Appeal - HELP!!!!

[FirstTimerWhaleWoman]

Hi there,

I was hoping that some of you lovely parents could help me with an issue re: reception class appeals.

My DD was refused a place at our first choice, an over-subscribed CE school, which is the nearest primary school to where we live. They've been fabulous re: communicating why and sending us a breakdown of how places were offered. We did not get one of the 30 places as 12 were given to CE children, and 18 'open places' were taken up by children with siblings. We're Muslim, but applied for the place on the basis that we would like our daughter educated in a school with a strong religious atmosphere etc. It really doesn't look like we're going to succeed in appeal, but I'm going to try on extenuating circumstances anyway.

Our problem is, for our second choice we applied for DD to go to a VA Muslim school which is in another London Borough, but a neighbouring borough. We live on the border of the borough and know families (neighbours actually) who have children there. It's a good school and the criteria is as follows:

1.Muslim looked after children
2.Applicants religious commitment in borough

1. Applicants religious commitment outside borough
2. All other looked after children
3. All other applicants

We fall under category 3 and supplied the correct proof of this within the time limit.

DD was refused a place, but we have not been given any reason as to why this was the case. We applied for this school as second place, only because we loved the CE school so much and it's so close to us. I've tried to get reasons for nearly the past two weeks and I'm hitting a brick wall. The neighbouring borough's admissions team tell me that as it is a VA school they cannot tell me and that the reasons for refusal come from the school. The school are telling me to get the RFR from the Council. The school said that they could only provide me with a copy of my application form, which I already have. Then when I made a real fuss I was told 'your daughter was refused a place because you live outside the borough' (this was by the receptionist huffing and puffing). I've been on the phone all week to the school to be put through to the admissions clerk, promised call back after call back to no avail.

I now need to make this appeal tomorrow to come within the 14 day time limit and I do not know what I am appealing. I need to show that they made a mistake in their application of the rules, but I do not how DD fits in to them. I've even sent an email direcltly to the Head of the school copying her in to the correspondence with the Council and school. No reply! I am really confused and frustrated. Any advice please as DD is my first and have no experience in all of this!

Sorry for the long post!

Firstly there is no such thing as a 14 day limit. That date is used by the LA to try and get all the people who want to appeal to get their appeals in. The LA do have a real problem in collating all the information and getting all the appeals organised within the deadlines set in the admissions code, so i understand why they put a date in, but it is not a deadline.

The other thing that you need to know is that you do not have to submit all your reasons immediately. So i would simply say on the form that you are appealing on the basis that you are of the muslim faith and want to have a faith education and that further details will follow. That should give you sufficient time to establish the facts and put together a proper appeal statement.

You need to be aware that as a muslim faith school it is quite possible that the appeal will not be via the local authority, the school could organise their own independant appeal panel. As the admission authority it should be for the school to provide the information that you are requesting but it could be that they are snowed under with requests for information. As you have written to the head teacher I am not sure that there is anything else that you can do in the short term. By law the school as the admission authority will have to supply you with information as to why you were not offered a place. I presume that the school had sufficient applicants from within the borough but that is the information that the school should provide.

Whilst it is extremely frustating give the school a couple of weeks to get back to you with the information but in the meantime the one thing you need to do is confirm that you are on the waiting list for both schools - this will be held by the Local Authority of the school, not the school itself.

Hello.

I'll try to make this brief, but the points which occur to me are

1. As a VA school, the school is its own admissions authority, so information about reasons for refusal should come from them. Don't be fobbed off. I don't normally recommend getting a third party involved, but could (say) your councillor or the leader of your mosque put some heat under them to provide the information you need?

1. You are entitled to information similar to what you got from the C of E school - ie how many applications, how many places awarded in each category, distance at which last place was awarded etc. You should also get confirmation of which category your application was placed in.

1. To preserve your position, I think you have to appeal on the basis that the school got everything wrong - ie they did not place you in category 3 (perhaps they placed you in category 5 with all the other applicants) or overlooked your application completely. It's then open to the school at appeal to rebut that, by demonstrating that they did consider your application properly.

1. Don't fret that you placed this school second - you wouldn't have been in a higher category if you'd placed it first on your list.

1. Have you got a school place for your child? Assuming that this school admits pupils in multiples of 30, this will be an infant class size appeal and so very hard to win unless you can prove a mistake has been made which deprived your child of a place. So you need a back-up plan. You can join as many waiting lists as you like.

I have been trying to get my son into a school near my home for the past 3 years. I have been on every waiting list since and all i can hear is there is no place.

There are six (6) primary school close to me and I have to take my son to school three miles ( either by train, and bus). I am a single parent and have to get someone to drop him off and pick him up from school which cost £475.00 each month. I work far away from home and leave at 6am each morning, I dont return home till 7pm each evening.

I am at my wits end and have been trying my best to get the local authority to place my child near home, so he can go to school with his other family embers and be taken to school by my family member. The thing is my family member who can help me out if my son was going to a primary school near home cannot do so if she has to travel with my son to another school. It would not have given her the time to drop off her kidds nor to car for her younger children. My son is stressed because of this and have a nose bleed every morning before going to school..

The local authority says I can appeal, but I have no idea what the proces is and what grounds to appeal on..

Can someone help.

1273, you would be better off starting your own thread about your situation and getting advice there. Otherwise, you risk getting muddled up with the different situation of the OP on this thread. Are you sure you are still on the waiting list for your preferred school? Three years sounds like a long time to not get a place. Also which position are you on the waiting list? Do you move up and down on that list, depending on other people's situation?

1273 - Yes, start your own thread. Include relevant information, such as

• the age of your child and which year group he is in. This is important because there is much more scope for winning an appeal for admission to KS2 than there is for KS1.
• how many of these 6 schools you have formally applied for, joined the waiting list for and appealed for (if any)
• how recently you applied/joined the waiting list/appealed
• any other reasons you have for wanting your son to be in a school closer to home

You'll then get a lot of helpful advice.