Appealing rejection from a primary school

[Tygeroo]

Hi guys, first time I have been on here but a friend recommended as i am in desperate need of advice. My daughter will be starting school in September. There is a school down my road which I wanted her to go to. It is a Catholic school and this is the reason that she did not get in. My reasoning for her going there is because i have a problem with my back and cannot walk for long distances. The next nearest school is a 20 minute walk away which i would have to do four times a day, 5 days a week. I physically cannot manage this. When I applied to the school I also put in a letter from my GP explaining that my back problems affect my ability to walk. I also put in a letter explaining that, although not Catholic ourselves, my father is Catholic and raised us with the correct values and saying that i am in complete agreement with the aims and ethos of the school. My daughter was still rejected. I will have to appeal as it looks like I may be forced to home-school my daughter because i cannot manage the walk. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

sorry, I suppose it is infant school, this will be her first school year, she is four years old.

All admissions are controlled by the admission criteria of the school. It is probable that the admission criteria will have a faith element in it that will be around attending mass and being baptised. The only way that you will have received priority is if there is a medical / social criteria but it is quite possible that this may have been after the faith criteria.
So the first question has to be was there a medical / social criteria, were you accepted under that criteria or not? From your post it would appear not. There is also a question mark in my mind whether you actually applied correctly when you say you sent all the stuff to the school. Did the school pass the info to the Local Authority who would have been co-ordinating the admission process.
My suspicion is that you were not given any priority and that others had much more priority by faith etc and therefore there is no mistake in the allocation process.
I have done appeals where a similar situation existed and places have been awarded but it very much depends on what the school and the LA knew at the time of allocation and the admission criteria for the school. You do need to consider what Plan B is and whether home education is your only alternative.

Thanks guys. The critieria for admissions for the school is very much based upon religion. As far as I am aware they have not taken into account my mobility issues. Unfortunately my only other option is to home school my daughter. Even if i managed to get my daughter into the school we were offered, they have the highest under-achievement rates around. I'm not a bragging mum at all but my daughter is highly intelligent for her age. She (in basic) read and writes, she is learning both Spanish and French, she knows basic math, geography and history. I could never send her to the school offered, their ofsted report is appalling. The rejection letter we recieved said the reason was down to infant class size refusal. Would it help if i posted a link to the school and their list of critieria? Thanks again for your input.

Sorry, in answer to your question. When I applied for school places online I stated that there were medical reasons why it was important for my daughter to attend the closet school. I also sent them the same letter from my GP to confirm this. I did not hear anything from them but was not aware that they were obliged to send me notice that they had recieved my letter.

yes, it seems that they go by religion only! They have a long list of criteria. I'll find a link now. Thanks again.

www.st-anneline-jun.essex.sch.uk/documents/Admissions%20Policy.pdf

www.stannelineinfant.co.uk/

This is the address that I sent my GPs letter to - School Planning and Admissions,
PO Box 4261, County Hall,
Chelmsford, CM1 1GS.

It was the one given when I applied.

Thank you so much, the criteria list is longer than any i've seen before! I truly appreciate your help, i'll see what Admission posts. We had though about having our daughters IQ tested (if she was happy to do it) and using that as evidence but it's something I would rather not do, i'm honestly not a pushy mum! Thanks again x

im sorry to say they will not take into account you mobility needs, we had all this last year with dd starting reception, dh takes and collects dd and he is registered disabled (i work) he uses crutches or wheel chair, we were given a school (not one of our choices) that is the furthest most difficult to get to with no off street parking along a busy main road, so dh has to struggle out of car on crutches to tackle getting wheel chair out then deal with getting dd out and getting her safely to school, or we were given a choice of chucking her in a taxi on her own for the 3 mile trip as they will not allow parents to travel with them (not on your sodding life would we do that)...the appeals panel will simply tell you that no matter what the circumstances are you are responsible for getting your child to and from school by what ever means necessary....im not saying you should not appeal but i would find other reasons why you child should be given a place at your preferred school...believe me we went through every possible way to get her into preferred school...... and they had an answer for everything....so do your homework lots of homework before submitting an appeal

Where we are, I believe that they only give priority on medical/social needs if it is the child who has them, not the parent. Cos of course is perfectly reasonable to expect a 4yr old to get themselves to school.

Ofsted reports don't give the whole picture, and about half the schools are satisfactory or lower. If you can manage it it might be worth looking around the allocated school. See whether they have any walking bus arrangements, etc. I'm not saying it is ideal, but considering that you will be limited in how much you can take your daughter out to socialise, it might not be as bad as you think. At least until a place comes up nearer. If you don't accept it and you don't get a place at your nearby school and you find it too hard to home ed then you have a backup. You can always accept it and defer the start date until jan if will be 5 by then, or even later. That will give you a full term to try home ed to see how practical it is (and maybe she will get another place by then), then you can deregister her officially, or take up the place. If you refuse it and change your mind, you could be offered somewhere even further away.

Unfortunately I don't think that they will ever say a child is too intelligent to to go x school so should have a place in y school. At junior level I think it is easier to argue that a certain school has a French club and your child is good at French. I don't know that would be enough for infants.

It's crazy, what happened to the good old days when local children went to the local school??? Thanks for all the advice.

I've seen many faith schools with admission criteria like this, some of them even more complex.

As SchoolsNightmare says, they have given themselves the power to give priority to children based on medical needs. However, the crucial point is that it says "need of the child". I'm afraid that means your back problems don't count - that is your need, not your daughter's.

You can still appeal and argue that they should have taken your back problems into consideration. You might get a sympathetic panel who will choose to admit but it is a long shot.

Oh, and please don't get your daughter IQ tested for the appeal. It will come across as saying that your daughter is too clever for the allocated school. That won't help your appeal and may put the panel's backs up.

Just for clarity, some schools will take into account the medical needs of the parents if it affects their ability to get the child to and from school. However, this school does not appear to be one of them.

Thanks, we don't want to have her IQ tested, just thought if we had a paper saying she was very intelligent it may help. I'll be sending the appeal forms today but greatful for any other advice and information from anyone.

Just to say that my medical need was the criteria out LEA used when admitting my daughter to our preferred school, supported by my consultants. So it clearly is possible in some cases.

I can hardly believe I am reading this. How can religion come before disability, admittedly I have no understanding of how faith schools are funded but if they get even 1% of their money from the tax payer then you should have been given top priority.

How on earth can they get away with such discrimination? I think if you don't get in on an appeal you should get a letter from your consultant and arrange to see your MP.

lunar1 - Religion does not come before disability for this school and there is no discrimination.

The way their admissions arrangements are worded suggests that a child with special medical needs will get priority regardless of religion. Many schools (including community schools) do not give priority for medical needs at all. Very few give priority for the parents medical needs (which is what the OP needs) as opposed to the needs of the child.

I don't understand why you think your daughter's intelligence is relevant?

i would steer away from the line of thinking because you percieve your child to be clever you are more deserving of a place!
good luck anyway