Appeals advice thread

[SauceForTheGander]

TiggyTape suggested a thread for those of us needing advice on the appeals system.

Sorry to those of you disappointed like we are. None of our first 3 choices ...

First challenge is to get DH to remember the password he set on our account.

DH is all for getting a solicitor - is that worth it?

Thanks, tiggy! Will start working on the appeal then.

Deedle - you need to establish whether this will be an infant class size appeal. Do they mix the classes in reception, Y1 and/or Y2 so that there are 30 in a class? (Quite often with a PAN of 20 schools do do that, but you need to be absolutely clear about this). If they do, this is an ICS appeal and you will win only if you can show that there has been an error that has cost your nephew a place.

2 schools applied for, 1 on our estate 0.5 miles away, the other our son attends but we are out of catchment. Neither school has spaces and been offered school 5.5 miles away with no breakfast club or after school care and level 3 Oftsed, could it get any worse??? help and advice on appeal please....

Transport difficulties and Ofsted ratings generally don't make for a successful appeal I'm afraid. That is doubly so for Reception appeals most of which are heard under infant class size rules. If your preferred school has classes of 30 in Reception, Y1 or Y2 (or would if it was full) your appeal will be infant class size. That means you should only win if a mistake has been made that has cost you a place, the admission arrangements failed to comply with the law and/or the Admissions Code and this cost you a place, or the decision to refuse admission was one that no rational person would have taken.

If classes are smaller than 30 you have a better chance of success. In that case you would need to show why your youngest needs to attend the appeal school and will suffer if forced to go elsewhere. Remember you are appealing for a school, not against the offered school.

Thanks panel chair for the advice, will contact the school and check. I suppose we were confused as if the PAN is 20 into reception per year and they do mixed year groups then surely their capacity is 40, which would be in breach of the 30 anyway. As this is the first year the school has been oversubscribed last years intake was only 11, despite a PAN of 20.

Deedle, what would normally happen with an admission number of 20 would be that they would have two classes in the infant department, one with 20 reception children and 10 year 1 and then another with the other 10 of year 1 and the 20 year 2 children.That would mean that the classes had 30 in them and it would be an infant class size regs case.
However you have a different scenario and it is difficult to second guess what the school is thinking for September until you see the admission appeal paper from the school.
What I can say is that the panel will have to consider what is called future prejudice. The easiest way to explain it is that the panel has to consider what will be likely to happen in the future. So in this case the admissions last year were 11, whereas 20 could have been admitted. The panel will make an assumption, especially given the new september intake is oversubscribed, that this year group could easily fill to 20 before it goes out of the infant year groups. So whilst there will on present figures be 31 in the bottom two year groups the panel will be evaluating how the school needs to be planning for 40.
Actually in this situation it is easy, with 31 pupils that is either two small classes or one class with two teachers. If my assumption is right that there may be a surge of applications for year 1 in september then the most likely class organisation will have to be two theoretical classes of 20.
What is then interesting is whether in september 2015 the school does decide to go with two classes of 30 or stick with 3 small classes of 20. The former would be an infant class size situation, the latter not and is in reality an open invitation for appeal panels to allow further admissions if you have a classroom meant for 30 with 20 in it.
If the school is sensible and does not want to start getting all sorts of admission issues because of successful admission appeals then they need to move from 2 classes of 20 to 2 classes of 30 mixed age children in september 2015.

That's makes sense! Thanks for that xx

Thank you for your reply - I suspect we are in a dead zone despite being very close to a number of schools due to lots of kids & therefore miniature catchment - we were offered a school that wasn't on our list & is over 2 miles in the opposite direction to our nursery. As with others, I have 3 kids aged 4 & under in diff settings with the middle child due to start school in 2015 hence my concern to get the eldest settled somewhere we are happy with ASAP to avoid being in the same position in 12 months. Stressful times.

Well it looks as though it is going to be ok. I emailed the school asking for their advice and it turns out there were just 2 children on the waiting list, my nephew and a friends little boy. We hoped there would be wriggle room as they were oversubscribed last year. The head emailed the LA to say they would accept the 2 children and they are being offered a place!!! It must be because they were undersubscribed last year. Just waiting for the letter now as don't think we will believe it til it arrives xxx

Thanks for all the info/good advice on this thread.

We got our 3rd choice, but I chose carelessly, as it didn't occur to me that we wouldn't get in at the nearest one. It's a good school, but over an hour's walk each day, which I think is too far for my 4 year old.

It turns out that the LEA used our old address,farther than the one I put on the application form. I just didn't realise I was required to send proof of address.

If I'm understanding correctly, we should be near the top of the waiting list as we live closer than anyone else and distance is the second criteria, after sibling link.
The school secretary told me that they have, on average, 5 'no shows' each Septmber. Can anyone confirm this, please?

I'm not very hopeful about the appeal, as when I spoke to an admissions team member, I was told that they had used the address they had on their system, and therefore had applied the rules correctly.

rather, not farther :/

Without knowing which school is involved no-one can confirm the information given by the school secretary. But it is true that many primary schools get a number of no shows every year.

You say you didn't realise that you needed to send proof of address. I presume the LA didn't contact you to request proof. I would therefore quote LGO case 04/A/1909 in your appeal. You can find a summary of it in this document. Briefly, the LA said they had not received proof of address from the parents although the parents said they had sent it. The parents said they had not received any reminders from the LA although the LA said they had sent them. The LGO decided that, as the absence of proof of address made the difference as to whether or not they got a place at their preferred school, the LA should have phoned the parents to chase for proof of address.

This was a long time ago and the rules have changed a lot since then so an appeal panel may feel this ruling no longer applies but it is worth a try.

Thank you, Bridge, I'll have a read.

I meant confirm that I've understood the waiting list advice on the thread, btw!

And, no, no-one contacted me. They just used the old one, then sent the letter there, so I still haven't had that, just the email.