Moving to England from Canada mid-year - school appeal advice

[lyraflo]

Hiya all

We're moving to the UK from Canada in December with our 5 year old son, and just found out the school place allocated to us is 7 miles away from where we'll be living (we won't have a car, I don't have a UK licence, and we want my son to start school right from the start in the community he'll be living in - it's going to be a super traumatic move for him anyway and we want to make it smooth as possible). We're on waiting list for our local school but the headteacher there has advised us to appeal.

I'm looking at the appeal form and I have no idea which appeal I should submit the claim under. Do I assume we've been refused our local because of class size and submit the claim under that, or do I claim unreasonability?

I appreciate that claims at primary school level are rarely successful but as the teacher is encouraging me to go this route, I assume there is some chance we can get it (she's very keen to take my son on).

So help! I can't make head nor tail of what I'm supposed to do!

Thank you so much!

Ask for clarification of why you didn't get a place at your preferred school and whether this will be an infant class size appeal. If it is then unreasonability is likely to be your strongest (possibly your only) hope of winning the appeal - because the infant class size of 30 is set down in law, you would have to show that the decision not to give your son a place was so unreasonable as to be perverse.

Just to be clear, you don't get to choose whether or not it is a class size appeal. That is based on the size of classes currently at the school. If there are currently 30 children in the class your son would go into it is an infant class size appeal and your only chance of winning is to show that the decision to refuse admission was unreasonable.

If there are fewer than 30 children you will have a better chance of winning the appeal. In that case, whilst you could argue that the decision was unreasonable, you can also simply show why this is the right school for your son. I'm afraid transport difficulties don't generally win appeals so, although you can mention them, you really need to think about the things this school offers that are of particular benefit to your son and that are missing from the allocated school. In your situation I would include the fact that, after moving such a long way, going to a local school with local children will help his social development in a way that wouldn't happen if he has to go to a school 7 miles away.

It's exactly as prh47bridge says.

I'm assuming that it's going to be an ICS appeal, simply because most reception admission appeals in England are, as schools usually admit in multiples of 30 and admit up to their admission number. If I'm right in this, it's rather irresponsible of the Headteacher to be egging you on to appeal, as they must know how limited the grounds of appeal are for an ICS case.

Thank you so much for your comments! Super helpful.

The headteacher said in an email to my mum: "I would love your grandson to join us. We have just taken another child over PAN whose parent went through appeals this week. We have to go through county admissions which is why it?s necessary for your daughter to stress that she wants us."

So I guess it would be an ICS appeal as they seem to have the ability to take in kids over the published admissions number (they have a very high ratio of special needs kids so I don't know if that means they have a higher number of staff that could accommodate an extra kid or two)

It's not quite like that.

Any successful appeal will, by its nature, admit a child above the school's Published Admissions Number. If the school was below its PAN, the place would be filled from the waiting list (assuming somebody wanted it) without going through an appeal.

The difference is that where the PAN is a multiple or 30 or there are classes of 30 in Key Stage 1, the appeal will be an ICS appeal and can only be won if theer has been an error which has deprived the child of a place, the admissions arrangements are contrary to law or the admissions code (highly unlikely with a late application like yours) or the decision not to admit the child is so unreasonable that no rational authority could have made the same decision. So, all in all, pretty limited grounds for appeal.

In other appeals - ie Key Stage 1 where classes are smaller than 30, or any other appeal - you can argue more broadly about the preferred school being the best one for the child, about social benefits of attending that particular school etc.

So, sorry, to be clear, I choose the Unreasonability option when I fill the form in?

I'm finding the guidelines pretty impenetrable.

