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!

[stinkingbishop]

Have just read the start and end. Bloody bloody hell. It's Kafka-esque, isn't it. Can't believe you've not killed someone yet.

Did you ever involve the MP? What about writing to Chris Woodhead who does his Education column in the Sunday Times? Or anything else that smacks of public naming and shaming? Sadly that's sometimes what it takes to get people to haul themselves out of their bureaucratic, arse-covering swamp...

[SunnyUpNorth]

OP I too have just read this from start to finish and am shocked. I can completely understand why you feel you've entered some wierd parallel universe/bad dream situation. It is just inexplicable.

It's bad enough you're in this situation in the first place but then that all your work is being thrown back in your face by the evidence being ignored.

You sound like such lovely parents and I'm sure your influence will make up for this lost period of education. But obviously that is not the point. Your son is entitled to an education and it is shocking what you're going through.

Even though you shouldn't have to start thinking of other options, you may need to. If you can't afford private, could you rent out your house and rent somewhere else where there are places and potentially put yourselves on the waiting list for various schools in your area? I know you've just moved but would you be able to stomach moving again?

I really hope it doesn't come to that. I wish you all the best and hope hou get somewhere soon.

I agree that you should start taking this higher and perhaps more publicly.

[badgermama]

Hi folks.

well the LGO verdict is in and they have said that although there are clearly problems in the way my son has been handled as the bulge class is now available in the next town the LA have met their legal requirement and the case is done.

After being fobbed off by our local Tory MP the local lib dem candidate is now trying to help but thinks she can't do much. She spoke to the head of admissions who admitted to her that they had mismanaged our case and forgotten my son, but he has sent arguments to the LGO saying they did everything they should (including lying that they had a meeting to consider his excepted status in March when we moved) These people are clearly completely morally bankrupt (I gather he is also a school governor...) and would rather protect their own sorry backs than ensure a child gets an education.

I literally cannot drag him and his sister on poor transport links to this bulge class in a failing school (and what good parent would....?). the transport links have got even worse with the new year as due to council cuts the bus service has been cut to half the buses there were in December. This if course is irrelevant...

So we now have home education (the council still ignoring our letters saying we are not home educating) or borrow the 10k a year for local school fees.

I am just trying to muster up the energy to make a decision and feel at a loss at the moment.

Thank you again to all who have given us support and encouragement and I really hope none of you find yourself in this sort of situation.

Xxx

[thegreylady]

I am appalled at your situation. What about taking it up with a local newspaper? At the very least more people will be aware of your plight and the authorities may be shamed into doing something for you.

[BearsAndAngels]

How awful for you and your family! This is such a sad indictment of our public services.

Most private schools are obliged to admit a number of pupils under means-tested bursaries. Could you apply for one of these?

On a practical level, I assume you have him on the waiting lists for all the state schools that would be viable? What happens when your DD applies for a place, will he be given sibling priority?

Is moving an option?

It all sounds incredibly stressful and depressing, so well done for fighting so hard along every single path.

Wishing you the best of luck whatever you decide to do next.

[admission]

Would it be appropriate to try and get the libdem candidate to go back to the LA officer in writing confirming their version of the conversation, including the relevant negative comments. If the officer ignores it, then by default they are accepting that what is in the reply is a fair summary of the conversation. If they do reply then they will have to defend what they said in writing and maybe give you an opportunity to go back to the LGO and say they are not telling the truth and this proves it.

[prh47bridge]

Agree with Admission. Faced with evidence that the LA was not telling the truth I would hope the LGO would reconsider their decision.

[neepsandtatties]

Do the bulge class transport times meet with the LA's policy? If not, is that a way to tackle this?

[prh47bridge]

No, that won't help. Even if it gave a case, the OP could only use it through another appeal but that would have to wait until the next academic year. The only ways forward now are:

• go back to the LGO with new evidence to prove the LA was lying
• go to judicial review

Since judicial review is risky and expensive the best route would be to find evidence against the LA.

