Appeal Letter, Responce from School is quite upsetting

[Tak3n]

Hello All

My OH tells me I am being silly and it will be a generic responce, but we got our appeal date through, along with the evidence from the school, and their letter basically makes it out like is our DS went there it would cause great harm to the other children....

The worst part is where they say by taking our DS means they will have to close of a section of play area for the children as they will have to put another double table in the class...

Then they go on to say that the whole of his class will have to then eat at a different time to the rest of the school as the canteen is a max and it will cause a health and safety infringement.

There is a lot more, in fact 4 pages of their objection, is it normal for a school to be so dead against a child....

our DS is not statemented, just an average 4 year old.

OH is right. Not that you're being silly, just that it's a generic response. It's not your child they object to, it's any child over the PAN and these are standard objections.

Good luck with the appeal.

This is normal or they would have 50 in theclass. They have to show that the harm caused to the other children by him being there is worse than the harm he would suffer by not being there. It really isn't personal

Thx Guys, it really rocked me (first time for us) Just re-reading it again, does the appeal panels actually believe any of this, it is all way over the top, they have even gone into little details like having to install a new wall for a coat hook!!!

Maybe it is like us; very over-subscribed, lots of equally balanced appeals, all with similar request; catchment school, want my child at an "outstanding" school, wrap around care suits my childcare needs). None with head and shoulders claims to take us over PAN. If one got in on appeal grounds so should 25+ others = totally unmanageble and detrimental to the original intake.

This is a fairly standard response, and yes, if it is an Infant Class size appeal, the panel will give weight to it.

This is why the onus is on you to prove that there has been an error in the admissions process.

If it's not a ICS appeal then you can won by showing that on balance of prejudice your child should be admitted, if you have a strong enough case and the panel are sympathetic.

If they are saying this is an infant class size case the school's case should talk about "class size prejudice" and explain the qualifying measures they will have to take if another child is admitted. Anything else in their case isn't really relevant.

If this is not an ICS appeal the panel will look at their case carefully. If the school has gone too far over the top (and a new wall for a coat hook sounds pretty OTT to me) they may well lose credibility with the panel, in which case the panel may be less inclined to give them the benefit of any doubt.

In the hearing the authority's representative will present their case first, after which you will be able to ask them questions. You should push them on this. Ask questions such as: Have there been successful appeals in the past? If so, did they have to stagger lunchtimes the way they suggest? Did they really close a section of play area? If they did, how big was the section they closed and how big is the play area in total? Why isn't the coat hook there already? And so on.

If they haven't had successful appeals in the past you need to reword the questions a little but I hope you get the idea.

Sorry, as a Panel Chair I suspect that I would be treating some of these things with the contempt that they deserve. A new wall for a coat hook is not only petty it is completely missing the point. It is what the prejudice to the school would be by having an extra pupil, not the list of jobs for the caretaker to do!
If I was you I would be ripping this case to shreds because as PRH says it will loose all credibility with the panel. I would start by asking for a detailed plan of the classroom showing where all the desks currently are and the play area, so that you can suggest alternative ways that it could be done without the blatant attempt at blackmail over the play area. Play them at their own game. It is for the school to decide how to do and handle things and appeal panels are not allowed to second guess what other ways there are or admit solely because we don't like the way the school are proposing. But you are perfectly at liberty to ask questions about alternatives ways of doing things that destroy their case by showing there are sensible alternatives to their list of problems.

Having said that this could be a school that is actually bursting at the seams and whilst OTT all their points could be valid.
If you want me to look at the whole document and comment on it please pm me. But it might take a while if I laugh to much!

Thx Admission

It is for a reception intake, so really all points are N/A as I dont actually have any "wrong admissions rule" to hit them with, it would seem they have covered all their bases...

I agree on all the points you make, but I will hit the wall with the "legal class size limit" argument

It isn't personal. That is very much the standard case put forward against admission in an Infant Class Size case.

Repeating what PRH said, what is the Published admission number for the school? Does the case actually say it is an infant class size regs case and that qualifying measures such as an extra teacher would have to be taken to admit another pupil to the year group.
If it is an infant class size case then they have gone to a lot of detail when they did not need to do so.