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!

Sorry who's betting...emotional and my SPaG has gone to pieces.

I have to say that I am also flabbergasted. The appeal panel have said things that appear to be incorrect and I can only assume that was because they were advised to say that by the clerk to the panel. An appeal panel is perfectly at liberty to decide that a pupil is an excepted pupil and to make an appropriate decision. Whilst I can understand the decision not to admit on the basis that there could have been a second teacher in the class, as it was not 100% clear and actually it is both about what the situation was when the place was refused and what the situation is now, there is no way that this then equates to the school being full means that the LA can do nothing.
I believe that there is a good case to go to the LGO with based on what has happened. There is also another May 2014 document which is from the LGO which I believe is relevant, which is around in-year infant admission appeals. It is relevant where A) a family has moved into the area B) they have applied for a place in an infant class and C) the child falls into one of the categories of excepted pupils. I believe you do fall into one of the categories which has been well posted before - there are no places locally.
What this pronouncement says is that where the pupil could be an excepted pupil, then the decision to refuse to admit cannot be based on infant class size because in effect it has already been agreed the class can go to more than 30 as they are a potentially excepted pupil. It would be a normal admission appeal based on prejudice and more importantly the LA have to explain why they do not consider them as an excepted pupil.
I am also more than happy to look at the letter from the panel to see what else is being said that might be incorrect.

And please remember that you are not letting your son down.

Channel your DP's inner gorilla, and remember you have a huge online flange with you every step of the way.

Thank you folks. This support means a lot.

Thank you admission, like PRH you have seen our case and the council's mails etc so know this well so hearing you agree also feels very validating.

My partner is attempting to scan the letter to mail to you. Thank you again.

Have read the thread with incredulity. My then year 1 son was out of school for a month while we tried to get him a place in a suitable south London school after moving house. Fwiw I emailed everyone and made a total pain of myself. Eventually I got the head of lambeth education services on the phone. He said he knew all about me and he wanted to get the situation resolved. Within a week it was.

Wishing you lots of luck. X

I was so positive about this from my partner's feedback and comments that the panel were shaking their heads and confirming things he said and seemed irritated with the LAs lack of paperwork and case. They even checked the excepted child rulings during the appeal and said he fitted and in the letter today have said that it't the LAs job to decide if he is excreted and the LA think he isn't so that's it.

At the end the LA consultant said in his summing up that he felt the LA had done everything correctly , my partner said 'really? You are still saying that after we have established, for example, that we were told to ring a HE number if he had no school place or we would be breaking the law and then he has never been deregistered'. The LA rep paused and said ' we'll, no...but sometimes people do wrong things with good intentions'.

Excepted obviously, not excreted...although excretion seems to fit this load of rubbish...

I've been following your story and logged on especially today hoping to see a happy outcome. Im so sorry, I can't imagine how gutted and sick you must feel.

You are doing GREAT by your son, and although he is too young to understand, he will be so proud of you (as are all of us on Mumsnet).

Please take PRH and Admission's advice. I know the LGO seems another hurdle (and you must be feeling like you can't face all the bloody paperwork and stress preparing for it again) but since the LA aren't going to place him in a proper school anyway, it has to be worth a try.

We're cheering you all the way!

Wow. Just wow.
I've been checking in on this thread regularly, fully expecting to hear good news. I'm staggered that it was a no.

Please take it all further. prh and co know their stuff, and if they say you have a case, you have a case.

Good luck.

You are a truly wonderful parent x

Thank you folks. Though I am not thanking you all individually, every one of your comments means a lot. I feel like the world is absurd today and every stranger taking the time to post to wish us well or give advice means a huge amount.

I just thank God I am not battling for proper health care for one of my children (though from my background I know damn well that educational opportunities correlate with health and wellbeing) so I know I am fighting for a better future for my boy.

You people are lovely x

Another one shocked that you didn't have good news.

You are in the right place for advice ad support though. prh, admission and tiggy really do know their stuff.

Good luck with the LGO.

