Advice for attending the schools admissions appeal panel

[bumbums]

We moved house at just the wrong time in the schools applications process. So my son has been offered a reception place at a school close to our old address on the other side of town (Chester).
I'm going to attend the appeal hearing and will say everything I can to gain him a place at our now local school.
Has anyone been through this? Where you successful? Any tips gratefully recieved.

The first question is whether or not this will be an infant class size appeal. That depends on the size of classes in Reception, Y1 and Y2. If it is an infant class size appeal you can only win if you can show that a mistake has beenmade. If it is not infant class size you will have a better chance of winning by showing the panel why your child needs to attend this school. Your case must be about your child's needs. Problems you may have with transport, child care, etc. will not help you to win your appeal.

Having said that, I note that Cheshire West and Chester treat a change of address after the deadline for applications as an on time application from your old address. They allow you to change your preferences but still process your application using your old address, which seems singularly obtuse to me. There is a similar case in another thread where a child has been allocated a school 15 miles away near their old address. That case involves another LA but you may want to look at the thread "Appeals, am I reading this wrong?"

You have actually been disadvantaged because you applied on time. If you had applied late you probably wouldn't have got a place at any of your preferred schools but the LA would have dealt with your application using your new address, so you would probably have been allocated a place near your current home. Because you applied on time they have insisted on using your old address so you have a place at a school which is miles away. I would argue that this is perverse. You can win any appeal, including an infant class size case, if you can show that the LA has acted perversely and a reasonable LA would have admitted your son.

In theory, even if an appeal panel accept this argument you should only get a place at the school you would have been allocated if the LA had used your current address, but a sympathetic panel may be prepared to stick their necks out for you.

Wow! What a fantastic response! Do you do this for a living? You seem very well informed!

I will make a note of your comments and bring them up during the appeal.

"You seem very well informed!"

No I don't do this for a living although I sometimes wonder if I should!

If you take a look around other appeal threads on here you will see why clam finds your comment amusing. I do know a lot about school admissions and try to help people who come on here with problems, as do a number of other experts.

I won my own appeal to get my youngest son into the local primary school - it was a complex infant class size appeal and it took two appeals and two references to the Local Government Ombudsman to get there! I have since helped quite a lot of people with their appeals one way and another.

I'm happy to help as much as I can so please feel free to ask more questions. As it happens I also live in the NW.

Bumbums,
Could you confirm the dates involved here. Were you an on-time applicant (15th Jan) who then changed their address before the 28th Feb, which should have been treated as an on time application or an on-time application which then changed your address after the 28th feb, which should then have been treated as a late application based on the new address or did you not apply till after the 15th January?
If you PM me with which schools are involved I can probably give you some more info, but there are very few places available south of the river and many of the schools are 1 form or 2 form entry so infant class size regs will apply. So only a mistake by the LA will get you a place at appeal so hence the reasons for asking about dates.

Admission - I agree the dates are critical but where are you getting the information that changing the address after 28th February should be treated as a late application from the new address? The guide for Primary places 2011/12 says (p6) "Proof of residency received after this date (28th February) will not be used to process the application, but will be used to send the decision letter on 29 April 2011." That sounds to me like they are saying they will process the application as an on time application using the old address.

Page 11 of the admissions guide has more detail of how late applicants are treated. I agree that page 6 could be read in a number of ways but I know that panels will take the information on page 11 as the way that it should be treated.

I had my initial application for schools near our old house in on time (before the 15th) We had our offer accepted on the house on the 28th Feb which is when I informed the Admissions team at the council of our move. I sent them a copy of the offer acceptance letter from the estate agent. The admissions officer said that I could change my preferences to schools near our new address and the application would be considered as on time even though I was doing this after the 28th. He did say that the decision may be made based on what was our current address and that I should work to provide them with proof of the move. I sent copies of the exchange letter from the solicitor and a statement from Child benifit as well as the council tax bill when I had them.
I am about to email them to ask whether any late applicants for this school have been accepted. We moved in to new house on the 11th April and the school places were anounced on the 28th April.
I have asked my doctor to write a letter confirming that I currntly take anti-depressants to combat severe pmt and that the added stress of a half hour comute to school would not help. Its a long shot I know!

Its Overleigh St Mary's that we want to get into. Been given Hoole.

I was lead to believe that the decision making process happened right up untill the date that school places were anounced. This has clearly not happened.

admission - I accept that p11 covers how late applications are handled but it doesn't say anything about a change of address within the LA's area being treated as a late application. On the other hand the section on p6 is specifically about a change of address within the LA and clearly says that a change after 28th February will be considered as an on time application from the old address.

bumbums - It is unclear from what you have posted whether they based the offer on your new address or your old address. My reading of their admissions booklet is that they would use your old address but the admissions officer you spoke to seems to have said something different. You need to know the answer to that question. If they have based the offer on your new address they haven't made a mistake and it is hard luck that it is so far away. However, if they have based it on your old address it is worth bringing up the argument I gave in my first post and also the information you gave in your post at 16:49.

They have based the decision based on my old address. Its as though the decision was made well before the 28th when the results were released

Bumbum, Yes Overleigh St Mary's is one of the more popular schools and always has appeals. This is made worse by the fact that there is a shortage of places generally south of the river.
Normally the LA would not accept a letter confirming that your offer on the house has been accepted, they would normally not use the new address until exchange of contract. Most LAs do this as they have had too many instances of sales falling down after initial acceptance and before exchange.
So the question is did the admissions officer put any of this writing. If they said in writing they would accept the new address on the 28th Feb, then that is strong evidence for the panel that there was an expectation that the new address would be used (even though it went against the LA policy)
The admission policy is clear that after the 28th that they will not accept change of address and that any decision to change address would then mean you were a late application. A late application would mean that you were not considered as an ontime applicant and you would be considered after all other applicants. Given the popularity of OSM, you would definitely not have got a place as a late application. You were not treated as a late applicant you were treated as on time asking for schools well away from your address and as a consequence allocated a place at Hoole, presumably as they had places. As such I believe from the posts that the LA have carried out the admission policy correctly, it depends on whether someone in the LA went off message and put something in writing they should not have done.
If I am honest any thing you submit on PMT will not carry any weighting and actually as OSM is a two form entry primary it will be an infant class size case, so you must prove that the LA did it wrong to get an offer of a place. Do you have a date for the appeals yet?

PRH,
The fourth paragraph on page 11 says "application forms and supporting documentation received after the 28th Feb will be considered after all on-time applications even where the Authority accepts that ther are good reasons for the late application and as such these applications made be disadvatnaged in the consideration of their preferences."
That to me is a late application, even though it does not say late application.

13th June.
So did they do wrong accepting my changes as an on time application? I have nothing in writing from them. I was told to keep sending in proof of the move to back up my application. I was given the impression that the final decision wouldn't be made till closer to the 28th April. Thus giving me time to provide the proof they needed that we had indeed moved.

Should I call the school to find out how many pupils they're expecting to start in Sept?

The LA did the right thing in accepting your change of address be used for admission purposes after the initial allocation on the 28th April. I believe that they did not accept your change of address and used your old address for the initial allocations, which was correct according to their policy.

You are going to have to argue that the LA gave you the impression that the new address would be accepted later than the 28th feb when the evidence was submitted, but without any evidence in writing that is not going to be easy to sell to the panel.

I would be tempted to ask the LA where you now are on the waiting list, just to ensure that they are now using your new address.

The admission number is 60 and this is I am sure is what the school will be expecting in September.

I think Admission and I have been a little at cross purposes and are actually in agreement. I certainly agree with everything in the post above.