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!

And don't feel embarrassed to push on this issue now either. Just because you trusted that the council was giving you the correct advice etc earlier so didn't look closely at this isn't a bad thing. I know I would assume that the LA would work for the interests of a five year old, not against it.

Twiggy. The admissions criteria are as you describe and we were certainly bumped down the lists several times for the reasons you give. This was all explained to us by the admissions officer at the time. The point I was making(and probably not very well)is that we queried the unfairness of this system with the local MP, it seemed to us that the criteria discriminated against long standing residents who have been on the list for some time and are being penalised and subjected to the kind of stress the OP describes.

I appreciate that admissions officers must follow the criteria to the letter but an MP can influence a situation. Extra places are sometimes created in schools because of this.

Obviously we will never know whether our experience was just a happy coincidence or not but if an individual feels strongly that aspects of the existing system are not fair enough then they have a right to take it to their MP. Who knows what the outcome might be.

Thank you for these extra bits if very useful information.

I mailed the MP who replied yesterday evening and he then rang the council this morning and is getting back to us as soon as he hears what they have to say for themselves. He was very understanding so we shall see on that one.

I understand the same thing about waiting lists...it's accurate and probably fair that people can move about...I just thought that things such as FAP existed to help stop the permanent bumping f individuals with no place at all. Their is literally nothing at any school in our area and something has to help people who move somewhere and can't get into a local school. We are just damn lucky I am currently a full time parent to our two year old so can have him at home. If I had needed to go to work when we moved house I would have had nowhere to send him...as it is it is restricting what my two year old can do sometimes as many playgroups etc won't allow a 5 year old to come along. I adore having my son around, he is an amazing boy, so funny and sharp...but this was not our choice for his education.

Thank you so much again for all of your wisdom. people taking time to do this is very humbling.

Just been reading through the documentation is received when I applied to appeal in June and seen this statement
:

'the final set of papers comprising the timetable, location plan of the venue, the local authorities written submission and your win written case will be despatched to you , the appeal panel and the local authority at the same time via first class post seven clear working days before the panel meeting'.

We have NOT been sent anything.

What do we do?! I feel like I am in a total mess of maladministration and that I can't do anything to get them to do this properly. Agh!

Any appeal or admissions experts around please. Starting to really worry now that we cant prepare in time without paperwork.

Experts on appeals or admission on today please..? Please help. I am really feeling we can't get ready in time now they have not sent us the information.

Thanks tiggy I will call. The Place where the appeal is held , the council offices, is nearly seven miles away with poor transport links (four buses a day from here to there and the buses have no pushchair access) so getting my 2 and 5 year old there to pick it would be damn difficult. Not sure they will post it in time now.

I am starting to get really angry about all this.... seems at all points people are forgetting us or not doing what the should...the council forgot us, the appeals people haven't done what they said and the school haven't sent us letters we asked for.

How on earth does a parent with language or literacy problems or SEN negotiate this process?!

OP this is so stressful for you. I really hope all goes well for you on Monday.

Just mailed and rung got that Tiggytape thank you. Have started mailing everything so we have evidence and saying I will call to follow up every mail shortly after sending it and then calling. No reposnse to any mails yet from last two days and calls to the admisssions and appeals depts are just ringing out or getting diverted and being told people aren't in the office.

Also trying to safely take care if my children whilst doing this...

Good luck for Monday OP.

Thanks Apple, kind of you. We moved here as he was in a dreadful unsafe school, bottom 1% for country despite mixed catchment with MC kids... with gates open to busy roads, my Boy sitting next to an open cupboard of sharp items and inhalers, him begging teachers to give him books to read and them being annoyed at him and a teacher who used to say the pupils we all a big problem. As stressful as this is at least he is safe at home and not at that school any more. I have no regrets about moving. We just need action now.

Help please any experts.

Paperwork arrived and I feel sick...

The council have lied in their evidence that they offered us a place in June 3.5 miles away. Not true.

They also listed the three appeals being heard with the children's full names. This has really got to me for some reason. How dare they send my child's name to other people. Surely this is confidential information.

Do the panel really have any power? Surely the council will just make a decision and if they don't want my son to have a place to the level that they will lie about it then what chance do we have.

Trying to stay calm and positive but this is insane.

Thank you to the people sending good wishes, you are so kind.

Well I am no expert on school admission appeals but I would have thought that confidentiality has been breached in naming all the children. It's not necessary in any way as nothing can be gained from it. I too would be annoyed at this.

Really it all sounds pretty incompetent.

I am surprised at the names being listed, unless of course it is public information?

Just keep calm and state the facts of what happened.eg. they did not offer you that place, you have no documentation to show that they offered you that place....

I am going to sound stupid here - but have they got the correct address for you? Just wondering about the missing paperwork and the offer they claim they sent. If they are sending stuff to the wrong address then of course you will not get it.

Have you received anything from them by post? If not an admin error on the address front maybe a cause for this (from my experience of -in-year admissions sooooo much was one by post/snail mail it was ridiculous). If you have received some stuff by post but not others can they prove they sent it to the correct address?

Am guessing you will have a copy of the original address/application you sent.

Good luck on Monday. And . Try not to fret (easier said than done I am sure).

State that you have not received any offer of a place. In the hearing ask them why the offer letter is not part of the evidence. It is because it doesn't exist. It is, of course, possible that the previous poster's suggestion that they have the wrong address is correct in which case they may have produced the offer letter but you haven't received it. Assuming you gave them the correct address that is their problem.

They should not be sending the names of children out like this. That sounds like they've sent you something that should only have gone to the panel members.

Yes the panel has power. If they decide in your favour the council must provide a place at the appeal school. They have no option.

Also, if they offered a place in June why have they not mentioned this before now? June...July....August....

Thank you folks, the names were definitely meant to g to everyone, they are in the covering letter of the appeals schedule.

They definitely have our correct address.

The school are arguing they would have to employ another teacher with more pupils but from everything I am reading the coalition relaxed the law last year and classes can go over 30 without the legal requirement to employ more staff in extreme circumstances. Am I right?

Thank you Tiggytape. The school state in their argument that they would be acting illegally without another teacher and we would cost them £35k.

It's slightly more complicated than that. The new code only gives exemption to statemented children admitted outside the normal admissions round. In other words, if there is a PAN of 60, 165 children apply for the school and 4 of them have statements, the school can't admit 64 children (I.e. 60 plus 4 statemented children). They would have to apply the oversubscription criteria in order and therefore admit 4 statemented children and 56 other children.

Equally, although the code allows children admitted on appeal to be exempted, the panel has to follow the appeals code and make a just decision on the facts. You can't apply the logic that a child admitted on appeal is exempt, so the panel wouldn't break ICS regulations by accepting the appeal. The appeal is a judgement on whether the child should have been admitted at the time of consideration by the admitting authority.

Having said that, it is the case that the exemption is 'life long' for the child concerned and the school does not have to get another teacher.