primary school appeal...

[zimbird]

Hi, I am looking for any advice with regards our appeal. Our DD didn't get into our local primary school 369m away. Both her older siblings attended the school from nursery up till Year 6. The middle one has just left - last year July. The older one left year before in 2010. I worked at the school for 2 years up till I had DD. We are truly part of the school network, we know almost all the teaching staff and so many of the parents/pupils. We have been at the school for 10 years. The school we have been allocated is twice the distance and means we have to pass our old school to get to it, while, through the sibling policy, many others are passing that school to get to our old school. We just don't feel any of this is fair to us. Is there any point in mentioning that Admission authorities are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty to eliminate discrimination, as per the Schools Admissions Code, as we feel the admissions procedure does discriminate against us? Also, distance wise they told us we are 369m, with a manual pedometer we measured it as being 319m, 50m shorter, I know GIS is accurate but 50m is a big difference! Also, our neighbour accross the road applied for a reception place last year and was told they were 391m from the school, surely this illustrates that the system is not clear and brings into question the methodology of the whole GIS measurement system? Don't know if we can use this argument either. Are we able to argue that this admissions systems is not fair and straightforward to us and that it certainly does not promote equity and fair access for us (as stated in the Schools Admissions Code). Sorry for this long post, my argument may seem petty but we are heartbroken at not getting our school and I feel my DD will also devastated, she will know no one at the other school and all her friends are at our old school. We feel we have to appeal even though I don't think we have much of a case! Any pointers/advice much appreciated!

How far away was the last place allocated and where are you on the waiting list?

The last place allocated was 339m. We are 14th on waiting list (were 13 just gone down 1..)

Yes, our appeal will be ICS appeal. I have asked the council for the route they measured and it does appear to be the shortest...

With regards the 22m difference between myself and my neighbour, she is opposite us and our street is not very wide, she has asked the council to reconfirm the measurement and has asked them for the route they used. She has not yet heard back from them.

The school does use the sibling policy first (there is not catchment for the school so there are children attending the school who live miles away - very annoying for us local people, in fact there is a sibling who lives 4000m away from the school who is above us on the waiting list - they were a late application) followed by distance - which, as you can see, is not very far! We feel discriminated against because the school is our local school, the council has not considered our very personal links to the school, the fact we've been there for 10 years, the fact that the school community is a big part of our social network, the fact that our middle child was there less than a year ago. But I do understand that rules are rules and given the huge popularity of the school the council will not deviate from them.

As I said in my initial post, we don't really feel we have much of a case but feel we must appeal anyway and we will just have to stay on the waiting list and hope that a place comes up eventually. Many thanks for your help though, I apprciate it.

Thank you for your note, yes it is sad and frustrating for us, we simply just wished for our DS to got to the same lovely local school that her siblings went to and friends go to...There are many other local familes who have also missed out unfortunately.

I understand what you say about the discrimination issue.

Yes, you never know with the appeal, we'll see. It has been yet another bad year, this problem of large number of applicants has been going on for a few years now. Thanks for your suggestion about campaigning for a bulge class, I might well consider that.

Surely they'd only consider a bulge class if there were a large number of children with no school place at all. And even then, there's no guarantee it would be at this school. Seems to me they extend the schools that are less popular, but I've not done a scientific survey. They won't increase capacity at popular schools when there are places available at under-subscribed ones.

Clam, point well made actually! I am not too sure how many children in our area do not have any school at all, but I do know that the school we have been offered has, for the last two years added bulge classes, this year they have made it permanent (sure that's the only reason we actually got a place there). Having worked at the school we're appealing for, I am sure they could expand it, they appear to have more outside space than that of the school we've been allocated.

Nothing you have mentioned so far is likely to in an ICS appeal for you.

It is straining credibility to say that because you haven't got the school place you wanted, the LEA has failed in its duty to promote equality, unless (as Tiggytape says) there really is something blatantly biased and unfair in its admission arrangements. You need to remember that the system gives parents an opportunity to state a preference, not to choose their child's school.

You will be on a hiding to nothing if you try to substitute your own measurements for those the LEA takes from the GIS. You can certainly query the measurement - have they pinpointed the right house, etc? - but the panel will not be interested in how you have measured the distance with a pedometer (especially if the LEA uses straight line distance, which you can't reproduce with a pedometer). If the datum point on each house is the centre of the property (which it often is) it seems quite likely that the difference between you and the house opposite could be 22 metres.

The arguments about being part of the school community aren't likely to carry any weight, either.

Give it your best shot but you need a back-up plan. Have you accepted the place at the other school?

sorry, just to add though, in the area we live in most schools place are filled due to the sheer number of children requiring places. But I find interesting the point made about the fact that the less popular schools are the ones extended....

In our LEA, the schools that are expanded are the ones that simply have the space to accommodate more pupils, but I can imagine that popular schools might already be at full capacity and so that would leave the less popular ones to be expanded next.

Hi PanelChair, thank you for your comments. As I have said before, we don't think that we have much of a case, that is why I started this post as we have not experience in appeals so I was hoping for advice.

This is not just any old school we are stating a preference for, we have been at this school for many years and therefore have more of an interest than most, we don't assume anything but feel that we must try an appeal for all the reasons stated above.

We are not trying to substitute our own measurements for those the LEA takes from the GIS, again it was just a question - is it reasonable or possible to use this argument.

Thank you for your help.

Having read through your posts I am afraid that none of your reasons for the school are likely to succeed.
The appeal is an infant class size case, so the only way that you can win are if there has been a mistake made in the admission process and if it had been properly administered your child would have got a place. That from you posts seems unlikely but you do need to sort out the distance situation. a 50 metre difference between pedameter and their computer distance is a long way when you are measuring it shorter. So that definitely seems the way to go to prove a mistake has been made.
The only other way to win an ICS regs case is if the decision the admission authority made was unreasonable. Unreasonable in this case is completely perverse under the legal definition. Again that sounds very unlikely.
I agree that it is not fair when siblings from a long way away are getting places at the school, but the admission criteria is there and is not unreasonable.

Thanks for your advice admission, fully understand all you have said,it is much appreciated.

I don't think the amount of outside space is necessarily relevant. Our school has loads of land but, as a 2-form entry school, the pressure on the inside space for the hall, gym, dining hall etc... is immense. Can barely get everyone through for lunch within the time available, and timetabling the halls for productions/concerts/assemblies/PE etc.. is a nightmare. Expanding would be a very bad plan for us.

I think the discrepancy in distance may be pertinent to the appeal - by the LEA's measurement, the OP is 30m outside the last distance offered, by her measurement, she is 20m closer to the school than the last distance offered.

I think a difference of 20 / 30 m either way is fairly small, and I would be making queries about accuracy myself...

Yes, by all means question the accuracy, but all comparisons have to be done using the same system of measurement, so there's no point comparing one GIS measurement with another from a pedometer.