeal is in one week and the numbers are stacked against us. My son's older brother is already attending the school we applied for and didn't get a place (none of top three). My (very specific) questions are these:

1. How many UK counties do not use the same selection criteria as .........shire and use an admissions model that prioritises the presence of a sibling already attending the school applied for, above the distance the family lives from the school?
2. Assuming there are counties that use different criteria as suggested in Q1, how many of these counties converted to their model from a distance based model and how recently?
3. What are their reasons for converting away from the ‘distance based model’ to a ‘sibling based model’?
4. How many, if any, counties have converted from a model that prioritises the award of places to children who have existing siblings already in the school to a model based on prioritising distance ahead of such a criterion i.e. from a ‘sibling based model’ to a ‘distance based model’?
5. Do you have any information on the pattern internationally in terms of the proportions of countries using these (and other) models?

Any help most appreciated, although the questions are so specific, I am not sure who can!

Hi all,

Just thought i would give some advice on my appeal lodged with DD 1st choice primary school,

We picked 2 schools based on where we were currently living in macclesfield.. (We were due to move up to buxton before admissions day arrived, so therefore put down the closest school to our new home..) but as we were still in macclesfield at the time of deadline day they took into account our old address not the new one, yet we informed the new authority (Derbyshire) by email/telephone we would be moving well in advance and could provide evidence to support this etc..

Story short, my DD was given a church school 3 miles away from our new home, compared to the local area one at 0.8 miles away! (Big difference) as I don't drive and the school was difficult to get too,

My appeal was based on Admission size, and I grabbed the bull by the horns and involved every organization going (children's centre, the school I was appealing for itself and the health visitors for all the support I needed and help getting the appeal together, I can definitely say knowing I had intervention & support really helped me be strong and provide a strong valid case against the panel, resulting in the appeal being successful, all I can say is never give up.. & if you are not happy.. HAVE A PLAN B...

Keep your son/daughter in nursery until a place becomes available at your preferred school.. Don't settle for second otherwise you will resent the school given & will not make good grounds.. If it has to be done to ensure your given a better chance next time do it.. You won't regret it!

If anyone would like information or advice please message me, I am more than happy to help as I have experienced a class size appeal & I'm one of the lucky minority to win!

Good luck all
Laura

hontin - I'm afraid I don't know the answers to your questions but I'm not sure why you are asking them. The answers won't help you at appeal. The panel has to deal with the admission criteria as they are unless they break the Admissions Code. Even if your LA is the only one in the country using these criteria the panel has to stick with them.

prh47bridge - thank you.

I increasingly feel that I am about to attend an appeal where I have nothing useful to argue. My son has no LS or medical needs and no unusual ability that the school would be better placed to develop. If establishing that there is a trend nationally and internationally to move away from the numerous developmental issues associated with splitting siblings is not a valid argument, I will be sitting there silent! Very frustrating.

tiggytape - thank you

I will have a look for the document you mention - is it a government doc or county council doc. Do you have a link by any chance (or just a point in the right direction)? Thank you

had our appeal hearing & won on 1 sibling should of been on system so mistake has been made & 2 it was decided it is impossable to get both children to school on time if the appeal was not overturned
woop woop

tiggytape - thank you.

I have downloaded the doc and will examine closely. We will also make the appeal as personal as possible

Hi all, I have been studying this thread for many weeks now whilst preparing for our appeal, it's been really helpful. My daughter did not get a place at our preferred Infant School, as her older brother has not been taken into account as a sibling. He will be moving up to the linked Junior School in September. Without the sibling link we have been considered by distance only, and as it had been a strong birth year we missed out. Most families on our street have kids at that school. We have prepared our appeal based on a variety of grounds around sibling relations, family stability, logistics, languages (the Infant school is good at foreign languages and my daughter is brought up bilingual), emotional impact etc. It is not an ICS appeal.

I am also arguing that the LA did not publish a composite prospectus on its website, something that is required according to the Schools Admissions Code. My point is that at the time of application I assumed that my older son would be considered a sibling at the linked school (they have the same name, uniform, etc) so I would like to argue that it was difficult to find the relevant information on their website and that it was easy to make the wrong assumption. Is this a fair point to argue?

I have also just discovered another potential point though that I would really appreciate some feedback on. The admissions criteria state the different priority groups as 'within the normal area of the school' and 'outside the normal area of the school'. On another place of the website they show 'catchment areas'. Our local community considers our area to be the normal area of the school as it is in walking distance and many kids go there. Could I have a point in stating that the admissions criteria do not make it clear that 'normal area' is the same as 'catchment area'? As you can tell, I am clutching to straws here. Any objective feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance.

The panel are unlikely to give any weight to arguments around sibling relations, family stability or logistics. Emotional impact is also unlikely to help you unless there is expert evidence. You point regarding languages would appear to be the strongest part of your case.

