Can something that happened with an older sibling be used at appeal?

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

We need to decide in the autumn which middle school to apply for in respect of our youngest child. My eldest is about to leave our catchment school at the end of year 8.

We've had a lot of problems with the school - an incident in year 6 which had her in plaster for a week plus class files in year 7 being read by girls in the class which resulted in bullying, the worst incident being when she was surrounded by a group of boys taunting her with info I'm fairly certain came from the file the girls read - can't be sure as when we finally got to see the file it was carefully stage managed by the Head who pretty much snatched it back from DH when he started to look in the back section, saying the girls had only seen the front bit. He can't know this as there was no teacher present in the room at the time.

There is another middle school a couple of miles away but I'm not sure we'd get in from here. The plan is for DS to look at both and see how he feels then decide but I have a feeling in reality it is just an illusion of choice and there wouldn't be space. DS is a very different child and I don't think there would be the issues but my trust in the Head is non existent.

If we do put the other school first and are refused a place, can we use any of what happened with DD as grounds for appeal ? Many thanks.

I'm not an expert, from from other things I've read, I think that an appeal has to include reasons why you positively want that school, rather than don't want another school. Are there any other schools that you would consider e.g. would you travel further to a less favoured school that might have places rather than go to the one your eldest attends? I guess (playing devil's advocate) even if you brought up the incidents, the panel could rightly point out that you hadn't removed your older child after the incidents occured, so you couldn't have been "that" worried about them.

Ok, thanks, I thought that might be the case but just thought I'd check on the off chance .The info in the files doesn't affect DS, it is just specific to his sister. She wasn't removed as we thought long and hard and came out on the side of it being better to stay in familiar surroundings with the few friends she has, rather than starting over for just one year - she has dyspraxia and struggles with change. The jury is out as to whether that was the right decision but it's done now. She's off to an Upper School we're not in catchment for so gets a fresh start away from the majority of children involved but with a couple of her friends.

The other school have just updated their website so I can go through it properly and see if there's anything about it that would be more suitable for DS. I think in reality I might just have to accept he's likely to end up at his sisters school and do what I do now, everything I can to side step the Head and hope DS just cruises through with no incidents.

I would suggest that you put your first preference as the school you want and this middle school you would prefer not to have as your second preference. That gives you the potential to get in the preferred school but has the other school as the backstop.
As tiggytape says any appeal would be around your own personal reasons for wanting the school. You can certainly use your bad experiences as a reason for preferring the other school, but it would be preferable to have some clear written evidence of what went on rather than just you writing it down on the form for it to have maximum weight at the appeal. Letters emails to the school, minutes of meetings etc are good confirmatory evidence.
It will be up to the appeal panel to decide whether this would have more prejudice to you child than prejudice to the school and without knowing the school's case it is impossible to second guess what might happen.

Hello Wynken!

The other thing you might need to bring out, in any appeal for a place at the other school, is whether there is anything about your DS that might make him vulnerable to being bullied. The panel may well agree that your DD's school did not deal well with the incidents of bullying, but the LEA may in its turn argue that the school has an anti-bullying policy in place which (whatever the shortcomings in dealing with those particular incidents) is generally effective and there is no particular reason to assume that your DS will be bullied.

As others have said, you could strengthen your case by looking at other things about the preferred school - extra-curricular activities, after school provision, subjects offered at GCSE etc etc - that make it a better fit with your son's needs.

I was thinking we'd do that with the application Admission, so good to hear we're on the right lines. Have just had a moment of realisation that the Head managed very nicely to get nothing in writing, he ensured it was all on by phone and there's pretty much no paper trail for the whole episode. He played us beautifully now I look back. Flipping condescending too.

Hi Maud! I don't think there's much to argue about anything making DS more prone to bullying. He did have hip problems earlier this year and is struggling in the playground at the moment. He's finding it hard to keep up with the others and tires easily, so allowed to go inside when he feels he needs to. The school we'd like had a slightly shorter day so I guess I could argue that would help but by the time we'd be at appeal if it got to that stage, he should be fine. He is very sensitive though and I get the impression (to the extent school have mentioned it giving the impression it could become an issue),the other school have a more clearly defined pastoral care policy with staff that have undergone some specific training, a new initiative locally I think.

I guess we'll just have to hope he gets in on application, it's not out of the question. I guess if he does end up at DD's school he might well be fine and cruise through. I deliberately left it on reasonable terms with the Head so that it didn't make life difficult for DS, didn't want him to be in the position where all his friends were going and we made him go to which ever other school had a space away from them all. As it happens he's fine about going somewhere new and a couple of his class have moved closer and are likely to be going.

Thank you all for your help, very much appreciated. Won't go recycling DD's old rugby top and tie away at the end of term as have a feeling we're going to need it, but time will tell.