year 1 appeal

[dadoffive]

I have applied for a year one place at a school for September for my daughter. My son currently attends this school (we applied for reception last year by the school was oversubscribed and are currently on the waiting list)
The School I have applied for used to have 45 ( 1.5 classes) children admitted each year. Older reception children were mixed with younger year 1?s in a class. This year they are starting to have 60 children (2 classes) in reception. The school will increase by 15 extra each year until it goes from 180 pupils to 240 pupils. They are having two new classroom built but they will not be ready by the start of school in September. They are converting a community room and a garden room to accommodate the extra 15 this year as a temporary fix.
This means they that year 1 will run 2 classes of 22/23 children.
We have been turned down as the admissions authority says that the infrastructure and outdoor space is too small to accommodate any more children.
If the infrastructure is too small, how come they are increasing the pupil amount by 60 over the next 4 years. Although they building new classes in the current car park, they are not increasing the outdoor space.
If my child starts in year 1 in September, she would have left by the time the final 15 are added to the role. The classrooms / open space that year 1 will use had accommodated 30 children each and will now only have 22 or 23 children each.
Do you think I have any grounds for appeal?

It sounds positive as you say there must be the space as they will be expanding, and it isn't currently an infant class size issue, so that's good. I supose the other issue that they might raise is that further up the school they might have combined the smaller years again, e.g. When current yr1 and yr2 are in yrs 5 and yrs 6 they could be in three classes, but your daughter would make it larger, however by that time someone might have left, and it will no longer have the 30 class size limit.

If she didn't get in last year with a sibling, are there many more people in the same position? Whilst they may be willing to take an extra one having gone through the appeal etc, if it opens the flood gates for another 6 siblings they may be less willing to set the precedent.

Good luck with it!

The first question is what will the classes look like in Y2. If that is also going to be classes of 22/23 (which sounds likely given what you say) this is not an infant class size case. However, if they will be mixed with other years to give classes of 30 it will be infant class size, so you would need to show that a mistake had been made in order to win your appeal.

On the assumption this is not infant class size, you would need to show that the disadvantage to your daughter through not being admitted outweighs the disadvantage to the school through having to take on an additional pupil. If they argue that the outdoor space is too small for additional children you can certainly undermine that argument by pointing out that the school is increasing the number of pupils by 33% without any extra outdoor space. However, to win your case you also need to have positive reasons as to why she needs to go to this school. The fact her brother is there is unlikely to be enough on its own. It may be more convenient for you to have them both at the same school but that is not something the appeal panel can consider. So you need to think about how your daughter will benefit from going to this school.

The official line that the LA has to take is that the PAN is for the year of entry to the school and then continues as that as it goes up the school. So the LA are quite correct to say that the school is full to PAN of 45 and not to give your child a place. They are however wrong to be saying that they cannot admit because the infrastructure of the school could not cope. It is because they have reached PAN and any increase in pupil numbers will reduce the eficiency of education in the school.
The probability is that the original format of classes for KS1 was that there were two small reception level classes of 22/23 and then three classes of 30 across year 1 and year2. That would be an infant class size case for reception on the basis of future prejudice in year 1/2. As PRH says when in September there are 2 small classes of 22/23 it is no longer an infant class size case for year1. In effect you have two small classes of 22/23 in rooms that are appropriate for 30 pupils and this needs to be a focus at appeal in stage 1. The panel is going to look at the current situation and whilst the LA will rightly argue that they have admitted to the PAN and it continues at 45 up the school, the reality is that the school is moving to a PAN of 60 and they have a weak case for not admitting at stage 1. If you do not appeal till August then any appeal will be in september and the schools case will be further weakened by the use of the community room and garden room for use as extra teaching space.
If you can construct a strong case for part 2 of the appeal based around having a sibling in the school and especially why it will benefit your daughter, I would definitely go to appeal.

Went to the appeal yesterday! Heard today we were successful!!
Thanks for all your help and advice, it really helped me prepare and focus my case especially part 2.
I believe we were fortunate to have a simpathetic panel, including 1 member who had been in management within a school while it was being extended and fully understood the space issues. It also helped that the admissions manager seemed fairly useless and contradicted herself over and over again.
Once again thank you!