[Viewofthehills]

Have been following this since the beginning. Is it worth doing the 'school run' to the bulge class with a newspaper reporter in tow? Is there anything to lose at this point?

[YonicSleighdriver]

So sorry x

[badgermama]

I have mailed the lib dem candidate to ask her if she would put in writing what the head of admissions told us.

However in numerous phone calls with the LGO the case weaker said she thought we had been mismanaged and that thee had been loads of errors but all that matters at the end if the day is that the council have offered anything at all,,.even if we can't get to it, even if we were left off the list for it until we rang, even if it was over 6 months after we moved before even this temporary bulge class was even thought about.

These people are obscene and god help all the people we know will be without a school place in the next round. the estimate I heard was 6000 plus more primary places needed. the lack of strategic planning and subsequent lack of culpability is beyond belief.

[badgermama]

*head if admissions told HER.

Sorry. Brain utterly scrambled at the moment.

[badgermama]

Case weaker is my favourite Freudian typo so far. :(

[Roseformeplease]

Given that this has just hit the media, is there any mileage in offering your story to some papers as the "human face" of the lack of places in schools. It is all very well them reporting in numbers and statistics but you provide real, concrete evidence that the council is not fulfilling its responsibilities.

[PrimalLass]

I would phone the papers tomorrow.

And have y applied again for September?

[Icimoi]

Have you formally applied for transport to the bulge class? It seems to me you have a cast iron right to whatever they can arrange which would bring this journey within the time limits set out in the DfE's guidance. If that doesn't work, use the internal appeal system and, if that doesn't work, go to specialist Education solicitors about judicial review proceedings - this type of claim would be in your child's name and he would presumably get legal aid for it.

If it is physically impossible to do the journey within that time limit, then you should still consider instructing solicitors. Unfortunately, for complex reasons legal aid in your child's name isn't available for school admission cases, but it may be the case that, faced with a detailed pre-action letter from solicitors who know what they're talking about, the LA would back down anyway and/or suddenly discover a vacancy in a more viable school.

[sarahbanshee]

How are you doing badgermama? I hope you got a place for your lovely boy.

[MrsJoeDolan]

I was thinking about this a few days ago. I hope the inept- beyond -belief council have sorted a school place.

[CookieMueller]

I haven't been on here for a while, but as the artist formerly known as Badgermama I thought I'd update this for anyone who was interested :) the palaver continued for a long time...we went to ombudsman and after a long and unpleasant battle were told they'd met their requirements as they had offered us something in county. We continued to have him at home until the point where is was evident that no matter how many home ed events I took him to, my beautiful boy was losing his confidence around other children. Against my personal values we ended up scraping together the money to place him in a local independent school. He flourished there for a year and a half. Mercifully our catchment schools are separate infant and juniors so as we live 0.3 miles away he got a place for Year 3. He's been there for a few months now, settling in nicely and making good friends.

The local school situation remains a nightmare for many, with children in catchment not getting places this year and parents travelling to different schools with siblings.

If anyone has searched this thread to see what to do if they don't have a school place then I send my best wishes to you. The system is a faceless, unforgiving one and the victims are the little ones who deserve so much better.

[CookieMueller]

Can I also say again , a huge thank you to all of you for your care, help and support. We were so exhausted at the time of starting this thread and felt we were letting our son down. The care and support you all gave was just wonderful and meant an awful lot. When people rally round like that for a child they've never even met, it gives me such faith in people. Thank you xxx

[TinfoilHattie]

So glad it all worked out for your son in the end - it sounds like a total nightmare from start to finish.

[MinesaLattecino]

Thanks for the update, so glad your DS got a solution.

What happened with DC2 in the end?

[CookieMueller]

Thank you folks @minesalatte she got a place in year r at the linked infants, they wave at each other through the fence at break time :)

[MrsMontgomerySmythe]

Lovely update thank you for taking the time to post.