Admissions: Appealing due to social issues!?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I wonder if anyone can help me try and figure things out.

DS is likely to be going to a special school shortly. It is in a small town that we have no hope of ever affording to live. We won't get transport to it. The local schools to it are all oversubscribed.

DD will be starting school next september. We would want her to attend ideally the nearest school to the Special school or at least one vaguely near it, otherwise we'd have to pay for ill-affordable childcare simply because of ds' disability iyswim which is crazy as I don't work for the main reason that we can't afford childcare. Also, I don't drive, but I don't believe this is considered when allocating places.

Now she isn't technically a sibling of any of the schools, but the sibling issue still applies as far as I can see.

Would this ever win in an appeal situation, or would we even get into one of the schools on social grounds?

Many tia.

Why will he not get transport to school? Isnt he entitled to that?

Because our LA are bastards and we had to fight an expensive legal case that rested on us agreeing to concede on the transport and take responsibility for it ourselves.

Anyone even have a clue?

more knowledgeable posters will know.

From what I've seen, I wouldn't imagine that you could access a school place outside of where you live (so out of catchment?), with no sibling link.

I'm amazed you had to concede transport to get a place at an appropriate school, although I know your authority so actually I shouldn't be surprised.

I am appalled that you had to give up your legal right to free transport. Is that actually part of the court's decision?

I don't know which LA we are talking about but I doubt that you will get sibling priority for your daughter.

Most appeals for Reception are heard under infant class size rules which means you can only win if a mistake has been made. That doesn't stop you appealing. You may get a sympathetic appeal panel who will admit your daughter but it would be a long shot.

If one of the schools has its admission number set so that all infant classes are less than 30 children an appeal for that school would not be heard under infant class size rules and you would have a better chance of success. You would have to convince the appeal panel that the prejudice to your daughter (i.e. the disadvantage she would suffer by attending the allocated school rather than the appeal school) outweighs any problems the school would face through admitting an additional pupil. Normally transport and childcare issues won't convince a panel but you may be able to persuade them that your son's issues and the way the LA has behaved means they should treat you as a special case. I would still recommend building a case around your daughter's needs as well as the issues with your son.

The closest school to the independent SS has an intake if 45 each year. That one would be our preference.

The transport issue is to do with parental preference. The LA insist they can meet needs without this placement. Therefore if we choose it we have to pay the additional expense.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what dd's needs might be except that she is consistently sidelined in favour of ds' needs.

A school with a PAN of 45 may or may not be an infant class size regs situation depending on how the classes are organised in reception and especially years 1 and 2.
However that is in an appeal situation and you need to concentrate on trying to get a suitable place rather than hoping to get one at appeal. So for me the first question is when you say next September are you talking about September 2012 or September 2013. If it is the former then you need to as a matter of urgency to establish when the cut off date is for applications.
I would look carefully at the school that has the PAN of 45 and check the admission criteria for that school. I would agree with PRH that it is highly unlikely that the admission authority will accept you under the sibling criteria. From your post it would seem that maybe there is a social need criteria. What I would do to start with is ask the admission authority (which I assume is the local authority) to agree that you meet the criteria for an application on social need by stating that your son's special needs mean that you have to take them to school each day, along with the gem about the LA having forced this on you, and that as such your daughter can only go to a school that is within the locality of the special school. In all honesty I have never heard of this reason before so have no idea what chance of success you have. The key though is getting an agreement in writing (or not) well before the time when you have to complete the application forms, so that you can put down sensible preferences.
You also need to be looking at other schools on the route to the special school so that you know exactly what the options are. But it would be sensible to put down as your least preferred option the local school to where you live, where you must have a good chance of being offered a place. The worst possible outcome is not getting any offer of a place and then being given a school that is miles away from both home and your son's probable school.

Thank you admission. We'll need a place Sept 13 so have some time. It coukd be that we find something to rent in the neighbourhood by then. The houses aren't affordable in general because of their size rather than cost per bedroom so something might come up, but even so I know that lots of children are sent to schools far away (new free school opened with 60 spaces just within the 3 mile cut off from the town and in the wrong direction for being on route unless we coukd find somewhere to live near it).