Help with possible/inevitable appeal next year 2016

[Suzi78]

Hello there, I'm posting about my dd's secondary school application that I have to complete by October. Not sure if I should have posted here on in the secondary school section but dd is still in year six at present so I thought it'd be ok, I'll pre warn you though it may be a long one.

Basically I want some advice on how to go about winning an appeal. Now I realise this is a bit previous as we won't find out which secondary school my dd has been offered until next March but after receiving a letter from dd's primary school last week I've become a little worried and just want to be prepared in case it comes down to an appeal.

My dd goes to a catholic primary school, she has been there since the beginning of year three and is very happy. Me and dh are Catholic and whilst we don't force our faith onto anyone including our children we did want dd to be educated at a catholic school. The time came to apply for primary, we listed the only two catholic schools in our parish and one community school. Despite being baptised and attending church with me and her dad almost every week our dd was refused a place at both primary schools. We appealed to both and lost, me and dh were upset at the time as we didn't particularly like the community school she was allocated but we had little choice.

Anyway our dd started at her school, she settled ok eventually but as the majority of the friends she'd made at nursery (attached to the first school we applied for) had gone on to attend the school so she found it hard to make friends. When it came to her starting year one we applied for an in year transfer to both catholic schools one by one and both times, again we failed to get her a place. However the first week of year three a place became available, we applied for it straight away and she was admitted to the school. My dd settled so well and she was delighted to be back with all the friends she'd left behind at nursery and the rest is history as the say.

Well fast forward to now, she's in year six and like I said we apply for secondary this year. There is only one catholic secondary school in our area, it is a fantastic yet heavily oversubscribed school but due to the admissions criteria my dd would have been more or less guaranteed a place. However I've now been informed that the seodndary school has changed it's admissions criteria and from looking at it, it means it's going to be a lot harder for my dd to get a place.

Basically the old criteria meant typically each year it never got past criteria 4 for admissions and it went as follows-

1. Children with SeN/Looked after 2)Baptised Catholic children who live within one of the listed parishes AND who have received their primary education at a Catholic school. 3)Baptised brothers and sisters. 4)Baptised Catholic children from other parishes who have received their primary education at a catholic school.

New criteria as follows-

1)SeN children/Looked after
2)Baptised Catholic brothers and sisters.
3)Baptised Catholic children who live within one of the listed parishes.
4)Baptised Catholic children from other parishes.

Basically they have put siblings as a priority over parish children, this I actually agree with but they have now taken away the stipulation of attending a catholic primary school. Now if my dd had not had moved from her community primary to a catholic primary then I'd have been delighted about the new criteria as it would have meant she'd be on a level playing field as it were with all the other baptised kids who either did or did not attend catholic primary. But as it stands I decided to move dd, firstly because I had always wanted her to be educated in the catholic faith and secondly because me and her dad knew from her being little that we wanted her to be able to go on to the Catholic secondary school.

Changing the criteria now means it won't just be baptised catholic children (who have attended catholic primary) from a total of 4 feeder schools applying it could now potentially mean that other parents who baptised their children but who failed to secure a place at catholic primary will now apply for their child to attend the secondary and this will mean that their will be people fighting for places and the category that my dd will now be in (criteria 3) will be so oversubscribed.

So I suppose what I'm asking is if my dd doesn't secure a place at the school would I have a good chance of winning an appeal based on my reasons. Ie being that we are a genuine practicing Catholic family, I applied twice and appealed twice to get my dd into a catholic primary school, when a place finally did become available I moved my dd immediately, my dd took her holy communion in year 4 and she/I want her to continue her education in a faith school, I now drive her over two miles to her catholic primary school everyday and have done for four years when it would have been technically "easier" to keep her at her community primary that was literally a two minute walk across the road from our house. Would these reasons, in your opinion be sufficient enough and plausible for me wanting my dd to attend the secondary school and would it be enough to win an appeal if we were unlucky enough to find ourselves in that position in six months time?