Just realised the clerk asked for our copy of the home ed consultants report to copy in the appeal meeting and said he would return it to us and he hasn't returned it. I am paranoid enough now to think they have kept evidence. I hadn't copied that before the appeal. Damn.

Could you get an additional copy of the report directly from the home Ed consultant?
I hope you get this situation resolved soon , it must be frustrating. In the meantime, are there any clubs that he could join? I'm thinking scouts , sports etc. Some libraries near me run story time and homework clubs for school age children.

Just at this.

Don't give up. You have MN behind you.

This case is just staggering. The LA and Appeals panel should be ashamed of themselves

I've been following this since the start. I can't offer any advice as I know nothing of the UK systems, and I'm glad you have knowledgeable people helping you out. I am just gobsmacked when I hear stories like this about children being failed so badly by the 'system'. Every child should have a right to attend their local school and be educated and I can't believe that a group of supposedly competent adults can't just put their heads together and say 'we need a place, let's find one immediately.' Wishing you all the best in your fight ahead.

I have just read the thread and have no advice but just wanted to wish you and your family lots of luck for your ongoing battle. .

I also wanted to say that it is heart warming to see so many knowledgeble posters helping out the OP. What lovely, kind and clever people you are.

Just got a letter from the school who we had written to two weeks ago saying we believe we should be considered under fair access protocol as unplaced. They told us they would speak to the LA and get back to us.

The letter says

'Unfirtunately X does not fit under that category as I understand that he is registered with the education inclusion service as being home educated so would not be considered as being out of education. The wording in the fair access protocol is 'children who have been out if education for two months or more ' and not 'school' as you state in your letter.

...I am bound to follow the infant class size law concerning statutory infant class size of 30. We cannot exceed this even when a child meets one of (sic) more of the criteria in the fair access protocol'

WRONG wrong, bloody wrong! We are not registered as home ed,

we have been out if school for nearly 6 months

FAP means exactly that...that you can admit and it doesn't meet class sizes.

They have clearly rung the LA and they have given them lies and excuses.

Why the hell would we be on their waiting list and writing to them about FAP if we were home educating and didn't need placing.

Why do they not want him to have an education? ! I feel like I have walked into some bizarre parallel universe where it's as if we are truanting, not trying to get a place.

Isn't this an unlawful letter?!

*Affect class sizes legal limits, not 'meet'

Unlawful no. Mistaken yes.

FAP does not override ICS limits. However, if the reason your son is out of school is that there are no places available within a reasonable distance he is an excepted child and ICS is irrelevant.

Whatever has happened in the past your son should not now be registered with the education inclusion service. Make sure you leave the LA in no doubt that he is not being, and has never been, home educated.

Thank you.

And absolutely, I would never deregister him at this point.

It is clear that there are different message in different parts of the LA structure, presumably because of the shambles on communications that has happened over the last 6 months. I would write to the LA admission office, the home education service and the schools involved and state very forcibly that you are not home educating your child and that you require written assurance from them that the records show that you do not currently have a school place and that you are and have been on the waiting list for your three preferred schools.
However it is also now clear that as an in-year applicant the LA believe the onus is on you to approach schools and gain a suitable school place. The LA information however indicates that they are actually holding waiting lists for all schools in the LA.

Any update OP?

Thank you for asking. We are putting together our case to the LGO. I have to admit feeling pretty hopeless especially given that I have no hope that a second appeal would get anywhere. However, hopeless is no use to my motivational levels. This is about my son and not me and we are obviously going to keep at it.

Does anyone think their is any mileage in writing to the head of the council or will they just say an appeal is binding...? I just want someone to look at my son's educational situation with a reasonable head on.

We tried the route to the bulge class just out of curiosity yesterday. We had walked about a quarter of the way we would have to do even before buses and my son was nearly in tears. He is a good walker but it is impossible to imagine he can do this commute and then be any use in a school day.

The LA rep in the appeal said they see 75mins travel time as reasonable for an infants age child (more than I have read in other areas) but it would be over 75 minutes to get to the bulge classroom. He also made it clear that taxis are exceptionally rare and a bus pass would be more likely.