Did not get any of 3 choices of primary school - help with appeal please

[HCqueen]

My daughter has not been offered any of my 3 choices of primary school, on the basis that they are all over-subscribed this year. The school she has been offered gets a Good Ofsted but it is also in a disadvantaged area. Apparently the majority of children starting the school are below average intelligence and they only bring them up to average by the time they leave. This is now what I want for my daughter - she is a clever girl and the last thing I want is for her to be held back.
Since I applied for the school my partner and I have split up and his new flat is very close to the school I'd like her to attend. This will form the basis of my appeal. However, I'm concerned that this will not matter as they base the distance on the address of the parent who claims the child benefit (which is me).
Has anyone had any success in a similar case, or can offer me any advice? Appeal forms are not available until 3rd May so I have a few weeks to prepare.
Thanks, Helen

Intelligence is quite difficult to measure, so if an Ofsted report was to say that most children are below average intelligence I would take it with a pinch of salt. But even so - in practice almost one out of two people is below average intelligence, as intelligence is normally distributed. That is a lot of people who are below average intelligence!!!! So I would try not to be worried by this at all. What is much more important is how the school comes across at your visit. How is the school run? What is the head teacher like, what are the staff like? Take your child along and see how they interact with your child. Also, what is the overall atmosphere at the school, do the children look happy, do they seem to feel secure? Good luck, try not to worry too much.

You seem to be muddled about the difference between attainment and intelligence. Nothing you have mentioned would give you grounds for appeal. The argument that "my child is too clever/too nice to go to school with less intelligent/poor children" is never going to win an appeal, and especially not if it's an infant class size appeal.

Visit the school you've been offered. Look for any others which you like more and join the waiting lists for those.

GiddyPickle - I hear what you say, but appeal panels are never going to be in any position to say "You're quite right. Ypur child is special and deserves better than the children at Average School. Your child should go to the Best School in Borough". The primary school admission process is all about the application of admissions criteria which are intended to be as fair as possible, and the panel simply can't make that sort of judgement. Sadly, though, that's what many parents want.

Yes, I agree with you, GiddyPickle. Some schools with a bad reputation don't deserve that reputation. There's a lot to be said for visiting a school and not relying on Ofsted reports and local gossip. Other schools really do give cause for concern (although, even then, they probably don't deserve the dread and hysteria one sometimes sees on here). But even then, it seems to me that if there are schools in the area which are so awful that people don't want to send their children to them, there ought to be some sort of campaign for political pressure to be applied on the LEA to raise standards, rather than a boycott at school application time.

mind you, this school has a good OFSTED rating so not all are judging it badly!

Go see the school...sounds like a good one and you are misunderstanding how teachers do their jobs in primary schools. Trust them to look after your child's education.