In Year Admission Appeal KS2 - Returning from Abroad

[Hetfield]

Was hoping to get some advice please as I want to appeal my eldest daughter's school place and I have no idea whether we have any chance of appeal or how exactly to word it. Apologies for this being long-winded but it's a slightly unusual situation.

16 months ago we moved abroad with the belief that it would be a permanent move for us but for various family and job reasons this has not proved to be the case and 18 months after we left we shall be returning to the UK. My youngest (7 going into year 3 in September) has been offered a place at her old school and my eldest (9 going into year 5 in September) has been offered a place at another school (or they could both attend a new school that is a car drive away and doesn't help the current upheaval - no local friends other than those from their previous school).

As they are both going back into KS2 I think that the class size can exceed 30 providing that admitting additional additional children would not cause "prejudice to efficient education or the efficient use of resources". The current Year 5 class has 31 children with no additional teaching or teaching assistant resource and the classroom would be the same if my elder child was to return there. I believe that I could put together an argument that admitting my daughter back to the classroom wouldn't prejudice the education offered by having her in the class.

My eldest is a shy and quiet child who found it very difficult to settle in her new life and has only in the last couple of months started to make good friendships and regain some confidence. Does anyone know if I could argue that it is in the best interests of my eldest that she returns to her old school that she attended for 5 years, where all her friends are (still in regular contact with her friends - skype, letters, holidays and sleepovers when we are back), where the teachers all know her and understand that she is a quiet and shy child but know what to do to encourage her and do this without drawing any attention to her and where I know she will feel safe and secure which is so important right for her right now.

If anyone could give me some tips, guidelines, rules on appealing it would be hugely appreciated - feel completely overwhelmed and can't really express just how important I believe it is for her to have some kind of stability right now. Also does anyone have any idea how long they normally give you to prepare for an Appeal as either myself or my husband will have to get on a flight back to UK (13 hours). Thank-you.

To deal with the practical aspects first, they are required to give you 10 school days notice of the date of your appeal hearing.

You will receive the admission authority's case and any evidence they submit before the hearing. At the hearing the admission authority's representative will present the case to refuse admission. You and the appeal panel can then question them. You will be trying to highlight any weaknesses in their case. You will then present your case, following which the admission authority's representative and the appeal panel can question you. The admission authority then sum up their case and finally you sum up your case. That completes the hearing. You should hear the outcome a few days later.

As this is a KS2 case, you can win either by showing that the authority has made a mistake and your daughter should have been admitted (unlikely for an in year admission) or by showing that the prejudice to your daughter through not being admitted outweighs the prejudice to the school through having an additional pupil. You do not have to show that admitting your daughter will not cause prejudice to the school. Having said that, if you convince the panel that there will be no prejudice to the school the rules require them to admit your daughter regardless of the strength of your case.

You can make the argument you suggest. It will then be up to the appeal panel to decide how much weight to give that. It would strengthen your case if you can get a medical professional or similar to submit evidence to support your case. Any such evidence needs to be clear that it is the professional's opinion. If it says something like "Hetfield tells me...", the panel will conclude that the professional is simply echoing your opinion, making their evidence worthless.

You can also strengthen your case by looking for any features of the appeal school that are missing from the offered school and that are particularly relevant for your daughter. If, for example, she is musically talented and the appeal school has a band but the offered school does not, that would be worth bringing up.

Thank-you for that information prh47bridge. I believe that the school were going to look at the current year 5 class and see what arguments were made for accepting the additional pupil but that decision was previously made by the school and didn't go to appeal as they accepted him on the sibling rule.

I have no medical professionals that I can call upon but wondered whether something from the teachers here in HK and those that have left our old school could be submitted supporting us?

Something from the teachers in Hong Kong may help but there are no guarantees. It is up to the appeal panel to decide how much weight to give such evidence.

The fact that there are 31 in the current Y5 is worth bringing up, especially if the pupil concerned did not appeal to get a place. It suggests that the school can handle an additional child in Y5 without difficulties.