Primary school appeal - faith schools

[CVJ]

Has anyone had any success with primary school appeals in Leeds and have any tips?
We have been rejected from all five of our preferences (which are all our nearest secular schools). Instead we have been offered a place at a Jewish primary school, which is a good school but has a strong Jewish ethos and we are not Jewish and therefore do not fit the religious requirement for this school. We feel strongly that our son attends a non-faith school as a personal choice and therefore didn't include any faith schools in our preferences but the education department don't appear to have acknowledged this? Can they force your child into a faith school against your wishes?

As Tiggytape says they can allocate a faith school regardless of your views on the subject. You are, of course, entitled to withdraw your son from religious education if you wish. Outside RE the school is required to follow the national curriculum. I would recommend taking a look at the school. You may find it is not particularly religious despite being a faith school.

You cannot appeal for your preferred schools on the basis of religious preference. Whether or not an appeal for these schools will succeed depends on class sizes in infants. As a rule of thumb, if PAN is a multiple of 15 it is likely that any appeal will be heard under infant class size rules, which means you should only win if a mistake has been made which deprived your son of a place. If it is not an infant class size appeal you have a much better chance of winning but you would need to show why the appeal school is the right school for your child. You would be appealing FOR that school, not AGAINST the offered school. Saying the appeal school is the right school because it isn't religious is unlikely to win your appeal. You need to find ways in which your son will be disadvantaged by not going to the appeal school.

Thanks for the advice above. The added complication we have is that I also have a disabled daughter so I need to be able to coordinate schools runs with regular hospital trips. I also feel the extra support my son would need to adapt to a different cultural environment is a big ask for a family also caring for a disabled child. Unfortunately I realise that the disability of younger siblings is also a factor not taken into account. After fighting all the battles I have needed to, to get my daughter the support she needs we know have to battle this one out...

CVJ,
Whilst the challenges that your daughter and yourself face are not specifically something that you will win an appeal on, it does give a starting point and admission appeal panels are human (well most are!)
Your daughter is one of the reasons for your preferences along with your wish not to attend a faith based school, so any schools that are nearer to your home than the offered schools are the ones that offer the most possibility of winning at an appeal, but as PRH says it very much depends on whether the schools are going to be subject to the infant class size regs.
It may be worth asking the LA where the nearest community school is with places and see whether this is of interest, along with making sure that you are on the waiting list for all your preference schools.

Thanks to all for your comments.

tiggytape.what are our chances of winning an appeal for my son at catholic school.we are Orthodox Christians we fall into 5 criterion.Aand my son has sister at the same school!

For any appeal for a place in Reception the first question is whether or not it is an infant class size case. If it is ICS you should only win if a mistake has been made that cost your son a place, e.g. he was placed in the wrong admissions category or they got the home to school distance wrong.

If it is not an ICS case you have a better chance of winning. In that case you would need to show why your son will be disadvantaged if he doesn't go to this school. I'm afraid being Orthodox Christians and having a sister at the school is not relevant unless a mistake has been made and your son should have been in a different admission category.