Norwich LEA have awarded us our 3rd Choice, need advice please

[Tak3n]

Hi

Norwich which seems to be the last area to tell us where out little ones will be going to in September have issued the emails and we have been given our 3rd choice.

We really did not want our 3rd choice but was warned by an admissions CS before applying that if we did not put a catchment school down we could get a school we really did not want, The areas dumping ground it is known at in our area

Anyway, our first choice school is technically out of catchment by about 20 meters, my across the street neighbours have our first choice as their catchment, it is that close...

would we have a chance of a sucessful appeal, when I asked the lady in the office said our appeal would be based on class sizes and that Norwich had never lost an appeal on that basis.

We dont have any strong evidence apart from it is where his friends from nursery are mostly going and we felt it best suited his personality, but we put that in the application form, and seems they ignored it then, I doubt they would use it now as evidence..

If we dont appeal but ask to be on the waiting list does anyone who appeals superceed us in the waiting list?

This is our first time doing this and we are both gutted as we honestly thought as we were so close to the catchment line we would get in as the school told us before applying that they were never usualy oversubscribed in "catchment" but was oversubscribed for places..

any help would be greatly appreciated.

It is very difficult to win an infant class size appeal unless the LEA have made a mistake, our dd last year was the only one in her nursery class to be given the school she is currently at it was not any of our choices, we did go to appeal for several reasons including her disability but to no avail they did not make a mistake so we had no choice, but have to say its turned out to be a lovely school and she made friends very quickly....its very early day, give it a week or 2 then phone the LEA to find out where you are on the waiting list....and keep checking it every week or 2 good luck

Technically, here at least, they shouldn't superceed you as you not only have to show that they made an error in their assignment of places, but that your child is the child who should have been awarded the last place. So if you lived 400m from the school, child x lived 403m from the school and child y lived 406m from the school, but they had accidently given the place to child y, even though it was child x who appealed, it should be your child given the place, as child y took your place.

You should ask for information such as did all children in catchment who wanted a place get one, if they went beyond their catchment, how far, and how far do they calculate you to be. Also get your name down on the waiting list, and find out how far down the list you are. You lose nothing (but sleepless nights) by appealing though.

Which schools are they? Are they as bad as you imagine? I'm in Norfolk LEA area, and have known several people who didn't get their first choice, but all of them ended up getting in where they wanted eventually.

another norwich mum here, we got our first choice (siblings rule)

you need to find out who else got a place and if any of them are closer but tbh i dont think that will be the case. they do it 'as the crow flies' and then have siblings rules etc.

i do know people that havent got their place in sept and then waited and manged to get a place later in the yr, by dec/jan time as people more, change their minds etc.

if you really want a place, get in touch with the local school you want and put your name on the waiting list, you are very close to catchment so you may get lucky.

which schools did you apply for? you can pm if you dont want to put them on here :)

If it is an infant class size case you are unlikely to win unless you can show that a mistake has been made. The grounds you suggest for your appeal won't get you anywhere, I'm afraid. You need to check that your child was placed in the correct category and that they have measured the distance from your home to the school correctly. If they measure by straight line they will only have got it wrong if they have used the wrong address. If they use the shortest walking route or similar you need to check the route they have used.

Anyone who appeals successfully gets a place immediately regardless of the waiting list.

We had a similar situation to yourself last year and we decided to appeal. When you let your LEA know that you are appealing you will be sent all the paperwork about how many applied, how many got places, the distance from the last person to be awarded a place to yourself etc. The reason we decided to appeal was that I needed to feel we were doing something and that if we were unsuccessful we had tried. We were unsuccessful with our appeal but 2 months later I received a telephone call to say a place had come up and we got into our first choice anyway. Even with all the tears and anguish and getting a place from the waiting list, I do not regret for a minute that we appealed.

If you have any questions please pm me and I would be happy to help.

Hi

I am in Kings Lynn, I said Norwich as it is them who decides for Kings Lynn area, I will ring them Monday, fear I will be on hold for ever..

my biggest issue is when we visited the school they said they were always oversubscribed but never from in catchment, and of course there is always a first time, but one has to use historical data in these things dont they?

we are so close the the catchment line it is daft, and the walk to our awarded school is on a very busy main road and to our first choice school it is across a walks park area, but I am guessing they wont care about that :(

The one thing that you should not believe is that the LA never loses a case based on the infant class size regs. Yes they do, if a mistake is made. It might not happen often but it happens.
Having said that you need to establish exactly what the last successful application was. If it was in area then as you are out of catchment the situation is that the admission criteria were correctly done, if it was out of area, then immediately you need to be checking the distance to see how it fits with your distance.

Must be Norfolk LEA, no? Not "Norwich"(?).