Appeals Process - need advice if possible

[georgieporgiepuddingandpie]

I'm in a nightmare situation and need as much help and advice as possible.

I sent off my admissions form for my son who was due to start school in reception at the school where my other children attend. Unfortunately the form was 'lost' in the post and because I had surgery last November I was out of action for a while and didn't check it had been received (it never occurred to me that it wouldn't). There is no doubt he would have got a place if the form had been received by admissions but it wasn't and I didn't even know I hadn't got a place at any school until a month ago when the school told me.

I have 3 children already at the same school which is 0.5 miles up the road. My 2nd son has a SEN statement due to autism and the school is brilliant in this respect. They have a child in most of the classes who have an element of SEN and are very well placed to deal with most disabilities.

My youngest son is on an IEP at school action plus level as he has suspected speech dyspraxia but he has now been allocated a place at a different school 1.5 miles away in the opposite direction to the other school which would just be impossible for me to do. He's now talking but still very babyish and his concentration skills are non existent. We're awaiting an appointment with a consultant but has been referred for physio, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

He has attended the pre-school at the school where the others go for the last year but they are now full too so it's not like he could even continue to go there in the hope that a place becomes available at the school.

I'm appealing but I very much doubt any of my grounds for appeal will hold much weight, ie the fact I did apply but it was lost (I have no proof), my son's dyspraxia and IEP, my son with autism would freak doing two school runs, lost earnings and having to pay for childcare whilst I'm dashing between the two. I'm self employed so time really is money. Not to mention the stress all this will be on a day to day basis and I'm already on meds because of depression. I'm at the end of my tether.

If anyone has been in a similar situation or can tell me what to expect from the process it really would be much appreciated.

Sorry - just noticed the mahoosive thread on appeals that's here already. I'll take a look there as a starting point.

Do you know where you are on the waiting list?

3rd - I was quite pleased when I heard that initially but I've since been told that in the scheme of things it's not great due to the volume of houses close to the school (built up area of city). 0.5 miles is actually quite far away.

They said 'if you'd have posted it as you claimed we would have received it' (grrrr).

I may be woolly about some stuff but this came through to me 2 days before my surgery so it was literally completed and put back in the post the same day 'so I didn't have to worry about it'. Unfortunately it just went in the post box in my haste to get it done.

I've since been told that 8 other children (siblings) claim that their application was not received so this is either really dodgy in respect of the Admissions and Appeals - or loads of people use this excuse.

The thing with class sizes is that there are usually more staff than is normal in each class due to the high number of children with disabilities. I don't know how this effects things (?) as obviously the extra staff are there for a reason. I completely understand why it is not fair on them to just expect them to just take on my son as well - who himself has an element of SEN, however if they don't take him he will suffer, and so will the rest of the family. The knock on effect to everything if he can't go there is horrific.

Thanks for clarifying about the TAs etc - I wasn't sure about that.

I need to make sure I get my facts straight so I'll have a chat with the school tomorrow and see if I can get it in writing. They know me quite well and they're approachable - have been very sympathetic so far with everything. The head is being quite matter of fact that they'll fight any appeal and I completely respect that - but she also knows that I'm in a hell of a pickle so she doesn't begrudge me the battle.

All the supposed mislaid forms are for this school - there were 12 in total lost as 4 were non-siblings. It was the school that told me this - the head said that some of the families she might suspect as not having completed the forms but even she said it was odd. It's a massive school btw with 90 in each year group.
I'll also see if I can find out through the grapevine who the other families were and have a chat with them. It's difficult though as we're in direct competition for a place :(

My son will likely struggle in a large classroom environment due to his difficulties. He's doing okay at nursery but that's primarily due to him being taken out of class for one on one sessions regularly - and the class is only 11 children. He's seeing a consultant less than a week after the appeal which is bad timing but as I've waited over 4 months for an appointment I'm just happy to be seeing someone with him. He's already under occupational therapy and speech therapy and awaiting physiotheray.

I am surprised you are third on the list - are the others above you the "lost" forms?

Maybe in preparation for the appeal you can ask whether such lost forms has occurred in previous years, and whether such a high number of siblings have not applied before?

Other than that, I guess to focus on the way THIS school will benefit your son's medical circumstances over any other.

Even third on the waiting list might be OK, people do move/change etc.

Good luck.

I posted the form is a quite usual reason when it comes to appeals, so the LA and school will tend to take a firm line on this. They will say it is for the applicant to make sure it got there etc and as such unless somebody can prove that it arrived at the LA the panel has to accept that the LA's stance is appropriate and turn down the appeal.
I have seen such appeals succeed. I remember one where the appellant had hand delivered the form to the LA office and got a dated receipt, which somewhat deflated the LA when it was produced at the appeal.
The interesting thing in your case has to be the number of applications that seem to be missing. So one of the questions I would be asking is how many other appeals are there in different schools in the LA where there is an allegation of the forms going missing. Assuming this is a relatively small number in a small number of schools I would then be questioning how that sits with the 12 that appear to be missing for this one school. As Tiggytape says this looks remarkably suspicious but even if the panel accept something has gone wrong, they will need to consider whether they can admit 12 extra pupils on 90 and my reaction to that would be no, unless another class can be set up.

How do I find out what other schools have supposed lost form allegation claims? Who do i ask? Is this even possible?

We're 3rd on the list because that's where we sit based on other children waiting and postcode. The school is popular but there are other schools considered better in the area - there is actually a school closer to us that people almost come to blows over but the school where mine go is the right one for us and my kids are thriving there.

I was given the incorrect information about the lost forms. There have been 12 forms lost - 8 of which were siblings - however the fault was that the families didn't receive the application forms from the authority, not that they completed them and they weren't received by admissions! I thought it was a bit too odd to not be a bigger issue! So my whole argument is going to based upon unreasonability. I'm freaking out now as I've been telling myself that it wasn't the end of the world if I held him back a year and he started next Sept (late summer baby), however I've just been told (by the school) I'm not allowed to do this. Therefore the only option if the appeal fails is to home school him long term until a place becomes available.