I am not an admissions expert (sure one will be along soon), but to win an appeal it you need to prove that the school you want provides something that your offered school doesn't. In your case that seems to be a Catholic education. Just proving you're a practising Catholic family will not be good enough, as presumably every other child admitted will also be from a practising Catholic family and there will also likely be other Catholic children not admitted! So you need to focus on why a Catholic education is so important to you, and what (for example) your DD will get from a Catholic school that she won't get from practising at home and regularly attending church.

The fact that the admission criteria have changed is not something you can use in an appeal. The school is entitled to change its admission criteria provided it follows the correct process.

Wanting a Catholic education may help depending on the appeal panel but the main thing you need to do is show that your daughter will be disadvantaged if she doesn't attend the school you want. As Tiggytape says, you need to identify what the school offers that is particularly relevant to her and is not available at whatever school is offered.

What are the over-subscription criteria for Category 3?

Well Intradental I have to disagree with you there. By appealing twice to get my child the Catholic education I think she deserves and by moving her from a more local primary school to ensure she gets this does, as well as attending church regularly and my daughter taking her first holy communion, this in my opinion shows our level of commitment. There are many families at my dd's primary that have never set foot in church or who only attend when school request they do for special occasions ie Mother's Day, Easter,Christmas etc, now I'm not one to question another person's faith, that isn't my place but surely if it came down to us all appealing at the same time then my dd would be more deserving in the eyes of the panel.

Chippy, if criteria 3 has to many children in it or it becomes oversubscribed then the governors will offer places to children who live closest to the school. The criteria does technically list these feeders schools and offers places to children who attend these but that's way down the list at criteria 6. However four of the schools closest to the secondary including the one my dd attends is in one of the listed parishes you have to live in to qualify for criteria 2 or 3 and we live 1.9 miles away in a straight line, but in the past they've taken children from miles further but not sure what will happen now with this new criteria.

Oh and I'm not sure if this would e relevant to appeal but the next Catholic secondary school closest to us is almost 8 miles away, which is way to far even for an 11 year old child.

I can totally see why you want to appeal but your chances are slim because the admissions criteria are quite clear and don't put practising families higher up.

I've appealed primary, moved in y3 and then appealed secondary - panel didn't care on the slightest that dd had moved schools or failed to get her preferred school at primary.

Your dd should be regarded as no more deserving than the non catholic child who appeals because (for example) this is the only school that can support her disability. How faithful you are cannot carry any weight, at appeal or otherwise, as it is too subjective. Your faith puts you in category 3, and that's it. There can be no subcategory of 'baptised but really really really wants a catholic eduation'.

This particular catholic school is a specialist performing arts centre and as my dd is gifted in this area IMO (attends drama school, performs at theatres etc) i think the school would benefit her and help her progress further. I've already researched online the school admissions booklets as these also publish the amount of pupils admitted each year and the ones successful at appeal. Every year for the last seven years there have been extra children admitted through appeal and they've taken between 5 and 9 extra pupils each year, so it isn't impossible to win.

Now that might win you an appeal. How much more catholic you are than the next person probably won't.

I can't add much to what prh47bridge has said.

I disagree slightly with Tiggytape saying that appeals are about wants. Obviously, wanting a place in a particular school is what drives people to appeal, but actually winning that appeal depends on satisfying the panel that the child has needs which that school is best placed to meet and which outweigh the school's need to stick to its original number of admissions. Your protestations about being a better Catholic than others and so more deserving of a place will carry very little weight at appeal (at least, if the panel is following the code) but your daughter's need for a school with a performing arts specialism would be highly relevant.

On back-up plans: no panel should allow an otherwise losing appeal just because the child has no other school place. If an appeal is allowed, it must be because the criteria within the code are met. Otherwise, it would be an invitation to parents to reject the school they've been offered and then try to blackmail the panel into allowing the appeal on the basis that otherwise the child won't be at school. If anything, that risks alienating the panel, when (if anything) parents want them to give them the benefit of any doubt.