I need help re in year transfer and infant class size appeal - any experience out there??

[anxiouspotentialmover]

Hi there

We are relocating 115 miles over the summer and we are due to be in our new location for the beginning of the new school term. My DD will be going from Reception to Y1.

We applied to our preferred school - a Roman Catholic Primary School within a mile of our new house and we have been turned down because the class size is already at 30.

My DD is baptised, is currently at a lovely catholic shool, we are practising Catholics and attend mass. We are gutted that she is not going to be able to continue down the path that we started and that she will miss out on making her sacraments with her friends. Although we have not lived in the area as a family unit, we were married in the Parish Church and have strong links to the local community through my parents and my family. It has been our plan and (at times we thought impossible pipe dream) to move from the big urban sprawl where we currently live but we are really struggling with this.

What I want to understand is whether we have any chance whatsoever of winning an appeal if we decide to go down the route of trying to appeal or whether we just have to accept this decision.

There is one other Catholic school in the town but it is miles from where we live and has the same issue with the class size.

In the entire vicinity (7 mile radius) there are 2 places available. One is nearby in a non demoniational school with a poor reputation and one is in a village 5 miles out which has a good reputation but is also non demoninational and will be a massive PITA to get to and from and the roads become treacherous in bad weather.

I would like to try and give DD some certainty. If we have to go for the village school because we have no chance of winning an appeal then I'd rather try and accept it and start to get DD used to the idea of where she'll be come September.

To add to the equation we have an 18 month old who will almost certainly get a place at the local catholic school when she enters reception but I can't fathom how we will manage going to two separate schools for 3 years as we both work full time so the drop offs and pick ups are difficult to manage between us!

I feel so so guilty to be putting DD through this upheaval in any event but I cannot contemplate getting her started in one school and then move her elsewhere.

Sorry for the massive essay -just trying to get all the details down. I've been up in the night crying for 2 nights (which is probably ridiculous but under a lot of stress with a house sale and purchase, negotiating terms on 2 new jobs and now this!). I want to do best by my daughter.

PS - thanks if you have made it this far!

who will the appeal panel be made up of

They may have subcontracted appeals to the LA or use people who are on the LA's appeals panel. If not they are required to appoint people who are independent. They are not allowed to use governors or former governors, for example. There will be at least one lay person and one with experience in education on the panel.

Where did that come from

DfE guidance suggests that the maximum each way journey time for a child of primary school age "might be considered to be" 45 minutes, rising to 75 minutes for children of secondary school age. These figures are not binding on appeal panels. They refer to the fastest available mode of transport that the parents can reasonably be expected to use.

I am going to appeal as I have nothing to lose. I asse the first thing I need to do is get the refusal of a place in writing from the school? (I submitted an application form but only received a phone call telling me there was no place).

Thanks prh.