Looking at the notes, on class size it says:

Appeals
Where the Admission Authority has refused admission on the grounds that to admit the child would breach the infant class size limit, the circumstances in which an Appeal Panel can uphold an appeal for this age group are severely limited,
The Appeal Panel can uphold an infant class size appeal where:
 it finds that the admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit; or
 it finds that the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied; or
 it decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one, which a reasonable Admission Authority would make in the circumstances of the case.
As there are very limited circumstances where an Appeal Panel can uphold an appeal the percentage success rate of infant class size appeals is minimal. In considering whether you wish to appeal in such circumstances you need to be aware that these appeals can only be upheld on these limited grounds. Your personal reasons for wanting the school, however strongly you feel, cannot be taken into account unless any of the above circumstances apply. These limited circumstances give very little scope for an Appeal Panel to uphold your appeal. If you did not apply under social or medical circumstances the Appeal Panel cannot consider this as part of your appeal.

So I apply under class size but argue that the decision was not reasonable?

On the in-year application, there was no section about social circumstances - would there have been a better way I should've applied?

To be clear

1. Find out whether this appeal will be held under Infant Class Size rules. The paperwork you have should tell you this; it might be mentioned as the reason for refusing you the place - the PAN of 30/60/90 has been reached. If not, information about the school on the Local Education Authority's website should tell you what the PAN is.

1. If this is an ICS appeal, tick the unreasonability box unless (which is highly unlikely) you can pinpoint an error or serious flaw in the admission arrangements.

1. If this isn't an ICS appeal, tick the unreasonability box and any others that you think are relevant. (The social issues about an international move that were mentioned earlier, for example).

1. Whatever you do, mention everything that you think the appeal panel needs to know. You don't need to write out your appeal in every tiny detail, but make sure you put down the bare bones of your argument, so that you can develop it at the appeal hearing.

Our LEA doesn't have this sort of box-ticking on its appeal forms. I think it's a very mixed blessing, in that it gives parents some pointers about what to mention, but might mislead them or lead them not to mention things that could actually be relevant.

Just seen your latest post.

I doubt that mentioning social issues in an in-year application would have made any difference, as the class would still have been full and (again assuming this is an ICS case/appeal) social needs aren't a justification for breaching the infant class size limit.

You don't "apply under class size".

Whether or not this is an ICS appeal is decided by the LEA and. really, the decision takes itself as it all depends on what the school's PAN is. You really need to get that sorted out. What does the LEA's decision letter or the later appeal paperwork say about that?

Thanks everyone for help. I don't have the decision letter - apparently it's gone to my parents house (even though I said on the school application form we wouldn't be moving to the UK until 18th December) and they've gone on holiday ... which isn't stressful at all :P

All I know is the school he's been offered and that's from speaking to the admissions dept of our authority. The appeal form was on the council website and is very generic. I just want to make sure I don't muck up the appeal application or apply under the wrong criteria as from the notes it sounds as though they'll just throw it out if so. Obviously as we're starting a whole new life with my son I'm feeling pretty time pressured in getting the correct application in to see if we've got any hope of getting him in the local school from the start.

I don't want to worry you but how have you managed to apply when you haven't yet moved to the UK? I may have got the wrong end of the stick but it sounds from your posts as if you've used your parents' address and that isn't allowed. Sorry if there is a valid explanation but I'd hate you to go through all this and then find the place is taken away from you because your application is deemed invalid.

Lego - That's a fair point, but it is technically possible to apply for a school place even from an address in Canada. If the school had had a vacancy, it could have been given to OP even without an address in the locality. But it is also true that, sooner or later, the LEA will want proof of address and if OP is planning to live with her parents (rather than use their address as the basis for getting a school place) they will want clear proof of that.

Maud - fully agree with your post and useful clarification. I just wanted to make sure OP was aware

Yep, thanks for the warning! I appreciate it.

The council were supplied with documentation advising of when we were arriving in the UK (i.e. one way air ticket, customs form, etc.) - apparently it is allowable to apply up to four weeks in advance of arriving/needing the space.

And I used my parents address as that's where we're going to be living - 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, 4 adults and 2 kids ... lucky us (and them lol)

However, even though I stressed all of that on the form/supporting letter, they obviously didn't pay any attention as apparently the offer letter required a response of 27 November. Admissions have allegedly granted an extension until we actually arrive in the country but who knows.

Appeal form completed and mailed off, so thanks to everyone for the assistance. I thought the Canadian school system was confusing but this has me boggled.