Primary appeals - relevance (if any) of parental illness

[lecce]

To cut a long story short, we are hoping to move house late summer/early autumn. Ds1 is due to start Year 1 in September. In our new area there are 4 schools within a mile.

There is a lovely school (lovely based on OFSTEDand visit) 0.2 miles from the house. It is full. Another 2 of the schools are about one mile away and have space. They both seem lovely and do have spaces. The other school is 0.3 miles away from the new house and up a hill. It has spaces but OFSTED mentions behavioural difficulties of a minority that cause probems. It is a grade 3 and the other 3 schools are all 2s - I am not OFSTED obsessed but really loved the nearest school based on the visit as well. The grade 3 school that has spaces didn't have as nice a feel to it - not as much display work up and I didn't really find the teacher as warm as in the other school.

Dh is sahd and I commute 30 minutes to work (teacher), the commute will be the same distance from new house. We only have (and can afford, really) one car.Dh has MS. It is not severe at the moment and no one would ever know that he had it. He tends to have one or two relapses a year during which he stays in bed. These tend to last about 2-3 weeks. However, he does get tired quite easily but I can't honestly say that the MS limits our life in any way, apart from when he relapses. Dh takes the dc to and from schol every day on foot. It would be best for us that the dc attend the nearest school to our house (and one that isn't up a hill) and, in that case, this happens to be the nicest school. And, as I said, it is full.

Part of the reason why we are moving is to get the dc into a better school. The school ds1 is in now is good but has a high proportion of children with SEN and behavioural difficulties and those learning English. Please don't flame me - I loved the school when we visited and do think they do a great job, But ds is pretty quiet and I feel he has melted into the background rather because of al lthe children who are high-need. I wanted different for him when we moved but now it looks like he will be going into a similar situation.

Am I right in thinking that nothing I have mentioned here would be taken into consideration by an appeal panel if we tried to get in to the full school which is the nearest to our new house?

I am not an expert but I think if the class size is already 30 then the parental illness and distance would put you near to the top of the waiting list but would not get you a place. You might be able to find out how much
Movement there usually is within the 0.2 mile school.

I think you would have a free choice between the schools 1 mile away and the school 0.3 miles away if both have spaces but if you go for a further one don't forget to check if they have sibling priority else younger dc might not get into the same school.

By movement I meant people going to that school moving away.

I think if it's full it's full, you can only go on the waiting list.

We won an appeal where our case pivoted on my health circumstances - but it literally came down to the compassion of the appeal panel and it was a very different circumstance (we failed to complete a supplemetary application form because I was extremely ill at the time and we nearly lost our twins - if we had of completed the form we would have been offered a place). We provided medical evidence and won the appeal. It pushed the class size over by 1 than their 'full' number. But as I say - very different case.

It depends on your area as to whether they take any notice of parental illness. Ours takes very little notice, and I'd have thought that any panel would say that there is very little difference between 0.2 and 0.3 miles.
I knew of someone who was in terminal illness, not expected to live out the year and was told that this wouldn't count. (actually they got in anyway with normal admissions)

As your child is year 1, the key issue is whether any appeal for the preferred school will be subject to the infant class size regs. If they are then you can only win the appeal by showing a mistake has been made and given that it is an in-year application that is not going to be the case.
If it is not an infant class size case then the appeal panel will be looking at the strength of your argument to go to the preferred school against the prejudice to the school in admitting another pupil to the year group. From reading your post I suspect that you have a fairly weak case. Firstly by your own admission your husband is only incapacitated once or twice a year and therefore it is not essential that only the nearest school will be appropriate. Secondly there are other schools in the area that have places, including 2 that you would be happy with. You might well be able to convince an appeal panel that a walk up a hill is prejudicial to the family but I think that any appeal panel would say that two other schools within 1 mile with places has to be a consideration. Thirdly appeal panels cannot take any consideration of the results of a school or the Ofsted criteria they are in.
Sorry that I am being negative but best you are realistic. My feeling is that you need to consider one of the two schools with places a mile away, providing that this is not going to lead to a deterioration in your husband's health. I would also suggest that given the circumstances the availability of pre and after school facilities may also be a significant factor in your decision making process, especially for when your husband is not well.
You of course should get your name down now for the preferred school because it is not unknown for a pupil to leave during the summer holiday and the parents forget to inform the school until September. You need to be on the waiting list and preferably at the top of the waiting list. You need to look at the admission criteria of the school to see if they have a medical / social criteria. If they ave then you should apply to be considered under this criteria because it will give you more priority on the waiting list. However different LAs have different views on what constitutes a successful application for this, so you need to talk this through with the admission office of the LA.

