Advice on appeal and medical info I've submitted

[krisskross]

We missed out on our preferred primary school reception place by 0.01 of a mile and are third on waiting list.

We recently submitted some medical info about our son and a doctors letter to the governors (it is a church school) asking they consider moving him up the list, but after consideration they said no.

We have appealed and have a date for the panel and i have some questions please.

Can someone explain the issue around prejudice and how we address it in the meeting? They did not make a mistake as we stupidly did not submit this info with our original application, however the local mp has advised us to submit the info anyway and say that the prejudice to the school in taking him is less than the prejudice to him in not going. Please can someone explain clearly what this means and how we address this at the meeting?

Also I am confused as it will presumably we an infant class size appeal (as no mistake was made) so where does the prejudice issue come in?

What happens at the meeting? Do we give a presentation or do they just ask questions? What sort of thing will they ask? How long will it last?

Finally, the area we live in is known as a 'black hole' for schools- not just good school places, but any school places at all and there is an active local campaging to address this. Is this relevant to our case? We are in suburban north london, chose our applications carefully but our school place is almost three miles away. We are 46th on waiting list for community school 0.4 miles away! And third for Catholic school 0.28 of a mile away.

Thanks!

If it is an ICS appeal, then I think your MP is wrong, as balance of prejudice does not apply. You need to demonstrate that either a mistake has been made, which deprived DC of a place (were you placed in the right category according to the information you put on the application form? What was last distance admitted? Have they measured your distance correctly? Could there have been any other administrative errors, or any of the criteria be perverse, unclear or unlawful?); or that the decision not to admit is so unreasonable to be perverse - this is not the same as balance of prejudice, the bar is much higher.

That said, it's worth a try - a panel may look at your situation sympathetically and admit anyhow. You will need to focus on things about this school that cannot be provided elsewhere - specific expertise in managing the condition unavailable elsewhere? Proximity to A&E or specific hospital?

thanks everyone. this is very helpful and clarifies all my questions, but sadly has given me little hope! But thanks anyway.

Ooh one more question- they have only given one date so can we assume all will happen at once? thanks

thanks tiggy. presumably they would have told us if it was a group session?

Also, the council here use something called Address Point to measure distance. this is a package you buy and they do not let parents access it. i have no reason to think they measured incorrectly, but given that we missed it by exactly 100th of a mile i would like to be able to check using the same tool. any thoughts? It occured to me that if they measured from end of our garden or front door the disctance would be more than 100th of a mile different so result could be different. any advice on this? How do i know all homes are measured at same point- eg front door? Only thing that the admissions code says is how they measure flats in same block. thanks again.

thanks again tiggy, really helpful.

address point is usually using the datum point on a specific house and the datum point on the school. These are effectively set markers on each building and as such the distance measure should be very accurate.
However if the admission criteria is talking about main gate or front door or something else then you definitely need to clarify with the LA exactly how they have been measured.
All the systems that LAs use are based on Ordnance survey computerised information