School Appeal - PLEASE HELP!!!!

[xxslkxx]

Hi everyone,

Need some advice re school appeal. Am appealing in class size legislation appeal - know this is very hard to do - however think I have compeling points. If anyone can offer advice/more points etc would be extremely grateful! Have until Friday to lodge the appeal so anything before then would be brilliant!
This is a list of my points:

1. Son suffers from stutter/dyfuency. Stutterlaw.org states this could be seen as learning difficulty but havent got statement. Is under care of speech therapist, and consult with nursery teacher who is SENCO. Have letters from nursery and therapist saying it is vital my son stays with his preschool friends - most of whom have been given place at school I want.
2. Distance error - a child who is stated as 0.17m from school has been given place. We are stated as 0.26. However checks on google maps/mapquest/aa/rac (to name a few) dont agree with these distances. They show other child as further than quoted (but still closer than us). Have I got a point by proving their calculation is wrong, and as such, if one distance is wrong, who is to say others havent been calculated incorrectly?
3. Partner is off work with vestibular disorder - cant help with school run etc. As such I will be making (over 2hours a day public transport journey - see below) by myself with 4 month old baby. Need to be close to partner incase his attacks are bad as he is bed ridden some days,
4. Distance - school over 2 hours public transport a day. Too long - my son has asthma also - school offered in middle of industrial estate on main road - fumes will exacerbate his condition. Also on income support because of partners illness so cant afford costs.
5. Social reasons - any friends he may make are hour travel away, wont be able to go to after school clubs, I cant be on PTA etc....due to excess travel, and fact in winter half my journeys will be in darkess, through a crime-ridden estate with two small children - can I use this?
6. Ofsted points - ofsted actually says that school i dont want "misses chances to improve childrens language" - something that will greatly detriment my son through his speech issues, Also school is full of Eastern European children and traveller children - I dont have problem with this but HUGE problem for my sons speech as he needs to be around english speaking people to help him.
7. School I want currently has 2 appeals allowed, over last few years usually has 31 children and still results are high - can I use this to highlight fact ONE additional child wont detriment school? They also had additional huts buit years ago to accomodate additional intake class - can I ask why this aren't being utilised now?
8. Son was bullied because of stutter - school I want has good anti bullying policy - school I was offered has been rated 3 in ofsted? Any grounds?

Thanks in advance!

Also he is summer born boy - making transition harder....

To anyone who appealed successfully also....what grounds did you get it on. Should I try for school action/plus. DOnt think I will get statement.

Sorry, I don't have any advice, but just read your post, and really feel for you. What a horrible situation to be in. I hope things work out for you and your Son. Lots of luck.

not sure on all that you have stated, but im sure one of the experts will be along soon, this is only from my personal experience

1. any letters from nursery/teacher will be ignored by the panel (as they are not allowed to accept it

1. unless the school has medical/social as part of their critera then they do not take into account other family members illness or ds being away from friends

1. unless you can prove there is a mistake regarding distance using the same system the lea have used then showing distance difference on google maps will not help...

4 the main points to an appeal is to either prove the lea have made a mistake or failing that you should base your appeal on why the school you want is the best place for you child, i dont believe they will take into account distance to travel, as i think im right in saying they believe an hours travel to and from school is acceptable, they wont take into account that its dark, the fact you can not join the pta or that his friends live elsewhere, non of that will intrest them.
my dd has a physical disability and her father have a degenerative spinal injury meaning he cant walk far or even sit in a car for long, she was the only child in her class not to get preferred place we had consultant letters, we had letters from the charity she belongs to stating children with physical disability's should stay with their peers, we were in the appeal for 90 minuets were told we had put our appeal together really well......but still didnt get in...

just seen your other post....im afraid school action plus does not carry any weight either sorry, well not in my area.

The 3 grounds on which an admission appeals panel can order a school to admit a child in an infant class size appeal are

1. mistake which has cost your child their place
2. admission arrangements which do not comply with law or the admissions code
3. decision to refuse a place is so unreasonable as to be perverse (ie no reasonable authority would have made that decision)

You haven't said much about the school or its admissions criteria, so I'm assuming you lost out because of the distance to school.

