Is this grounds for appeal?

[JenniC]

Hi ? I am looking for some advice on whether I have a reasonable case for appeal.

We put down our 3 closest schools in order of distance from school and were allocated our third choice school. We want to appeal for our first choice (non-catchment) school and also our second choice (catchment) school.

Our argument is (and I have requested data from council to back this up):

We didn?t have a realistic chance to get into our catchment as there were more than 62 children living in catchment, and only 30 places available. We live very close to the border of our catchment area and children living on our road have not got into the catchment school in recent years. The school that we live closer to (which was our first choice but not catchment) has offered to ?out of catchment? children the last few years. Also, its catchment area physically shrunk 2 years ago when a new school opened up. This year it had 67 catchment children and 60 places.

My argument is that the admissions authority should have reviewed the catchment areas in our town by now, because of the new school opening and looking at the trend of increasing pupil numbers in our catchment area. There is currently no plan to do this. I'm saying that if they had reviewed it then the most obvious outcome would be that my road would be moved into the catchment of the other school that we are closer to, and therefore my daughter would have got into our first choice (although I can?t prove this part, of course).

I wanted to use this for both my appeals, arguing that my non-catchment school is the one we ?should? have got into if the catchments had been changed, and for the catchment one, that we were unfairly disadvantaged due to where we live, having no chance of getting in even though council knew the pupil numbers to be too high for us to get in and has taken no action to address this issue when it should have done.

I'm hoping this will be grounds for appeal, but I'm not sure and I don't want to put myself through the stress of putting a case together and worrying about it if it's highly unlikely to win.

Thanks.

As far as I know - if the school has infant classes of 30 and those are full, then you are very unlikely to get a place on appeal unless they messed up your application in some way, or didn't apply the published criteria correctly. It doesn't sound to me like this is the case, so I would think your chances are VERY slim.

If there are less than 30 children in the classes at the schools you are appealing for, then you need to argue that it si in your daughter's best interests to be in one of those schools, and that it will not negatively effect the education of the other children in the class (by, for example, meaning there are not enough desks/equipment).

That said - it is always worth a try. If you don't try it will definitely be a "no".

How do you know the number of children in catchment? We only know the number of applications which could have come from anywhere.

Thanks Oakmaiden - yes, the classes are 30 and full.

MollieO - I e-mailed the council and asked them. You are entitled to find out under the Freedom of Information Act. I found this out before we put our choices down. I e-mailed them again today to get the facts to support my arguments.

You need the advice of one of the appeal bods on here like panelmembervor ph47 (can't remember their name).

I will PM them and point them to the thread. Thanks. :)

I am sorry to say that your case sounds very weak - and rather contrived - to me.

One of the appeal panel's jobs is to check that the admissions criteria as published in the LEA's schools admissions booklet have been properly applied. The appeal panel can't speculate about who might have got a place in a parallel universe where the schools are organised differently with different admissions criteria. The panel can't entertain arguments about "my child would have got in if the catchment area boundary had been redrawn" or "my child would have got in if the school had doubled in size" because that really isn't the point and, besides, any and every family could make the same argument about their child.

I don't follow your argument that if your road had been moved into catchment for the non-catchment school, you would have got a place. You've already said that there were 67 catchment applications for 60 places - moving your street into catchment would have increased the oversubscription here, surely? To be blunt, if parents nominate schools at which they are highly unlikely to get a place, that is a very risky strategy but it doesn't give grounds for appeal and an appeal panel is unlikely to be swayed.

As the class size is 30, these will be infant class size appeals. You are only likely to win if you can show that their has been some serious error or maladministration which has deprived your child of a place. Rather than argue that the admissions criteria are all wrong, identify any compelling reasons why your child should go to either of these schools. Pinpoint reasons why the 'prejudice' (ie disadvantage) that your child would suffer in not going to these schools would be greater than the prejudice to the school in taking an extra pupil. Frankly, you shouldn't win on this basis because the infant class size rules should prevail, but you may get a sympathetic panel which sticks its neck out on your behalf.

I'm sorry to sound so harsh but you need to go into this with your eyes open.

Err. I found my own way here. It may not be what you want to hear but I hope it helps in some way.

Thanks, Panelmember. No, you don't sound harsh - I just needed to know whether this was grounds for appeal and what you are saying is that this would not be (and shouldn't be). I cannot argue that my child would be disadvantaged by not going to this school and I don't want to waste anybody's time by taking this to appeal if it's clearly not going to win so this is why I posted it here.

I have already notified the council that I believe they need to review the catchment areas as the new school has impacted on other catchment areas. I just didn't know if this was a valid argument to present to an appeal panel, or just to leave it at having raised the issue with the council.

Thanks again.

Got your PM but I'd already found my own way here.

I'm afraid I agree with Panelmember. As this would be an infant class size appeal you should only win if you can show that the council has made a mistake in applying the existing admission criteria. Whether or not they should have reviewed the criteria is outside the panel's remit.

As Panelmember says you may strike it lucky and get a sympathetic panel. It is not unknown for panels to admit children even when the rules say they shouldn't. But if you do decide to appeal you should be realistic about your chances of success.

Do make sure you are on the waiting lists for your preferred schools. You may still get a place that way.

clutching at straws

Thanks prh47bridge. We won't be appealing. As I said, I don't want to waste anybody's times and if the rules say I shouldn't win then I won't pursue it.

coccyx - As I said, I did think this but I just wanted to check seeing as I'd already raised the issue with the council.