primary school appeal help,any advice please, thank you

[lailamom]

I am appealing to get my daughter into my first choice primary school, I have alot of reasons, but I have an enquiry.
The school I am appealing for, normally have 30 children in reception but this year they offered 31places, because they had twins, but I know from the school that they now have 30 because someone didnt want the place.
I know that for twins its exceptional, but I am thinking to use it in my appeal as well, that they already accepted 31 children this year and I believe my child should have a chance because of reasonable reasons, now that they have only 30. ???

In fact I've heard it said on here that it can put the panel's backs up as they can feel as if parents are trying to blackmail them in a way, by saying that their child is not at school therefore it's even more important that they be given a place. There's a chance it could count against you, in fact.

Aha I see your point, I was thinking that I don't want her to settle down at offered school and then If i win appeal, she might not be happy about moving to a new school new environment, but yes I should probably get her started anyway cuz I still dont even have an appeal hearing date issued. :( so it seems like its taking long, even though school governor called Me on Monday informing me the appeal date will be on 24 sept but I still Didn't recieve any letter :( I don't know why

If it is 24th September they may just have crept in under the 40 days limit depending on term dates for this school. However, as you still haven't received anything in writing they have clearly broken the requirement to notify you of the hearing at least 10 school days in advance. There are various other things they have to tell you at the same time. You may find they ask you to waive your right to 10 school days notice. If you don't they will have to arrange a different date.

In addition to written notice of the hearing you should receive a copy of the school's case. That may come separately but it must arrive long enough before the hearing to allow you to take in what they are saying and prepare your case.

Thank u :) I will keep u informed what's going to happened and if I find an admission error regarding the shorter walking route to school. I am so glad I have now got lots of important informations regarding the appeal. I will do my best. I will get back to u to keep u updated. :)

Hi again everyone, today I called the admission to find out about my appeal hearing date.
The manager of admission told me last week that they normally dont deal with church/faith school appeals, but they might arrange a date for me.
I called today to find out, that they just recieved the papers from the school and they will be arranging my appeal hearing date, but was told it might take some weeks :0. I dont understand, when I returned the appeal form on time, on 15 of june and the 40 school days is over and still I dont know how long I will be waiting for!

what can I do about it now ??

This is a clear breach of the Admission Appeals Code but unfortunately there isn't much you can do about it. You can complain to the LGO but that will only result in a rap over the knuckles for the school. It won't result in you getting a place. However, I would mention the delay to the appeal panel when you finally get your hearing as it may get them wondering what else the school has got wrong.

Yeah I will mention this, but it's really unfair that they have ignored my appeal and nothing can be done:(. I wrote to admission manager on Monday regarding distance measurement but he didn't reply yet. I don't know where else I will be able to obtain these informations.I am Pleased that I didn't keep my daughter home because it seems she would have waited very long time.

I have a request, as I already returned my appeal form an waiting for my hearin is it then acceptable for me to add the distance inquiry on the appeal hearing date, I mean will they listen to me or they might say its too late u can't add anything to the case. Also I did write admission about the distance from my home to school because now I honestly believe that they missed the shorter walking route I didn't realise that from the beginning, but still I didn't get any reply, do u know where
Exactly I can obtain this kind of information ???

You shouldn't submit significant new evidence at the hearing as that could result in the hearing being adjourned to a later date, but you are free to raise any relevant matters regardless of whether or not they are in your written case.

The school, as it is the admission authority in this case, is required to answer any questions you ask within reason to help you prepare for your case. It is perfectly reasonable to ask for information about how they measured the distance. If they don't come up with that before the hearing I would point out that, not only have they failed to comply with the deadline for arranging the hearing, they have not provided information you needed to help you prepare your case.

You can find only find out which route they used from them. If you believe there is a shorter route the question will be whether your route is acceptable under their admission arrangements. Their admission criteria should say how they measure distances and have all the information you need. If you can't find it or aren't sure what it means, PM me the names of the school and LA and I will see if I can figure it out for you.

Thanks for your PM.

The admission criteria say that they use the shortest walking route using the road network. I note that the LA say they use roads and lit pathways for community schools, and that this school gets the LA to measure distances. That opens up two possibilities:

• have the LA measured distances for this school using only roads or have they included lit pathways, as they would for community schools? If they have included lit pathways the distances are wrong. I would ask the LA about this.

• is the effect of the LA's policy combined with the different policy of this school to place you and those in your area at a disadvantage with no realistic chance of getting into any of the local schools?

Thank you very much prh47bridge, you are a very kind person.

I am sorry I did not reply before, but as u already know I still dont have an appeal hearing day issued yet, so no rushing, but I managed to write the admission an email today requesting to obtain informations about the last distance offered in my category and the distance calculated from my house to the school? andif the LA measured distances for this school using only roads or have they included lit pathways ?

so lets see if they are going to answer because I tried to find out by phone last week but they told me to send an email, also I sent an email a week ago to manger of admissions, but still no reply, so again today I sent him a reminder.

I will keep u informed, but I have a feeling they wont answer my emails, and if so what can I do about it ? any advice ?

thank you :)

If they don't provide answers you should tell the appeal panel that you asked questions of the school and LA to help you prepare for your appeal but they have broken the Appeals Code by failing to provide answers. I would also tell the panel what questions have not been answered.

I hope it doesn't come to that. The LA should understand its responsibilities even if the school doesn't.

how to delete this, it was by mistake :| :(

Report your own post. I've reported it for you, too.

Hi again everyone, I am back today because I just had my appeal hearing today:) finally :D I am so relieved, but I still have to wait for outcome.
I was there on my own, and three appeal panel, plus one school governor, and there was actually one more woman who was watching.

First of all the school governor defended his case and it was about 30 pupils and that they cant take more pupils. Then it was me I started talking about things that I mentioned here, and then I asked school governor about shortest distance to any of schools entrance, but governor started argueing that it was only used for fire exit (the other exit) but the panel did not like that and they asked for a remeasurement, but my0.189 distance is far from the last person0.113 admitted in my category, so there might not be a big difference.
The panel seemed really nice and I felt comfortable. I dont know the outcome yet but I was told the reply might take longer because of remeasurement...

so what do you think??

again a special thank you to prh47bridge, I took your advice it seems has worked somehow, whatever the outcome :)

Oh dear, did the appeal finish with the panel asking for the remeasure to be done after the appeal?
If so that is a bad break in protocol. All information has to be shared with all parties and if the panel decided that the distance needed to be remeasured then they should have adjourned the appeal until the information was available. You should then have been given the opportunity to comment on the new measured distance. Then both you and the school should have been given the opportunity to sum up your case, as the last part of the case.
The question is really how much does the distance get altered. What should happen is that all applications should be remeasured to the other gate so that a new admission criteria order can be established. If you then are one of the 30 top pupils in the order you should have been given a place originally and you will therefore win you case. If you are not in the top 30 then you would still not have been given a place originally and as such will not win the appeal. Whether they will measure everybody I am not sure, my suspicion would be that they will just remeasure your distance and see where it fits in terms of the admission criteria order.

I'm glad you got a remeasure and happy that I was able to help, but I agree with Admission that the panel seem to be going about this the wrong way. I hope this works out for you, either with a successful appeal or with a place via the waiting list.

Thank you for your answers
did the appeal finish with the panel asking for the remeasure to be done after the appeal? Yes they did and they told
Me I have to wait for an answer nothing about adjourning my appeal, so I guess everything will be in writing.
Thanks I hope I will win but still I think I have a slim chance and otherwise I hope when I move that my fighter will be on top list lets wait and see hopefully it will turned out all good :))