On your 8 points, I would say

1. Did you present this information with your application? If you did, then (presumably) the LEA thought it wasn't strong enough to put your child in the higher admissions category (I assume there is one) for social/medical need. The LEA is likely to argue that stutter is not a rare condition, most schools should be able to support a child with a stutter. Unless this school has recognised expertise in speech issues, the panel is likely to agree because, if there is no specialised provision in the school, this becomes a variant of the 'wanting to stay with friends' argument which counts for nothing in ICS appeals.
2. Don't waste time on Google maps and the like - what counts are the measurements using the LEA's computer package, which will measure from a datum point on each property rather than a generic postcode. Do they use straight line or safe walking route as the basis of measurement? That might account for the disparity. The LEA should be able to confirm the distance at which the last place was awarded in your admissions category - if it's farther than yours, a mistake has clearly been made.
3. If the journey is more than 2 miles then (as long as this is your nearest suitable school) you should be offered help with your child's transport costs. Your partner's health issues aren't relevant unless they are compelling enough to put you in the social/medical need category (and some LEAs won't consider parents' needs in this category anyway).
4. Did you mention the asthma when you applied? All schools are near roads and, as asthma is a common medical condition, I doubt that LEAs or admissions panels would readily award a school place on the basis of it.
5. None of this is relevant to an ICS appeal (and would not carry much weight at any other appeal).
6. None of this is relevant to an ICS appeal (and would not carry much weight at any other appeal). Ofsted ratings are never the basis of the appeal. If you make an issue of the number of traveller and Eastern European children you may give the impression of being a bigot, which will not help.
7. This is no help to you. The 31st child in each year would have been 'excepted' but the appeal panel still has to abide by the ICS rules. It isn't for the panel to adjudicate on whether a school should raise its PAN or take a bulge class.
8. I don't think this helps, either. All schools have anti-bullying strategies.

You really need to think about how you can present your appeal in relation to the three grounds I set out earlier. It seems to me that your best (only) hope is in trying to say that, given your son's needs, the decision to refuse him a place is unreasonable, but (frankly) I would be surprised if you succeeded.

A statement naming the school would (as you know) make all the difference, but, as I see it, school action+ will not help in winning any appeal or moving into a higher category on the waiting list, because there will still be the fundamental problem that (as you haven't told us differently) this school doesn't have a specialist language unit or programme and so your reasons for wanting a place are social.

As this is an infant class size appeal the question the panel needs to consider is whether or not a mistake has been made. Looking at your points with that in mind...

1. If the school has an admissions category for special medical need or similar and you provided evidence with your original application but didn't get put in this category you can argue that this was a mistake. If they don't have such a category you can still put this evidence in front of the panel but it probably won't win your appeal. If the nursery is attached to the school the panel may consider the letter from the teacher as the school supporting your appeal which they are not allowed to do. In that case they will ignore the letter.

1. Google maps, etc. give distances from the centre of your postcode to the centre of the school's postcode. That will inevitably be different from the figures used by the LA. Their system will measure from a specific point on your property to a specific point on the school. The systems they use are very accurate. The things you need to look at are whether they have measured from the correct property and, if they use shortest walking route or similar, whether the route they have used is actually the shortest. If this is a faith school it is also worth checking how they measured distances. They should either get the LA to do it for them or have their own geographical information system. I have, however, come across a faith school that was using an A-Z map and a ruler, which is not acceptable.

1. Unless one of the admission categories covers special medical need your husband's illness would not be relevant. Even if there is a category for special medical need you should check carefully how it is worded - some LAs/schools specifically limit it to the child's needs. The other issue, of course, is that this would only be a mistake if you supplied evidence with your original application. I would include this and the information about your son's condition anyway as you may strike it lucky and get a sympathetic appeal panel.

1. I'm afraid a journey of up to one hour each way would be regarded as reasonable and problems affording public transport won't be considered. If the allocated school is over 2 miles away by the shortest walking route you are entitled to free school transport. I would mention your son's asthma but again, unless there is an admissions category for special medical needs and you included evidence with your application, it won't indicate a mistake.

1. Social reasons won't win an infant class size appeal I'm afraid.

1. I would keep well away from the Ofsted report and the ethnic mix of the allocated school. I understand your concern but it isn't something an appeal panel can take into account and could put their backs up.

1. In an infant class size case previous successful appeals cannot be used to suggest they should go over the limit again. I would ask the LA or the school why the huts aren't being utilised but that isn't really something for the appeal. Running an additional class would involve admitting a lot more pupils than just your son.

