primary school appeal?

[cazs33]

Hi,

We've just received our admissions e-mail and we didn't get any of the three we applied for, instead we got the catchment school for my twins.
We specifically asked for the three schools which either allowed us to continue with the childcare arrangements we have had since they were babies or as I start work at 0730 allow my works nursery to drop them off. My husband works away and we have no local family to help.

These reasons where all put down when we applied and we feel like we've been ignored and are now in an almost impossible situation.

We are strongly considering an appeal but are wondering whether it?s worth the stress and potential disappointment?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

hi i am no expert and i sure someone who is will reply to you soon i can only go on the experience of my appeal last year....

if its an infant class size appeal you have to prove to the panel that the LEA have made a mistake.

unfortunately they do not take into account childcare arrangements or the logistics of getting your child to the allocated school this they say is your responsibility not theirs. it may seem heartless to you but its not personal you have to think of how many children they have to deal with, and unless they get the preferred school all parents are going to feel their reasons have been ignored

its always i feel a good idea to appeal, whilst you are researching you never know what you may turn up.

make sure your child is on the waiting list for your preferred school and check regularly as to their position it may take a while to show any movement. hth and best of luck

Can you contact the allocated school and see whether there are childminders who do drop off and pickups at the school? They won't actually recommend one, but might have a list of people who have contacted them to give their details. Our school has them on the noticeboard along with brownie notices etc.

I'm afraid the reasons you put on the application form have no bearing on whether or not your child gets a place unless you give evidence that justifies a higher admissions category. Childcare issues will not give you any priority nor will you be able to win an appeal on that basis.

The big question with any appeal is whether or not it is infant class size - that depends on the size of classes in Reception, Y1 and Y2 in the preferred school. If it is infant class size your appeal should only succeed if you can show that a mistake has been made - your child was placed in the wrong admissions category, for example. In the absence of a mistake your chances of success are remote. You can still appeal - you never know what will come out during the hearing. But you need to be realistic about your chances of success.

If it is not infant class size you have a better chance of success but you should not make your case about childcare arrangements. You need to show that your twins will be disadvantaged if they don't attend the appeal school. Look for things offered by the appeal school that are missing from the allocated school and which would be of particular benefit to your twins.

Our first choice school has six male teachers which would be greatly benificial to our boys as my husband is in the forces so is away alot.

We were wondering wether that would that be a reason to appeal.

No.

Highly unlikely, OK virtually impossible that the gender of the current staff would have any bearing. For one thing, because it might also apply to dozens of other male applicants with absent fathers and, also, that staff changes happen all the time. Many of those teachers might have moved on by the time your boys start.
But more than anything else, as schools said, only a proven error will make a difference on ICS appeal. They didn't "ignore" your reasons; I'm afraid they weren't relevant.

casz33 - The gender of the staff can change at any time. The school may have no male teachers at all by September. It would not form the basis of a successful appeal regardless of whether or not it is an ICS case.

There are some provisions which give extra assistance to Forces families, but I do not think they apply if you are able to make a normal application for the ordinary admissions round.

IIRC, they permit you to apply for schools on the strength of a postings order (rather than wait for actual address), and activate the FAP when making an in-year request (in which case social factors may be taken into account as part of the decision making).