No information on school records??

[marysgarden]

Im gathering evidence for my appeal and i thought it would be useful to know if the school im appealing for has ever taken over the pan. I called the lea and they said they do not hold information on such records as it changes so frequently there would be no point. They said that they think the school in question has always had a pan of 90. But surely if appeals are won then this would take them over the pan?but they have no record of it and can not look back over previous years,just seems a bit strange to me? They did say I can contact appeals who could send me information on how many appeals were refused and sucessful but it is not for a specific year group its over all year groups throughtout the year. Surely there must be some data on the lea records of how many children have been admitted?

Also could I add if anyone knows, if in the past a school has created a bulge class within the school (so no new additional buildings etc) does this show that the school can cope with more pupils without causing prejudice and they could admit more pupils?

The LA are spinning you a line. Of course they know how many pupils they have had over PAN. However this could be a case with a PAN of 90 that they have never exceded that number. It is also important to note that with a PAN of 90 they cannot excede their PAN without breaking the infant class size regs. So if they have gone over 90 it will only be when an appeal panel has admitted because of a mistake by the LA.
If you want to look at some specific figures, then every school has to submit actual numbers in each year group on a set date in January, which is then used as the means of calculating funding for the next financial year. It is called the Section 251 report and it will be somewhere in the LA website, but probably well buried. Look through all the different files and you will find one that has all the school numbers on it in year groups
A bulge class is what the name says, it is supposed to be just in the one year group and most panels would not accept it as having set a precedent for admitting more. If however they have more than one bulge class then this is then becoming the "norm" and may well be viewed differently by a panle.

Thanks admission i will have a look to see if i can find the files,i didnt think it seemed right. The appeal is for a junior place,the school took a bulge class in 2006 and also 2002