Appeal on Monday for son with no school place at all for 6 months. Help pls!

[badgermama]

Hello lovely folk, all help appreciated. We moved at the end of March this year to an area where all the primary schools are full. The council have been no help and offered no school place so I have had my 5 year old year R son at home for 6 months trying to educate him whilst taking care of his two year old sister. During this time we have gone from no 2 on the waiting list for our catchment school to number 9. The Head told me it would probably be Juniors before he gets a place.

We have an appeal on Monday and any hints would be appreciated. We spoke to the admissions dept at the council today who gave us lots of information I am sure is wrong eg we think he may fit under fair access protocol as he has been unplaced and the council said FAP doesn't apply to secondary. They also said that he had not been out of school for 6 months as it counts per year so he has only been unplaced for one day (?!).

They also said that the council are setting up a room in a school four miles away till Xmas where all the year R and 1 children who are unplaced in the area can go, with no plans for after Xmas. I can't drive due to a visual problem and would struggle to get him there and feel reluctant to put a nervous 5 year old in a taxi. My son is also very able and was taught on his own for much of the time at his last school as his literacy especially was so far in advance of the other 90 children in the year so the thought of him being in a class with possibly mostly younger children concerns me. He used to come home weeping with boredom from the last school and I can't help feeling that stimulation might not be great in this interim holding classroom. The council official also told me they did not have him on their list as unplaced for some reason so had not got him on the list for this temporary classroom set up, I have no idea why they would not class him as unplaced as we have all the documentation in place to show we applied and are unplaced and an appeal date.

I am sorry to ramble. It had been an exhausting year and I really want to do right by my son and feel pretty hopeless about the appeal at the moment.

thank you to anyone who has stuck with this!

Excellent. That means the LGO isn't just looking at the way the appeal was handled. They've opened up the inquiry to look at the whole process from the time you applied initially. I think that is very positive.

Still following this. Hope the LG processes this quickly.

Thank you folks. Yes, PRH, they are looking at whole case, she seemed to quite like the timeline we sent showing everything from Feb onwards when we first told them we were about to exchange contracts. She went so far as to say she thought the appeals panel misdirected itself and that it should have been a prejudice not an infant class size appeal. Prh would you like the letter forwarding to you out of interest?

On a darkly humorous note, the LGO set the LA a deadline for returning their report back and the LA went over it. I am obviously not surprised by this...

Yes please.

Hi OP, I am just place marking as I have followed this thread keenly. It sounds like things with the LGO are looking promising, especially as you know the LEA will not be able to provide what they have requested. Hopefully a solution is in sight!

I've just sat and read this all in one and am sitting here gobsmacked by the appalling way that you have been treated by the local council and your MP, and very touched and heart-warmed by the great advice and support you have received from mnetters.

It's hugely late now but advice I saw on another thread on here where the dc hadn't got a place at any school was that the mum rang up the local education officer at the council (not sure if that is their official title - the one responsible for absence anyhow) and reported her child for not going to school for two weeks.
The council person was most shocked when she asked what relation she was to the dc and was told mother! But when the circumstances were explained, she then managed to find a place in school for the child to start the next week and just cut through all the council crap the mum had been battling since not being allocated a place.

Obviously it's not going to work for everyone or every council but might be worth a shot? Or ringing them up to see if they have any advice they can offer...

Just delurking to say I really hope a positive outcome is in sight, I can't believe you're still waiting!

Jesus - just seen this thread. You poor, poor things. Wishing you strength and determination!

Badge is it time for daily mail, sad faces?

very topical of course and will put pressure on all sorts to find you a place.

At this point I would also be writing to David Cameron.

I wonder if the government shouldnt have put your son into private school close by until they can find a place

It might well be worth contacting your local councillor - especially if they are of a different political party than that which controls the council.

Having been one, I can say that councillors have far more power than an MP in terms of council business. Plus opposition councillors have extreme interest in point scoring and exposing any form of incompetence on the part of the party in power.