My LA gives NO priority for Parental illness, even in normal admissions round, and much less at appeal.

My mother has MS (RR) and I know that she was told that any statements regarding her health should always reflect her worst case scenario.

5 years ago it was entirely possible to not see anything wrong with her on good days. Two years on she had to buy a mobility scooter and can't walk without an electric box to move her leg for her.

So much with MS is unpredictable and I think you should also state worst case scenario situation on forms.

In order for a parent's MS to give priority for admissions the LA has to see medical evidence (i.e. from a GP or consultant) stating that the parent's illness means the child has to go to the nearest school. Even then the LA will not necessarily give priority to the child. Speculation about worst case scenarios by the parents would be completely disregarded.

I have uncontrolled epilepsy that means that I cannot drive. My LA took no notice of that, and allocated my DS2 a school different to that of his siblings, who at the time were both still in primary school. They said that I had to get all 3 DC to school on time.

I pointed out that as I was having to travel by bus, on a 40 minute journey, to get my (then) 10yo and 6yo to school, I would be unable to go 30 mins by bus in the opposite direction to get my 4yo to school.

The LA told me to send my 6yo with my 10yo on public bus with no adult. Despite the fact that my 10yo had severe LD's, and was incapable of making the journey alone HERSELF!

I did win on appeal, but my transport issues, and health issues had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I won my appeal - it was because the LA had failed to take into account the sibling link, despite it being very clear on the application form, and they weren't following THAT year's published admission criteria, but the previous year's, which was different.

Had they not made a MISTAKE, my DC's would have been in different schools in opposite directions, despite my health condition...

According to Ben Rooneys book says the only thing taken into account is how it will affect the child not the parents..

I disagree with Ben Rooney. It depends on the admission criteria.

Some authorities do not give any priority for medical needs. Others specify that it is for the child's medical needs. In either case the parent's medical condition is irrelevant.

However, some authorities do give priority based on the parent's medical needs. For those authorities it may be possible to get priority even if there is no apparent effect on the child.

ok. i thought schools admission code was nationwide but i am prepared to be corrected on that.

Yes, the Admissions Code applies nationwide. However, each admission authority (LAs, academies, free schools, VA schools) decides its own admission criteria. The Admissions Code does not stipulate what these should be, although it does prohibit the use of some criteria. If an authority wishes to use its admission criteria to give priority based on parent's medical needs it is at liberty to do so.

If there are spaces at the school one mile away; I doubt the lea will fall over themselves to get you a place at the nearest one.

They couldn't anyway, without going over the limit on class sizes. You will just have to go on the waiting list and hope someone's else's child gives up their place.

Thank you very much for all the advice. Seems it might be a moot point now as it looks like our house sale has fallen through .

It does seem mad that parents' health is not taken into consideration. How can you separate factors that would affect a child and those that would affect a parent in children so young? If a parent's health is compromised by having to travel along way to school (and a parent's journey is twice as long as the child's) then that child will be affected.

Couthymow Your situation, far more so than my potential one, sounds like it could have been a total nightmare; how fortunate for you that they were incompetent as well as lacking in compassion.

a long way

I haven't read Ben Rooney's book but, if that is what he says, then he is mistaken.

As prh47bridge says, LEAs (and schools that are their own admissions authorities) get to define their own admissions criteria, within the limits of the law and relevant codes. So, some will restrict the medical and social category to the child's medical and social needs and some will widen it to include a parent's needs too. Neither is wrong, they're just different.

My son is statemented. He has ASD. Current school do not seem to understand him or meet his needs. We are considering moving him to another school. If any other parents have any experience of this please can you let us know.

If your son has a statement of SEN, then you should approach the SEN team in the LA and tell them that you wish to move schools. Please be careful as sometimes such moves are not always successful especially when we are talking ASD, so look at the potential schools open for you to move to. You will need to make an official request for moving schools and getting the statement changed to name the new school. If you do name a new school then there should not be any problems about getting a place, as you have priority.