Any grounds to Appeal?

[LovingTheSunshine]

Hi
DS was offered a reception place at our 3rd choice school, which is graded 1 (outstanding) by OFSTED. We are happy we have got a good school but sad that DS will be leaving his friends behind at our 1st choice school, as he has been going there a long time (pre-school & nursery). It is a CoE VA school & nobody got in under rule 6 (distance to school). We have many friends who live in our road who have children at this school & nobody thought we would have a problem getting our DS a reception place. The intake is 25 & this year there are 15 siblings, 5 live in the parish, 2 go to Church in the parish & 3 go to another Christian Church. As I have said earlier, the intake is 25 but last year they took 27 as 2 children got a place on appeal. By 2013 the intake will be 30.
Thanks for reading so far - I am just wondering if anyone thinks we have grounds to appeal at all? We applied under rule 6 & it is not out nearest school, nor is the school we were granted a place.
Thanks ladies :o)

By the way, we are going to remain on the continuing interest list.

Doesn't sound likely for an appeal if you have a nearer school, sorry. People do get in on waiting lists though so fingers crossed.

That's what I thought but I just wanted to run it past others so I didn't kick myself afterwards for not making sure I was thinking along the right lines. Thanks!

no, i don't think you have grounds to appeal. they have followed their entry criteria and you can't appeal just because you would like that school better i'm afraid.

Ok, many thanks :o)

Well, you can appeal if you want to - but I don't think it is very likely to succeed.

Do they have a single FS2 class of 25? If so then the Infant Class Size issue does not apply (ie the law allows them to have up to 30 children in a class).

For an appeal to succeed you would have to show that the school is the best one for him, as I understand it -which I suppose may be possible wrt friendship groups etc.

What does FS2 mean hun?

fs2 is foundation stage 2 = reception class.

Can't really see that you have grounds for appeal.. might not be any harm going to appeal but don't get your hopes up.

You have the right to appeal but I agree with others that there isn't anything here that gives you a particularly strong case. With an admission number of 25 it seems unlikely to be infant class size so you would need to show that the prejudice to your child's education through not being admitted outweighs the prejudice to the school through having to take an additional child.

You say the admission number is going up to 30 by 2013. Has that definitely been decided? Does it depend on completion of alterations to the premises? If not, do you know why they are raising the admission number?

Thanks everyone. We are on the CI list but do not feel we have grounds to appeal. Thanks again :)

Loving, I would have another look at what PRH has said. How sure are you that the PAN is going upto 30 in 2013 and on what basis ? If there is no building work planned then in effect the current admission number is set artificially low and therefore should be attacked at appeal as the school is clearly capable of taking an extra 5 pupils in reception and in every other year. The fact that 2 were admitted under appeal last year is certainly a suggestion that the 25 admission number may be artificially low.
When schools had a lot of surplus places one way a few years ago around that was for the school to "take out of use" one of the seven classrooms for a 1 form entry school for the basis of the net capacity calculation and use it as a library, staff room or SEN teaching area. In reality the school still had 7 classrooms and used them. Is this the case at this school?