Urgent help: Reception admission Appeal

[B4r4joon]

Hi all, I desperately need advice for my hearing set up for 6th June, as I have paniced.
I have a 4 year old daughter with severe anaphylaxis contact allergy to dairy. Her allergy worsened over time, initially only anti-hystamines used to control it, since Sep 2010 she carries Epipen. She started at a children centre when she was 1.5 years old at a place near where me and my husband work in central London. It was reasuuring to be close in emergencies which were many. It was a steep learning curve for staff to get to know her limits.
She has been refused a reception place in the same school becasue we live out of the borough. However I had applied under Medical/Social route which comes before distance criteria in that LA. They simply dismissed the medical reasons and put her on distance criteria. I am now appealing and I believe it shouldn't be the infant class size appeal, becasue I had medical resons and supporting letters.
I have letters from her Paediatric stating that staying in the same place is to her great medical benefit. I can not afford a trial learning time in a new school at her expense,as it would increase the risk of anaphylaxis shock. At the current school they got to know her while her allergy was milder, now it is life thretening. This I believe makes exceptional link between her current school and her needs. She is confident here, her friends know her limits. I also found out that in US small children with anaphylaxis allergy with no reading skills, get a certificate of hidden disability until they are able to read (food labeling). I have mentioned that in my appeal notes.
My question is how can they over write the advice of her doctor and put her in a new school which inevitably increase the risk.Who is responsible for this? Who guarantees her safety? I know that most/all school are able to deal with allergies, but continuity is what is best for which would minimize the risk. Any advice?Similar cases? Is there any material I can use?

Many Thanks

Interesting, by law there has to be a choice adviser in the LA, so that is wrong and yes I would fully accept that an appeal panel can be an intimidating situation for many people but should the school be saying that to you!

If you can say things on here then you can say it face to face to three panel members. Just make sure that you have some notes on the key points that you want to make at the appeal, so that you can focus on them and not get flustered.

I was once told that the way to overcome being intimidated by any kind of panel was to imagine them in the nude. the trouble is you might then end up with a silly stupid grin on your face all the time, so maybe not such a good idea. But they are three human beings with the same feelings as you, so think of them as that.

I was informed that in 2009-2010 one appeal was upheld for a reception place at the school, meaning they admitted one extra child (31 total). Can I use this to my benefit? That (although I don't know on what grounds) they admitted more pupils in the past (been in the same building, same class size etc), and it can be done again.....????

Not really, I think. The fact that an appeal succeeded in the past doesn't mean they are bound to allow yours too.

The extra child will have been an 'excepted pupil' under the regulations for the reception year but you may be opening a can of worms if you ask what problems having an extra pupil caused in years 1 and 2, where the infant class size regulations still apply and (unless another child left in the interim) they'd have had to employ another teacher.

Admission - Please do not invite people to imagine me in the nude. Even I don't want to imagine me in the nude!

Are you really an appeal panel member???

Yes. That's where my experience of school appeals comes from.

Honestly, I wish I had joined mumsnet before. Infact I had joined after my daughter was born, but kind of lost it in the first month when I was a bit down...........This is an amazing platform for info, advice.......sharing good and bad experiences....I already feel I belong to something I can't describe...a support netwrok, that I had so missed, not having any family in this country........I am speechless!!!! full stop.
Thanks all, sincerely,

hats off...

Panel Member- I was just thinking last night to ask you, with the information so far, would you admit my daughter??? tricky?!!!

That is impossible to say, B4r4joon.

I understand your concerns about your daughter's welfare, but you haven't yet said anything which would suggest that the LEA's decision not to place you in the medical/social category was so unreasonable that no other LEA would have made the same decision (which is what the appeal panel will be looking for). But that could change, depending on what the LEA says about how they considered your application and why they rejected it.

What I can say, though, is that I was involved in a broadly similar appeal where the child had some health issues arising from an earlier medical operation and the parent was arguing for the child to remain at the school where they had attended pre-school. We did not uphold the appeal because there was no evidence that this school was any better-equipped to care for the child than the other school that had been allocated. The issue isn't about whether the child has a health need, but about whether that need is one which requires specialist provision which only one school can offer - otherwise, schools are expected to cater for a wide range of needs, including allergies.

B4r4joon.
As panelmember says it is about individual cases, you cannot generalise in this cases. I have been involved in cases where we have admitted and also, as panelmember said, when we have not admitted.

I think if I can convince you, I can convince them!!!! ;-))
But how can I say they have been so unreasonable...I think I have said it...The panel being not independant. (I think the two negative votes came from council memebrs and the one positive one came from the community member), if other councils's similar medical panels do not consist of senior memebers of the council (as u also suggest), then the chance that I would get a medical category would go up....

PS. the school she has been offered do not serve lunch the way they do hre, do not have nurse on site, do not have separate play area for reception children, and I believe (and her doctor) these all makes the risk of anaphylaxis higher. Would the panle members or council guarantee my child's safety?would they guarantee that this change does not increase the risk???