Help needed for Reception Class Appeal 2011

[Littlericky]

Hi, I am new to this. I have 3 kids, one at secondary and 2 at combined primary/junior schools.
To cut a very long drawn out story short, I have an appeal date for 7th November for my son to attend the same school as his sister. She only moved to the school 10th October after being on the waiting list for 11 months. He remains at the old school as there are no places available. The schools are 7 miles appart and is impossible to be at both at the same time.
I understand that an appeal will most likely be unsuccessful but was advised to do so anyway on the grounds that the place was available for my daughter in July but was overlooked and not offered until October when I chased Admissions. Had she been offered this place in July, then my son would have moved up the waiting list (sibling rule) and possibley been offered a place for September.
In the last month 3 children moved above him and he is currently 4th!! :(

Any advice at all would be greatly received as I have never been in this situation before or ever attended an appeal.
Many thanks x

I don't have an experience but wanted to bump your post for you. I hope you get the help you need.

Thank you xx

Littlericky,
The key question for this appeal is whether as a reception class appeal it will be an infant class size appeal or not. If it is an infant class size appeal then only a mistake by the admission authority will get you a place at the school, if it is not an infant class size case then you can obviously put forward any arguments for wanting a place at the school, one of which is going to be the other school is 7 miles away.
Have the LA accepted in writing that your daughter should have been offered a place in July? If so then you have a reasonable case for saying that, assuming your son was on the waiting list for the school, that they would then have been counted as having sibling priority. Obviously what you do not know is where that would have put him on the waiting list and whether any pupils were admitted to reception after that time. If there were and your son would have been at the top of the waiting list then the LA is guilty of maladministration and the panel should grant you a place. If there were no admissions since July then where your son might or might not have been on the waiting list is immaterial.
I think you are saying that there are 3 pupils with a higher level of priority than your son now. Is that with sibling priority or without it?

It sounds to me like you may have a good case to argue that a mistake was made.

Your daughter should have been offered the place in July. Assuming you accepted the place that would have moved your son up the waiting list. So the central question is whether any children have been admitted from the waiting list since July and, if so, whether your son would have been at the head of the waiting list at that time if your daughter had been admitted. You should ask the local authority if there have been any admissions from the waiting list since July and, if so, whether your son would have been at the head of the waiting list if he had been given sibling priority.

Some appeal panels may take the view that your son's case was administered correctly given that your daughter wasn't admitted until October. However, the panel should take a wider view and, given that the admission arrangements have clearly not been administered correctly, consider whether your son would have been admitted if the mistake had not been made.

You can talk about your transport difficulties but they do not make a strong case. Appeal panels generally don't consider such matters. And from the sounds of it at least one of the schools must be far enough from your home to mean you qualify for free school transport.

You will receive the council's case for the appeal before the hearing. If you tell us what they say you will get help here on any weaknesses in their case which you can bring up in the hearing.

Just to cover the practical stuff briefly, at the hearing itself the council's representative will present their case to refuse admission first, following which you and the panel can ask questions. You will then present your case, following which the council's representative and the panel can ask questions. The council's representative sums up their case then you sum up your case. You will probably not find out the result of the appeal on the day but should hear within a few days.

Thank you both so much for your replies!

Yes this is an infant class size appeal, no the LA have not accepted in writing that a place should have been offered in July. I know this information through a friend that is friends with the mother of the child that left the class in July (the available space). My daughter was 1st on the waiting list for the whole 11 months she was on it, that I do have proof of.

My son has been on the waiting list since allocations were made in April although wouldn't have moved up under the sibling rule until my daughter started the school. The 3 above him are 2 "in catchment" children who went on the list after allocations were made and appeals heard (not 100% on dates). On the 11th Oct he was 3rd on the list and on the 12th Oct he had moved to 4th as another older sibling had started the school and they live closer than us (I don't know who they are or distances).

We do not qualify for free school transport as the school 7 miles away is not catchment, we moved from that area in 2008 to where we are now. The preferred school is approx 1.5 miles from our home but is also not our catchment school.

I will email admissions to ask the information on allocations since July and where his place would have been if my daughter had of been admitted.

As soon as I receive the paperwork from the appeals team I will post it on here as requested for any further help and advice.

Is there anything else I can be doing in the meantime? Thank you both once again for your input, I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for the help. x

You are clearly not entitled to free transport to your preferred school as it is too close to your home. The situation with the school 7 miles away is a little more complex. The fact that you have moved away from that school does not disqualify you from receiving free transport. The question is whether or not the LA can provide a place at a school nearer your home. If they cannot they must provide free transport. If, however, there is a place at a nearer school but you have chosen not to take that place you are not entitled to free transport.

Turning to your appeal, I would also ask the council to confirm that your daughter was first on the waiting list for this school in July, that a place became available in July and that it was not offered until this month.

You say that your son wouldn't have moved up the waiting list under the sibling rule until your daughter started at the school. I would check the wording of the admission criteria carefully as you may have been entitled to sibling priority as soon as you accepted the place. If you are unsure, let us know which council we are talking about and I will check (PM me if you don't want to post the information publicly). This could be important if a place came up over the summer holidays, for example.

Given what you say about the waiting list, am I correct in assuming that in catchment children take priority over out of catchment siblings?

I haven't been offered a place at a more local school but also have not asked if there are any places. I know our catchment school is full. My son is only 4 so wouldn't want to send him with strangers, ie free transport, but thanks for that info.

