Year three appeal entry - part two

[didireallysaythat]

A while ago I posted on here wanting advice on whether to appeal against the decision to not grant DS a place in yr3 in school A. I received a whole load of incredibly useful advice for this I and my DH are extremely grateful, and as a result we put in our appeal and have today submitted our additional points.

I'm now looking for any advice regarding the actual appeal which is next week.

A (rather long) recap:

PAN is 17. There are 15 in yr3. LEA says that PAN applies to reception only. The LEA also does not want a mixed year class over 32. Since all classes in the school are mixed year this would appear to be difficult to achieve (if they accepted to PAN in reception). The yr3/yr4 class currently has 29, so would be 30 if they admitted DS. However for 2 or 3 afternoons a week, when the children are doing topic work, 5 yr5 children join the class, making it 34 (ie 35 with DS).

The issue it would appear is that yr5 has 21 children, and yr6 22 and there is funding for a fifth teacher only in the mornings. We believe that the yr5 number increased by 2-3 over the holidays, but we're not clear on if yr6 also had new admissions. By my calculation, on those 2-3 afternoons a week, there must be a 43-5=38 class of yr5/yr6 which again is over their desired size.

So we are arguing that yr3 is not full to PAN and hence they should be able to accommodate, and that having 5 yr5 children in the class for those 2-3 afternoons as week would prejudice the education of the other children in the class more than the addition of one more yr3 child (ie DS). We also maintain that having moved from a small, mixed year, community school, DS will settle in and have a more contiguous education if he has a place in a similar environment.

On the plus side DS has settled into school B. On the negative side, the only after school care available continues to be next to school A so we are currently paying for a taxi to transport him from school B to school A (when we can find a taxi to book - most taxi companies did not want the job and the one we have used can only do 3 days this week, and in two weeks time can't do any days a week which isn't helping with my work hours planning). The extra cost is annoying and if it has to continue for another 3 years will impact, but we are fortunate in having this as an option at all.

I appreciate we could appeal again in a year's time when the large yr6 will have moved on, and we may (or may not) be successful. I am not in favour of moving DS from school to school however if he has settled in, even if it is massively inconvenient in so many ways.

Any suggestions on what to say at the actual appeal (other than by admitting so many yr5 and yr6 children the LEA has made things incredibly difficult and they should pick up the tab for a full time teacher to make things right) ? I have a bad tendency to speak my mind so I think DH will have to do the speaking...

Also, and this is a silly question - how long do these things usually last ? We're up at 3pm and DS1 & DS2 are 30 and 40 mins drive away respectively so I'm now trying to figure out the logistics.

Many thanks in advance (and apologies for the rambling post)

Don't talk about the cost of transport (or, if you do, keep it to a minimum) as the appeal panel should disregard that. Talk about the fact that Y3 is below PAN and, although the current Admission Code doesn't say this, it has always been the expectation that the same PAN applies to a cohort throughout its time in the school. Point out that Y5 and Y6 are well over PAN so the school is clearly happy to go over PAN in KS2. Any problems are due to the fact that the school has gone so far over PAN in Y5 and Y6 despite knowing that they may be forced to admit up to PAN in Y3. Check that there really is a class of 38 in Y5/6 and, if so, bring that up. Point out that the Y3/4 class will still be smaller than the Y5/6 class. The panel may take fright at the size of the classes but I hope they will take the view that the school has created the situation and therefore has to live with the consequences.

Talk also about why your son needs to be at this school. How will it be better for him than the allocated school.

Keep to the point. The panel won't thank you if you have a rambling, hour long presentation where the useful material could have been covered in 5 minutes!

How long the hearing will last is, to a large degree, up to you. The more questions you ask and the longer you take to present your case the longer the hearing will be. I would generally expect a hearing to be less than an hour.

When it comes to the appeal, you need to be sure what time it starts and what the time of the LA presenting officer, presenting the reasons why the school cannot accept your child as a pupil. The reason I say this is that the school has to prove in part 1 that effective and efficient education would be compromised by accepting your child and that what they have done was legal. A significant part of your case is that the school are incorrect in not admitting to PAN ( the LA are legally incorrect) and also around the numbers in each class. You need to be there for that so that you can ask questions that draw out the somewhat stupid situation the school is in over class numbers and number in each year group. The panel will also ask questions but it is best if you are there.
You cannot argue for another teacher and expect to win the case. Every school is funded on the basis of the number of pupils at the school and it is then for the school to decide, within legal requirements like the infant class size regs, how the staffing is deployed. Interestingly the date when the census of pupil numbers is carried out for funding from 1st April 2014 is Thurs 3rd October 2013. The appeal panel will ignore anything to do with potential increase in staff numbers, it has to establish what exactly the current class structure is, what the numbers are and the number of current staff.
In part 2 you will be arguing all the reasons why this school is the right school for your child.
As for times, the appeal takes whatever time it takes. It is not unknown for part 1 to take up to an hour for a single appellant - more if there is more than the one case for the school. Part 2 does not need to be that long as it is quite straight forward and most of the information will already be in the written document.
As to who talks - if you potentially are going to blow a gasket, then definitely do not speak. Who ever does it has to remain calm. The panel will expect people to be nervous, tongue-tied and get in a bit of a muddle but generally do not respond well to somebody blowing their top.

Thank you both.

I understand that the number of teachers was probably established based on "old" pupil numbers - I just wasn't sure when the number was assessed (I assumed the budget is set in start of the financial year in April); the teacher numbers are what they are and won't be changing soon (if at all). We won't raise it other than in the context that they have larger classes in the afternoon because of the current staff numbers and the large in takes (and leave it at that).

It's clear that PAN means something different for the LA (otherwise the PAN would immediately contradict their ideal mixed year class size), so I'm not sure if this is going to fly with them. And I do worry (that's what I do), that two wrongs don't make a right (ie the yr 5/6 class is (too) big so adding another to the yr 3/4/(5) class doesn't really matter as they can no longer be picky). But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

We (or rather DH) will make the thrust of what we say be based on why we would like DS to attend the school. The LA's case is the class size so I guess we should let them argue this and then be prepared to discuss why adding one more will not impact on the education of others when compared to the position the school already finds them in.

We start at 3pm, I presume everyone will want to be done by 5pm which works for us..

Many thanks

It doesn't matter what PAN means for the LA (or the school). The appeal panel should understand what PAN means legally. The year is below PAN so unless the school can show that there has been a significant change in circumstances since this cohort were in Reception they are still expected to admit to PAN. Make sure the panel is clear that this year group is under PAN but you are being refused a place.

Another question if anyone's there.

Our appeal is next Wednesday 2nd Oct. Aren't we supposed to receive a letter outlining the LA case 5 working days beforehand ?

It, along with the original letter informing us we didn't get a place, hasn't arrived yet...

The current appeals code doesn't give a specific timetable for this. It simply says this information has to be sent out "a reasonable time before the hearing". If it fails to arrive today I would raise this at the hearing and say you have been hampered in your efforts to prepare by the late arrival (or non-arrival) of the LA's case.

Of course, it is possible the letter has been lost in the post so it may be worth ringing the LA today to check.

Thanks !

The documentation on the LA web site says 5 days. We've emailed and not heard back. So we'll ring them later today. I think we'll flag this with them because if nothing else they really could improve the process. We can correspond and submit by emails and yet they prefer to put things in the post - they could do both as non receipt of a letter put us under quite a lot of pressure just before term started..