Appeal on medical grounds

[EllaRees]

We didn't get a place at any of the schools closest to our house on our mid term transfer application to year 1 and have been offered on far enough away to make our daily walks and onward journey to work very difficult. That isn't grounds for appeal however. I do not consider DS (aged 5) to have a medical condition as such but he does get pains in his legs (GP said nothing to worry about) and he'll experience them with this length of walk. Would a panel accept that or am I wasting my time? There is a bus we can get part of the way but it makes the journey such a faff.

If it's over a certain distance the lea are meant to offer transport anyway. I think it might be 2 miles at that age, but wouldn't swear to it. If it's less than that and he has no medical conditions, then from what you say it just sounds like he needs to get used to walking reasonable distances, assuming the pain is aching from walking further than he's used to. I'm not an admissions expert but I'm pretty sure for medical grounds you need to have either a dx or a medical professional who'll back up the claim it's a medical reason that makes a reasonable distance an unreasonable walk for that child.

I assume that scooter / cycle / tag-along cycle are inappropriate due to road / pavement conditions?

Thanks for the replies. Yes it's just under 2 miles so no transport offered. Scooting difficult as a big hill in the way.

Tiggytape, that's very helpful thank you - I really don't think we'd meet any of the criteria.

Nonetheless it's an untenable arrangement for us - various reasons inc my husband works shift for Police and so I usually have to drop off both kids in different places and get to work for a certain time. We moved to try to improve our routine but it's gone massively wrong. Also tried to move away from London, as all our relatives always smugly suggest, but no jobs for us so that didn't work out either. We just need someone to give us a break but I doubt that's going to happen.

Yes we are quite high up the waiting lists and keeping our fingers crossed. We can't manage to home school for as long as it could take to get a place. It sounds like you are well-informed in this area Tiggytape - do you have a view on how children cope with being moved to a preferred school having settled into another school?