If your local councillors are part of the administration, then write to either the Leader of the opposing group and/or the shadow Education portfolio holder.

I really hope you get a place soon.

The LGO investigation should be very close to reaching a conclusion. I doubt that getting politicians involved at this stage will make things happen any faster.

Do not get the Daily Heil involved, but possibly the "In the back" team at Private Eye could be useful as they like to dig into arse covering at councils.

OP
I am deeply impressed by your resilience.

You have all been so supportive, thank you. It really does help x

Lurking to hopefully offer some more support

just stubbled onto this thread looking for some other advice and wanted to add my support.

Badger - you son sounds wonderful and you are working so incredibly hard. You should be feeling very proud of yourself. The help and support you are being offered by MNers is also fantastic.

I just had to do a search for this as I was sure there would be news. Cannot believe it.

Am hoping for you

When, Oh When will you be hearing something (positive I hope)? Surely this can not go on for another school term!

I look at this thread every day. I can't believe how long this is taking. I am so angry for you. Hope you hear something positive soon.

You are all so thoughtful and it really does help.

We are still awaiting ombudsman news. We also wrote again to the inclusion service and the school after the appeal in Sept reiterating that we are not home schooling and need a place and both haven't even replied to our letters. I am not sure if the school rang the LA about it and they have told them not to reply.

I also heard at the weekend that the infant and junior school are looking to merge (our catchment infant and juniors are on the same site, but have different head teachers) Applying to juniors in a couple of years was my other main hope of getting him into the local school and it now seems a possibility that even that will go, leaving the chance of no local primary education at all for my son as all local schools are still full with catchment children on the waiting lists(I met another mother in a similar position last week who moved to another local school catchment four months ago and has no place for her daughter who is in the same year as my son. It's fair to say she wasn't over the moon to hear about how long it has been for us) I mentioned to her that I thought we needed a parents campaign locally for school places and she seemed horrified and said she thinks the council will sort it out and she might contact her MP. I tried hard to contain my cynicism but explained our situation and wished her well.

I have everything crossed for the ombudsman decision and hope it won't be too long now.

We have of course sent copies of those letters to the ombudsman and explained that they have been ignored. I would hope that will help our case.

I've also been lurking and I wish you well, hoping your ds is in school in time for Christmas.

I feel like I have walked into a nightmare. My partner rang the ombudsman to see if there was any news and apparently they mailed us last week (they didn't, we had nothing despite them having correct address) they have now sent us the latest information provided by the council to them and currently the woman dealing with our case thinks the LA have followed their procedures correctly and haven't done anything wrong.

I am utterly devastated.

She had asked them for lots of pieces of evidence which they haven't provided and in addition they have straight out lied about offering us places when we moved here in March and that we told them we didn't want those places offered because we are home educating. The ombudsman asked for written proof of this apparently, they have not provided written proof, yet still she is saying that she thinks they did all they could and should.

We can now read through and come back to them but she made it clear today that she feels they have done all they should.

I genuinely feel like I have walked into some bizarre parallel universe, have done something wrong and that I am asking for something unreasonable.

My son is an amazing boy,(all parents should think that of course) who is exceptionally capable. He has reading and maths ages far in advance of his chronological age, he is bright, funny, creative and very sociable. He said to me the other day that he has no friends (he has some but many are busy with school) and I am on my knees trying to give him a good education whilst caring for him and his sister. I want to be his mother not his teacher and I feel so sick that no professional agencies seem to care that he isn't getting what he deserves. I am not shocked that so many children come to harm in this country. If professional agencies are prepared to lie and let children fall through the net what hope is there.

I am genuinely devastated for you that the council have point blank lied about their position in this whole thing. I urge you to please not back down, and go back to the LGO again...regardless of what this woman has told you today. I would next be questioning how they find it acceptable that the LEA have failed to provide them with key bits of info that they requested.

I am by no means any expert in this area...but even my untrained eye can see this is all just totally unfair and you have been let down massively. Please don't give up!!!