I would be very surprised if your LA failed to publish a composite prospectus on its website. It would not go under that title. They are normally called "Starting Primary School in X" or similar. Even if they really did mess this up it would only help you if it directly cost you a place. It does not sound as though this is the case.

I would need to read the admission criteria in full before commenting on your last point. PM me the name of the school and LA if you want me to take a look.

MinnieM77,

Your raise some interesting points. Re the School Admissions Code potential breach, I think you need to show that your child has been disadvantaged and should have been offered a place if this hadn't been the case.

I know of an example where the panel thought the school was in breach because they had not consulted on their admissions policies for many years (more than the 7 stipulated in the code). The parent did not win because there was no link they could see between this and the child not being offered a place. I don't think being unaware of the sibling policy will help you much.

I think the confusion between "normal area" and "catchment area" could help you but again you would need to show exactly how your child had been disadvantaged and that you should have been offered a place. If for example you are highest placed in the "catchment" area but a child in the "normal" area has been offered a place instead of you, there might be a case.

I think you are definitely right to bring these anomalies to the attention of the panel but they may not help you win your case.

In terms of the 'normal area' and the 'catchment area', they must presuambly mean the same thing, but the LA calls it 'normal' in the oversubscription criteria, and 'catchment' on a different web page. My argument is that we consider ourselves to live in the 'normal' area as most kids on our road go to this school but we are outside the official catchment boundaries. If they mean the official 'catchment' area, should that be spelled out in the criteria? i'm just trying to turn up anything even slightly ambigious, could argue then that we were in the wrong category. Probably very thin ice i suppose ... ?

Prh47bridge - how do i Pm you?? I'm new to Mumsnet, have never posted before today... Thank you!!

You would need to show the connection between that ambiguity and your child not getting a place. If the admissions arrangements advice says different things of course the panel will be interested but you still need to show that your child should have been offered a place.

Hello me again. Hoping for some moreA1 advice from prbridge and tiggytape again.

So to update I had to appeal under FOI to get access to the info I needed for my appeal (distance of last offered place and my distance etc).

Question 1- they have refused to release this as
"I confirm that we hold the distance information requested, however we are unable to supply it as it is personal information. Disclosure of this information may lead to the possible identification of the individuals involved. The exemption we are relying on is Section 40(2) – personal information, the disclosure of which would breach the first data protection principle as outlined in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998. The exemption applies because disclosure of this information would not be fair or lawful and we consider that the individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

I am stunned by this defence- so interested in views? They have even applied this exemption to info about our son's place on waiting list and distance from the school. (frankly I find that utterly bizarre).

Second question
They have disclosed that they admitted 3 places who were disadvantaged by the original error, taking them to 63. But in an answer to another question they have admitted that no children have been admitted from the waiting list for the 3 rejected places we are aware of. Ergo- I think they have basically used these places to bring roll back down to 60- though that is not admitted anywhere.

Lurking on another thread I found the following advice:
"The action an LA should take on finding they have made a mistake is covered by the Admission Appeals Code paragraph 2.7 (which says they must offer a place without an appeal) and paragraph 3.18(c) (which says that children admitted late because the authority realises they have made a mistake are regarded as excepted children and do not count towards the infant class size limit) combined with Admissions Code paragraph 1.50 (which has been mentioned above)."

Does this mean that they should not have absorbed their error in this way from rejected places? In which case where we currently are on the waiting list becomes important?

Grateful for any advice please ladies. We have another 2 families also appealing- so fear if they accept the school has not acted lawfully we still will have to go against the other parents to get a place.

Hi, I am new to this and would appreciate help with an appeal. My DD did not get a place in the Catholic school in which her DS is in.(in Y3). We are not Catholics and were hopeful that she would get in on the sibling link but this did not happen; as Catholics get top priority before siblings and there were even more Catholics this year , which meant some did not get in either.
The main point to the appeal, is that 4 years ago, her sister got a place in this school because the school we had accepted claimed not to have received our acceptance letter and therefore ended up giving our place to another child. We complained to the school and local authority and they got us a place at this catholic school. We did not do a formal appeal.
Our argument is that had this error not happened 4 years ago, our children would be in the same school , as the sibling link in the other school is top on their admission requirements.
This school has now became an academy effective April 2012 and the Governing Body is now the admission authority (not certain what the impact is). Academies are not required to have a net capacity assessment but the last assessment was done in 2008 and gave a capacity of 603 and an IAN of 86. PAN has ben set at 90 for each year group.
This is very confusing, as based on PAN; for all 7 years, then net capacity would have to be at least 630?
Really appreciate some help on both the strength of using the 4year error and the issue with PAN. Many Thanks

Apologies, academy status was effective 2014, not 2012 :)