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!

phr47bridge, i've really had my eyes opened with all these threads, I guess I just assumed parents with disability would be catered for, after all it's the op who has to get her child there.

I really hope you get this sorted op.

Most of the admissions policies For catholic schools that I have seen rank both being LAC and special needs as top criteria and then practicing catholic, in that order. Few put a disability of the parent in at all, it is the needs of the child. The best way of getting into a catholic school is by being catholic.

I don't think I have ever seen an admission criteria which specifically mentions the parents disability but it is well understood that the medical / social admission criteria applies to both the children and the parents, though for the later there will obviously have to be some very clear needs that are best bet by one school.

The best example I can give you is of a parent in a wheel chair who appealed and won on the basis of needing a school that was further away than the allotted school but on the flat whereas the allotted school was up a very large hill which was impossible in the wheelchair.

Have we established whether this is an infant class size appeal (ie one where the classes are arranged in groups of 30)? If it is, your only chances of winning the appeal are if you can show an error was made that deprived your child of a place or the decision not to offer a place was so unreasonable it cannot stand.

Some LEAs and some schools (when they are their own admission authority) interpret the 'medical and social need' category more narrowly then others. As has been said, as their med/soc category doesn't seem to include parents, you will be hard-pressed to argue that the school's admissions criteria have been wrongly applied.

Is there no bus to get you to the allocated school?

There is nothing to be lost from appealing, but you do need a fallback plan. Are you willing to HE definitely? You are likely to be a long way down the waiting list for the school - it's held in the same order as the admission criteria - so it may be a long wait for a place. If you're not in a position to HE for the long term, you will need to look for other schools which you can get to by public transport.

Just to add, I think you may have a glimmer of hope on the "decision to refuse a place was unreasonable" argument if you have clear evidence of a defined medical problem (is it anything more specific than "a bad back"? No need to give details here) and if you can demonstrate that it is not within your capabilities to get to any other school (ie no buses or other public transport). Do you know whether your application was put before the LEA's medical/social panel to decide whether it should be considered in that category?

A lot is going to depend on what exactly your GP said. A "bad back" is such a widespread complaint that I would be surprised if anyone got a school place on that basis.

Thanks again for your help guys. I too feel it is unfair that preference is given to Catholic children but i don't feel I have grounds for argument on that score. Though the problems with my back mean i cannot get my daughter to another school and will be forced to home-school if she is not accepted. I think it's crazy that my medical problem would not be taken into account when it directly affects me being able, or not, to get my daughter to school.
@clam - the only school my daughter was offered, even though i cannot get to it, is a significant under-achiever, not only from a student perspective but a teaching one also. I am not boasting at all when I say my daughter is very intelligent but I hope people will see why I would not send her to such a school. The Catholic school offers extra guidance and tuition for students that are ahead of their years. Many schools offer help to children who are behind but those that are ahead tend to be left until others have caught up. The only reason I mentioned an IQ test, which as i said i do not wish to do, is because i wanted to know if others thought it would be a good idea to show the school.
Thanks again guys, i sent my appeal letter off yesterday, i'm not expecting things to go my way but fingers crossed!

Kilmuir - I wasn't saying my daughter is more deserving of a place because of her intelligence. I am on here asking for advice and wanted to know if this would be a relevant factor in getting her a placement, not assuming it would be.

We also appealed a higher primary school placement based on my medical condition.. It was impossible to get DD to the school offered to us for an in-year placement - basically it was over a mile away from the school offered to my son and the time I had to cover this distance (with a 3 year old in tow as well) was 10 minutes... and same time in 2 places for pickups in the afternoon. Physically impossible and we would have had to hire someone to walk one child to school and collect them each day, which we thought was unreasonable.

But our local authority refused the appeal, saying it was only the child's medical condition that would grant exemption, and they had fulfilled their obligation by offering her a place. It was our responsibilty to get her there (and on time, or their ofsted would get affected, that wasn't from appeal, just from school attitude).

I ended up home schooling her.

So despite you having a legitimate health issue, I am thinking that the religious grounds is an additional hurdle - that an appeal is unlikely to succeed. Sorry, don't get your hopes up.

My GP's letter stated that serious back pain affects my ability to walk. I am sure he would elaborate but it is under investigation at the moment as i am awaiting scans!
As regards the school that we were allocated, i cannot get a bus as it is not on, or close enough to a route from my home. My second choice school was rejected also and i could have gotten the bus there, i have sent an appeal letter for that one too! Although that would be hard as i have a baby son in a buggy to push also, although i know this doesn't affect their decision! I will definately be HE if she is not offered a place, i'd rather not as i think it is socially detrimental but that will be my only choice.

Jenny70 - thanks for sharing your experience, i'm not getting my hopes up as i don't expect the appeal to be successful. How long have you home-schooled for?

I would get the Dr to get your scans pushed through and a diagnosis given because will help in an appeal. But I am afraid a bad a back and seeing the GP will not hold a lot of weight. Phone up the GP's surgery tomorrow and find out when your appointments are ( to make sure you haven't dropped out of their appointment system and you have been referred).

I can understand why a Catholic school gives preference to Catholic children.

When we were looking at junior schools for ds1 for this year, the head of the one we really wanted to get into (which we did, yippee) (sorry, I know that's not very helpful here) and which is really over subscribed gave us two bits of advice about appealing...

1. talk to the school. They will hopefully be able to help you and might know how you can best appeal and what to put down.

1. make sure you are on the waiting list for the school. Apparently, at most schools there is often somebody who doesn't turn up on the first day (even in very popular ones) because they have moved at the last minute or accepted a place that came up at the last minute at another school. Let the school know that you are happy to start at the school even if your dd has to start a day/week/month or two late. Lots of people apparently don't bother to move their children once school has started and they have started at another school. but by letting them know that you are happy for her to jump in as soon as a vacancy becomes available, (even if for some people - albeit not in this case - it means buying a new set of uniform and the old set only gets worn a few times) this can apparently enhance your chances of getting a very last minute place.

Not an actual strategy as such I know - but something to bear in mind! And definitely go and talk to the school and get their input.

good luck!

Thanks again guys!
As regards my back, unfortunately it is a lenghty process. With our new government not letting people have scans willy-nilly because it is expensive! I have to see a few different specialists who will assess me....basically decide if I am worth the money!
Zipzap - my father, who is Catholic, has been to the school and spoken to them and he said they remembered me (in a positive light) from the initial letter that I wrote so I think that must be a good thing :S
I think the way things are done with schools now is awful, parents should not have all this stress, local kids should be able to get into their local school!

Do talk to the school, but waiting lists are held in admissions priority order and places from the waiting list should be offered in that order too. Willingness (or not) to move to the school at short notice ought not to be a factor.

Tygeroo - Yes, "local schools for local children" is an excellent aim but what happens when there are 47 local children and 30 places at the school? Unless there is massive over capacity in the system, schools are always going to need some means of dealing with oversubscription.

Of course, you are right, there will always be over-subscriptions but everyone i talk to seems to have the same problem, very few have been given their first choice of local school. Not looking forward to going through all this again with my son in a few years!