I believe the new school place was offered and accepted by the child who left the class on the last day of term in July (I have friends finding definite dates out for me :)). The last email I had from admissions was 7th July to say my daughter was still top of the list and my son 7th. On 14th September I had a letter to say my son was currently 5th on the list (before my daughter was offered her place).

I do not know the sibling criteria, we are in Buckinghamshire County Council. If you are able to find out the criteria, I would be grateful, thank you!

I believe in catchment children take priority over siblings. I do know at the time of allocation that all in catchment children were offered a place and some siblings. All other siblings were offered a place in the next round of allocations in May.

Thank you once again x

I have now emailed The Admission Team asking for the advised information. I will update you when I hear back :)
You have been a massive help. x

In Buckinghamshire children in catchment take priority over out of catchment siblings. Their rule on siblings is a little complicated. Children applying for entry to Reception as part of the normal admissions round get priority if they have a sibling who is attending or has been offered a place at the school. Children applying for in year admission get priority if they have a sibling who is "in Year R to Year 6 at the time of admission to the school".

That wording is somewhat vague. However, I would say that your son would have qualified for sibling priority as soon as you accepted a place for your daughter. As the place should have been offered at the start of the summer holidays, I would say that your son should have been given priority from around the beginning of August.

If there haven't been any admissions from the waiting list since then this is all academic. However, if a child has been admitted and the place would have gone to your son if he had been given sibling priority you have a strong case.

It is worth trying even if you don't have a strong case. Free transport or no, 7 miles is a long way to go to school at this age. You may get a sympathetic appeal panel who are prepared to give your son a place even if they have to stretch the rules a little.

As the Buckinghamshire admission criteria gives priority to catchment pupils before siblings, I suspect that no matter what happened you would not have been entitled to a place, as you are out of catchment. You say that your son was 7th on the waiting list on the 7th July and that as of now there are 2 in-catchment pupils on the waiting list. It is highly probable that they were on the waiting list on the 7th July and you would have had lower priority than them, so would never have been in a position to be no 1 on the waiting list and be potentially offered a place.
As PRH says that should not preclude you from appealing for a place, but the chances of success are low, unless the panel view 7 miles as being an unacceptable distance for a 4 year old to be travelling.

Thank you both once again.

I have had a reply back from the admissions team to say no admissions have been made since may 24th so I guess this is all irrelevant now .

The preferred school accommodates hearing impaired children so can go over 30 in those instances only. Apparently there is 1 hearing impaired child in the class but the class size is still 30 total, so maybe this is another route to look at? I'm not sure if those rules apply to reception classes though.
I will have a more thorough read through the case files when I have the children in bed later x

This is a particularly difficult area and it is possible that Bucks LA will do their own version of the principles applied.
Usually if the school has a provision of any sort which requires a special needs statement (in this case for hearing impaired children) then at the standard point of entry into the school, that is at reception in September, then those children usually count as being part of the normal admission number of the school (part of the 30). However if the child is admitted to the school with a statement naming the school at any other time than the normal admission point then the child will be admitted no matter how many there are in that year group, that is they will exceed the 30 in the class.

admission sorry to pounce on your wisdom but can you explain how appeals to church 'aided' schools are different?

prh47bridge and admission, thank you so much for all of your input with this!

I have now read all the paperwork and have come to the conclusion that this appeal is more than likely going to be a lose but am going to go ahead all the same. You never know unless you try!

I will ask the question on hearing impaired children, the school can accomodate 12 above normal class sizes of 30. They currently have 8 in attendance at the preferred school, 1 of which is in the current Reception class. Rules well may be different for Reception classes, but it doesn't hurt to ask? Other than that I can only go with distance thing as it wouldn't have made any difference when my daughter was admitted (July or Oct) to my son as no alloctions were made after 24th May.

I will keep you updated! Thank again x

tryingtobemarypoppins2 - They should be the same. They are governed by the same Admissions Code and Admission Appeals Code. Many get the LA to deal with appeals on their behalf.

tryingtobemarypoppins2 as PRH says they have to abide by the same admissions code and appeal code but there are differences of approach.

If the school is a community or a voluntary controlled school then the admission authority is the Local Authority and they have responsibility for everything to do with admissions and appeals. However voluntary aided schools, catholic schools and schools that are foundation, trust or Academies are their own admission authority which gives rise to certain duties. Firstly the school governing body is responsible for setting the admission criteria for the school, which can be different from community schools. Secondly the governing body is responsible for putting all applicants for places in admission criteria order (though not the actual allocation of places, which is carried out by the LA).

Schools who are their own admission authorities are also responsible for setting up their own admission appeals. If they have any sense they delegate that to the Local Authority as they have far more experience of the process and will furnish independent appeal panel members. However some schools do the whole process themselves.

When it comes to the appeal exactly the same process is carried out with one difference. The presenting officer is normally a Local Authority officer for community schools but for schools that are their own admission authority it has to be somebody from the school. In the case of primary schools that is normally the head teacher, in the case of secondary schools either the head teacher or a deputy head teacher who has responsibilities for admissions. The disadvantage is that they frequently have far less experience than a LA Officer who can be presenting appeals nearly everyday in the "admission appeal season", which can be to the advantage of well prepared parents. The other disadvantage I perceive as a panel member is that during the appeal the head is arguing that they cannot take any more pupils whereas if they lose the appeal, then they then have to subsequently build a relationship with the parents. That can be awkward if you have strong disagreement during the appeal process. I know some schools that deliberately use governors as the presenting officer, with the head teacher present to answer specific detailed questions about the school. By using a governor as presenting officer they can deflect some of this problem.

Have you a particular issue with admission to a faith school?