1. I'm afraid all schools are assumed to be equal in terms of dealing with bullying until there is evidence otherwise. If your son was already at the allocated school, was being bullied and the school was not dealing with the bullying it would support an appeal, but possible future bullying is not relevant.

Sorry that all sounds pretty negative but I'm afraid ICS appeals are difficult to win. I would still go ahead with the appeal, though. You never know what will emerge during the hearing.

By the way, you can add points to your appeal after you have submitted it.

School I want admissions:After the admission of children with a statement of Special Education Needs, where a school is named on the statement, the criteria will be applied in the order in which they are set out below.Looked after Children (see Note 1 below)Siblings: Children with a brother or sister who will be in attendance at the school at the time of enrolment of the new pupil. (see Note 2 below).Medical: Pupils with serious medical reasons for needing to attend the particular school. (see Note 3 below).Distance: Priority will be given to pupils living nearest to the school as measured in a straight line. (see Note 4 and Note 5 below).

Surely though, fact previous appeals were won on parents illness,means I have a chance? In collaboration with everything else??!?

Also am trying to see if nursery teacher will apply some kind of special needs implication. If such, and even if not; i never mentioned this on application as never thought i would have needed to! Anything here?

Sadly if this is an infant class size regs case, the only way that you will win at appeal is if a mistake has been made. If you did not apply for priority under medical reasons then you cannot now say they should have been taken into consideration, no mistake was made. Regretably no matter good your reasons are the admission panel should not take them into consideration.
If it is not an infant class size regs case then everything that you have said is relevant and important .

Yes, we need to know what Note 3 says. Does it say what sort of a need a child would have to demonstrate (and how)? And does it say whether a parent's needs would be considered? I notice that the criterion itself mentions only the child's needs.

As SchoolsNightmare, prh47bridge and I have said, the other appeals would have been decided on their merits and your appeal will be considered on its merits. You can't argue that because A N Other won their appeal, you should win yours.

Many of your concerns about the allocated school simply aren't relevant to an ICS appeal. It isn't a case of bunging in as many arguments as you can. You have to ensure that they are relevant.

If anything, the fact that you didn't mention any of your son's medical issues when you applied weakens your case. In the first place, the LEA may argue that they can't be huge problems, as otherwise you would have mentioned them. But, more important than that, it means you can't say that the LEA has made an error or been unreasonable in ignoring the evidence or in not placing you in the social/medical needs category because of it.

Admission - It is an ICS case, unless I have misread 2nd sentence of 2nd para.

I didnt mention initially, as never thought.necessary-my fault. But if another child won on parents grounds, without all my additional, surely I have a chance. Booklet says nothing but criteria mentioned Bove-nothing about parents. Google maps is worldwide service-how does it have no rights here?

slk - on Google Maps - because it is not sufficiently accurate.

It works on postcodes, which cover an area rather than a single house. Distances are from the centre of Postcode A to the centre of Postcode B. However, if your front door is right on the edge of a postcode, and the school's front door is right on the edge of another, ths distance that Google Maps gives you will be significantly wrong - it is only accurate for the properties exactly in the centre of each postcode.

Think of it like squares on squared paper. The distance from the near edge of square A to the near edge of Square B is shorter than that between the middle of the squares. The distance between the far edges is further. Google Maps gives all 3 distances as equal, and the same as the middle one. It isn't accurate enough for school admission purposes (many children may live in a single postcode) and so it isn't used.

So, is there no Note 3 then?

I don't want to sound harsh, but you will get nowhere if you think in terms of Google having 'rights' here.

The LEA uses (at least, most do - you can check this) a computerised system which is so sophisticated that it can measure from a fixed point on your home to a fixed point on the school. That is a much less crude measurement than the AA/RAC route planners and other things you mention. By all means double-check that the LEA got the measurement right - used the right address, used the shortest walking route if that is their system - but you'll be barking up the wrong tree if you ask them to substitute a measurement you have got from Google. They won't, firstly because any postcode based system is not detailed enough, but also because if they change the measurement system for one person they would have to change it for everybody. You can't opt out of their measurement system and adopt a different one for yourself.

Could I ask how old your son is Op?

Son is three, just four at admission date. Have already added schools in other close boroughs on waiting lists....thanks tho!