Primary Admissions Help.

[Jaxx]

I'm posting on behalf of my sister - alhtough my fist attempt ended up on the end of a thread I was reading - many apologies for this.

She failed to get her daughter into their closest school, which is about 0.3 mile away.

My niece has type 1 diabetes, her mother is a single parent who doesn't own a car. The school that has been offered (which is the next closest) is over 1 mile away up a very steep hill. There isn't a bus service they can use.

Although she included the fact her daughter has type 1 diabetes on the form, she didn't include any medical letters as she didn't realise there would be a problem. She has since had a letter written by her daughter's paediatrician making it very clear that medically she needs to go to the closer school. She submitted this before their "reconsideration process" after she was initially informed they hadn't got a place. She has heard today, after reconsideration, that they still don't have a place.

She seems very disheartened and feels there is appealing won't be worth it since siblings have priority over medical reasons in her area and there are siblings on the wait list.

The reception intake for the school is 45 and they are split between two classes, rather than having mixed age classes.

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

The fact that there are siblings ahead of her on the waiting list is irrelevant for an appeal.

The big question is what happens in Y1/2. My guess is that they will have 3 classes with 30 children in each, in which case this will be an infant class size appeal according to the rules. That means your sister should only be able to win an appeal if she can show that a mistake was made. It is not obvious that any mistake has been made so her chances of success are low. However, I would still recommend trying. She may get a sympathetic panel who will decide to admit your neice on the basis of the letter from her paediatrician even though the rules say they shouldn't.

If they have 2 classes in Y1 and another 2 in Y2 this will not be an infant class size appeal. Your sister would have a good chance of winning in that case. It still isn't guaranteed but the paediatrician's letter would give her a strong case.

I would second everything that prh47bridge has said.

Your sister being a single parent and not having a car aren't relevant to a class size appeal (and probably won't get your sister very far even if this isn't an ICS appeal). If this is an ICS appeal, probably the best outcome will be to get your niece into a higher category on the waiting list.

Your sister needs a back-up plan. If she doesn't want the allocated school, she needs to find another acceptable school nearby.

How do you know that there are siblings on the waiting list, because all you should have been told is where you are on the list, not what is in front of you?
The question that needs answering is whether the initial allocation of 45 only got down to siblings or whether they actually got past the medical category and the siblings are late applicants. If they did get past the medical category then there is part of the admission appeal code that you could potentially utilise. Paragraph 3.23 says that the panel should take account of the material that was available to the admission authority at the time when the decision was made, or material which would have been available to the admission authority if it had acted reasonably. You could argue that reasonably would have been to contact you for the medical evidence given that you stated on the form that there was an issue over diabetes. If you have a nice panel then they may feel that the authority did not really go out of their way to help.
However if they did not get past medical in admitting 45 then it is of no use to you in an infant class size appeal.

Thanks you everybody for your very helpful and informative responses.

I advised my sister to request the breakdown of how places were allocated on offer day. The cut-off distance if it was required and the distance they have on record from their address. I've also asked her to get confirmation of if the infant class size rules apply or not.

Re the siblings on the waiting list - she was told this by someone in the admissions department. They may have been late applicants though. There were 18 siblings last year - so it must have been very freaky if they had more than 45 this year.

I think there is a chance they have made an error. She never for example received her initial rejection letter and although requested they haven't provided a copy. The school isn't wonderful (Satisfactory rating, 7 out of 10 classes are in temporary buildings), or in an area of dense housing - so although possible, she would have been unlucky not to get a place given they live less than 0.3 miles away.

Otherwise, she will have to go to appeal and hope for the best, using the paediatrician's letter and the Paragraph 3.23 argument. She is still adamant this is the only school my niece can go to and isn't looking at other options. My niece is an August born child, so at present she plans to keep her in pre-school for the year and keep hoping a place will come up.

Again, many thanks for your help.

How does your neice get her insulin? Is she on MDI/pump, or twice a day? If the former, this may be relevent - most schools will not administer insulin or do blood tests during school hours unless they can find a volunteer who will agree to do so - which means that your sister at least to start with would probably need to attend school to do this.

Her best bet might be to join & post on the Children With Diabetes mailing list, there are parents on there with tons of experience of such things. We successfully applied for my DDs reception place on exceptional medical need grounds, but those were related to me not her - partly because I'm also type 1 and unable to drive as a result. I got letters of support from my consultant and HV as well as writing one myself.

Whatever school your neice does end up attending, you might want to show www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org/diabetes-at-school/school-care-plans/ to your sister too. Good luck!