Primary school appeal - year 1

[Heatonsmum2014]

We have recently moved house and we find ourselves in the unfortunate situation where our son has been offered a year 3 place at an outstanding school and our daughter has been allocated a place at a school which, following a recent Ofsted inspection received quite damning criticism of the schools ability to provide the level of teaching expected. The level of criticism is a genuine concern and fear that this school could have a serious negative impact on our daughters early learning and future opportunities as a whole. We can see from the Ofsted report that the behaviour of pupils, and some teaching and learning require improvement. Our son has started at his new school and we are still communting 1 hour with our daughter as we don't want to take her out of an 'outstanding' school to somewhere where we feel she will strugle. We are now in a situation where our children being separated from each other and they are both distressed and confused.

Our appeal letter that we have received states

‘it has been determined that parental preference in this case need not be met, as to do so would mean that XXXX Primary School would be in breach of the infant class size regulations.’

Looking at the data provided it shows that this has already been breached, as the year 1 roll count has 61 pupils compared against the schools year 1 capacity of 60. By accepting our daughter we have bee informed that the school would be in breach of the Infant Class Size Regulations, yet the current number of pupils in year 1 is 61? The school are therefore already in breach of infant class size both in Yr 1 & Reception which currently have 62 children in the year. We also note that Yr1 has the lowest number of pupils with SEN requirements.
What happens next year if the class numbers stay the same in Reception? It will mean that the new year 1 will be 2 over the regulations. What changes will have to be made then i.e teaching provision, teaching staff etc and why can this not be implemented now? It seems unreasonable and unfair to state prejudice against a regulation yet these are breached in both year groups?

Sorry it is a very long post but I wanted to put as much as I could to give you an overall picture. Our appeal is later this week and I'm not really holding out much hope but I wanted to put it out there as any support/guidance would be appreciated.

Many thanks

The additional pupil Y1 will be an excepted pupil as will both of the additional pupils in Reception. That means they don't count towards the infant class size limit. The school is therefore not in breach of the regulations. These children will continue to be excepted until the year group falls back to 60. The school will therefore not have to make any changes to avoid breaching the regulations.

I'm afraid they are correct that admitting your child would be a breach of infant class size regulations. You should only win an appeal if you can show that a mistake has been made and your daughter should have got a place or the decision to refuse admission was unreasonable. For an in year case like this that is highly unlikely.

It is just possible you will get a sympathetic appeal panel who will admit your child despite the regulations but that is unlikely. Don't talk about the Ofsted report or the perceived shortcomings of the offered school. At best that won't help you. At worst it could leave the panel less likely to give you the benefit of any doubt.

You could ask the presenting officer to confirm that the additional children are excepted. If they aren't it becomes a different ball game completely but that is unlikely.

Go to the appeal and give it your best shot. You never know what will happen. But you should work on the basis that you will almost certainly lose. Sorry.

Appeals under Class Size regulations can only be won under very specific circumstances;

• the admitting authority have made an error that cost your child a place (not an issue here)
• that not admitting your child would be a decision so perverse no sensible person would make it (not an issue here)
• admissions arrangements are unlawful (don't appear to be an issue here)

Nothing you have said here is relevant to an appeal, I'm afraid. If the school already has 61 or 62 pupils a year, that will be because a couple of previous appeals have won, and those extra children are "excepted" children - they don't require extra teachers etc as they are "excepted", and will remain so until the end of KS1 (end of yr2). It's possible these children were admitted through having a statement that named the school, for example, or the LEA made an error when dealing with reception admissions. The fact the class has already gone over 30/60 doesn't help at all I'm afraid; in fact it hinders, as no-one will be accepted from the waiting list until the class goes back down under 30.

The quality of the school you have been given is irrelevant to the appeal as well I'm afraid.

From what you have said, there are no grounds for a successful appeal, I'm sorry. Do you know where you are on the waiting list?

I agree with the others, you do not appear from what you have said to have a case that stands up and has any real chance of succeeding.
How far away is the school that you were offered? If it is less than 2 miles then you need to consider plan B, whatever that is. If it is more than 2 miles then you could in theory appeal on the basis that the distance is unreasonable and the LA should have considered your daughter as an excepted pupil when considering admitting her to the school. However that is a very long shot and I would think most panels would find in the favour of the admission authority as them having made a perfectly reasonable offer of a school place.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, I really do appreciate it.