appeal - not infant class size

[clarence1972]

Any advice or thoughts would be welcome!

I am appealing for a school which has admitted 28 pupils, I have been told by the secretary that on 2 previous years in the last 5 they have admitted 29 pupils but the info from the LEA, when i asked, said that only 28 had been admitted for the last 5 years. The LEA also said that the school had more pupils that the net capacity and that this figure was calculated on there being only 25 pupils in R, year 1 and year 2. Some classes higher up in the school have only 22, 24, 25 pupils. I have asked for classroom sizes but they havnt supplied them. I have also checked the website for the next years admission and it states the PAN as being 30 (previously has been 25 or 28 for last few years). Not sure how to present this when writing my statement, is it ok to use info from the secretary even though different from the LEA and should i use next years PAN, thinking that if they can take 30 next year why not know?

Ofsted have never mentioned anything about overcrowding or lack of space and school has gone from satisfactory to good on a recent inspection.

to complicate matters I have twins so want 2 places, anyone got any experience of appeals and twins. Will they hear the appeals seperately? Should i put that I need them to admit 30 children on the statement?

Both have the same medical condition but have written 2 seperate staements with supporting info from hospital etc but they are virtually identical.

Thanks for responding - you guys with expert knowledge are great. Just to clarify - was 49 sq metres standard for a class of 30 in 1999, or as the school appeal statement says 'built in 1999 with classrooms for a maximum of 25 pupils' which of course is misleading as to capacity if it was originally standard for 30.

In 1999 a 49 sqm classroom would have been adequate for 30 pupils, so the LA's statement is misleading.

Having a bit of trouble posting, so if I am repeating myself excuse me!
thanks for responding - your information is really useful. Please clarify if 49m2 was the standard for 30 kids in 1999, or as the school appeal statement says 'the school was built in 1999 with classrooms for a maximum of 25 pupils due to the floor space being 48.7m2. If this was the standard for 30 pupils in 1999 then this is misleading (not to say incorrect!)

49 sq metre was considered the minimum for a class of 30 up to 2005, when new building regs came in, which took into consideration the new ways of teaching infants, the need for more computers etc.
So the statement is misleading in one way but it could have built to 48.7sq metres in 1999 and an admission number of 25 assigned to it at that point. They are allowed to set a lower level than the net capacity suggests.
So I don't think that you can openly accuse the LA have lying but you can point out that 49 sq metres was perfectly adequate for 30 when the classroom was built and in many schools would still be expected to hold 30 pupils.

Having sent an email last week marked urgent asking about the status of the unaccepted place and if the family had been written to giving them a deadline the following reply has been received 'on the point you raised of the unaccepted place please be assured that we are liaising with the family in question' . As we are unlikely to be able to screw any more information out of them before the appeal next Tuesday any advice on how we should present this to the panel? Really difficult as if we plead a mistake (i.e admissions process not being followed) for one twin we will not know the result of this one so could not present a non separation of twins case for the other in addition to the medical reasons for them going to the school we are appealing for. Can we say all this to the panel, and will they be able to rule in advance of the event if one twin is admitted?
Also they have not given us all the classroom sizes and floor areas of other bits of the school, but have said this will be presented on the day of the appeal.

The failure to give the information you requested before the appeal is a breach of the Appeal Code. It doesn't immediately help you, though.

Regarding the unaccepted place I suggest you just ask them in the hearing the same question you have asked them already. However, it is only really relevant if they have given the family a deadline which has now passed. If they haven't done that then I'm afraid it doesn't help you.

And I'm afraid the panel can't give an advance ruling as you suggest. The only options open to them are to admit or not to admit. They cannot admit subject to some other event happening I'm afraid.

Many thanks to all the brilliant advice we recieved.... WE WON and both girls now have places!

Excellent news. Well done.

Admission and prh47bridge...you are fine folk indeed. mumsnet is all the better for kind and helpful people like you. Thank you so much (and I have nothing to do with this or any other appeal - it is just a pleasure to read such helpful threads!)

REally pleased for you clarence and vert!

Thanks LitlePushka, I echo that...the advice here was by far the most helpful of any we received from any source. I am so pleased it is now resolved. One further query...I am soon to retire and having done six years a a chair of governors would be interested in serving on appeals panels....how does one go about applying?