Late appeal

[Shep83]

hi my son got offered his 2nd primary school and at first we excepted it as in 6 months preg and with the baby due in sept it was going to be easier with the school round corner. Well me & my partner have now changed our minds ESP after meeting all the staff and plus our son wants to go to his first choice with the rest off his nursery class. How and what can I do to get him in this other school, I have been up all night worrying and all my son keeps saying that he wants to go to school withhus friends HELP

Do you have any grounds for appeal, other than you don't like the teachers and his friends are going elsewhere becaue those unfortunately are not going to be good enough

The first question is whether an appeal for your first choice school would be infant class size. Whether or not it is depends on the way classes are organised in Reception, Y1 and Y2. If some of the classes would have 30 children in them if all three years were full it will be an infant class size appeal. That means the only way you can win is to show that a mistake was made and your son should have been admitted. The most likely mistakes are that your son was placed in the wrong admissions category or they got the home to school distance wrong. If no mistake was made an appeal is unlikely to be successful.

You stand a better chance if it is not infant class size but, as spanieleyes says, not liking the teachers and wanting to stay with his nursery friends will not win an appeal. You need to show that your son will be disadvantaged in some way if he doesn't go to this school. To use the technical terms, you have to show that the prejudice to the school through being forced to admit an additional pupil is outweighed by the prejudice to your child through not being admitted to this school.

You won't lose anything by appealing but I wouldn't get your hopes up. You probably have a better chance of getting in through the waiting list than through an appeal.

I should note that your son will quickly make friends at his school if he does end up going to your second choice. Friendships are very fluid at this age.