Question for those who know about school appeals...

[queenfromars]

At the start of our appeal, the clerk said he would be taking notes, and that a copy of these would be held at our council offices - would I be able to request a copy of these?
The chap who was there from admissions told us something at our appeal and now seems to be saying something different, I don't want to go into details but was just wondering if we would be allowed these notes under the freedom of information act?

The notes are generally exempt from disclosure I'm afraid. You can ask but the LA will probably say no.

Is the discrepancy important? If he said something untrue at the appeal hearing which influenced the outcome you may have a case for referring the matter to the LGO.

I will never claim to be an expert but we have had 4 appeals for different schools and I ask for the clerks notes for 2 of them and received them with no issue. It might be worth a try though I suspect that prh47bridge is right and I was just lucky !

The Appeals Code says that the notes will generally be exempt from disclosure but advises admission authorities to get legal advice if they get any requests. I suspect some LAs will save themselves money by refusing or disclosing without taking advice. My experience is of LAs refusing to hand over the notes to anyone other than the LGO but some may be different.

He specifically told us somebody had been given a place off the waiting list in the hearing (we slipped down to 2nd place the previous afternon apparantly), yet in a letter he sent he said it happened last week - our appeal was the 19th june.

Could be just the difference between them offering the place and the parents accepting. But the real question is whether this influenced the outcome of the appeal. If you have any doubts I would just refer the matter to the LGO and let them sort it out.