Primary School - Expat - Appeal

[angelzinflight77]

Hello all;

I'm after bit of advice and its a long winded story....sorry....

My 5/6 year old boys and I moved to Saudi Arabia from the UK last year to join our/their husband/father and unfortunately the move hasn't worked out...one of the main reasons is that the education is extremely poor. We are returning home to our house at the end of April and I have applied to the council for places - year 1/2 and the school have come back with only an offer for one son who is in year 2. They also gave us an option to move them both to another school which is a drive away if i wanted to keep the boys together. This other school wasn't on my application and the ofsted report isnt as good as the school the boys originally went to.

In my application (which was a transfer application) - i put forward that the boys are moving home and that they would like to move back to the same school as this is the school that they went to for nursery/reception.

Year 1 is full - the classes are at capacity - there are 3 classes with 30 children in each.

I am extremely worried about about my son who has been turned down for a place - he isnt great with new people/change, he will have left his dad in Saudi and they are asking him to either start a new school or leave his brother.

Can anyone advise on appeals and what would be the best way of attacking the appeal.



Thank you

[mummytime]

You should be top of the waiting list though once your eldest is there. And someone might move. But you also have to prepare that you may need to HE your youngest until year 3. (Or apply to an alternative school.)

[angelzinflight77]

Thank you savoycabbage
This whole process of leaving the UK and uprooting them from everything/everyone they know has been so hard.
Now I'm moving them back and uprooting them again and they have to leave their dad this time.
We still keep in contact with all of their friends they left from school and we have play dates when we visit the UK.
Ive accepted my eldest sons place today but have heard that there hasn't been any children that have left from year 1 at all in the last 12 months except my son.

[mummytime]

The problem is it is much easier to win an appeal in year 3 and above because the infant class size regulations no longer apply.
For years R-2 there are very very limited grounds in which an appeal can be won, if it is an infant class size appeal (eg. the maths works that taking one more pupil would push the class size above 30 roughly).

[SavoyCabbage]

XYZ School is only yards from our home and is the school that dd would have attended, along with the other children from our estate, if we had not gone abroad. Dd would be comfortable at a school with the children she knows.
We have continued our local links whilst we have been away and dd has reconnected with children she knew previously. These social links are very important to dd, particularly in view of the recent disruption she has had by leaving behind her life in Australia which she has found very difficult.
^
^
This is the paragraph from my appeal.

[SavoyCabbage]

I did an in year appeal earlier this year as I'd been living abroad. However it was for a year four place so that makes a big difference.

We didn't get a place in our catchment school and no place could be found at all for dd in a six mile radius. It's a whole long story but dd was out of school for three months.

We appealed for our catchment school and the panel did seem to take into consideration that dd had has her whole life ripped away from her. All of her friends, school, her home. She did know some dc from the school we were appealing as as we lived here before and had kept in touch with the families.

However it was the fact that the LEA or whoever didn't find her any place that swung it for us.

[angelzinflight77]

The one the boys used to go to is fab, it's like being part of a family....which is really important when it's just you on your own as your husband is working away.
We have a brilliant support system there and the boys love it.
We aren't scared of change but I want them to be settled and just think that this last year hasn't been great for them education wise

[DesertOrDessert]

I sounds like you know what you need to do in your hearts of hearts. Take the place for your oldest, and keep everything crossed that a place comes up for your youngest. Have you thought how long you would wait for a place? I think this is our circumstances talking, but I have convinced myself that we would need to go back to a different school because ours is full and no spaces because we wouldn't be the same people returning, so slotting back in wouldn't happen.
I take it there are no other schools further away with a pair of spaces which might suit you better than the offered school?

[angelzinflight77]

It's a massive decision isn't it?
My main priorities is them being back together in the same school.
I'm completely devastated that this is happening to us.
Leaving the UK and everything it came with was such a huge decision.
It's simply not feasible for me to have them in seperate schools. I've researched the school offered and I have a friend who is a teacher there...when she tells me not to put them in...that speaks volumes...even her children go to the school where the boys used to go to.
My 5 year old isn't great with change and moving him to a 3rd school without his brother, well I dread to think how that would impact on him. We had to wait for a school place here in Saudi for him whilst his elder brother went straight into school...so I homeschooled him. Luckily I brought my biff/chip/kipper books and the Cambridge books with me.
I'd also joined The School Run which is a great website.
If I move them both to another new school to keep them together then it's not fair on his older brother taking him away from a school which he knows, who know him...it's like a family for him. Even at their leaving party my eldest sons Teacher came along.
It doesn't sound like I'm going to have a chance at an appeal.
But I've got to try.

[mummytime]

My two points.
The school you might not want, may well not be that bad. A friend of mine moved her DS from the "school everyone wants" to the "rough school" and it was a huge success for her son. I very strongly considered moving one of mine from the "privileged school" to the "one in a dodgy area", having done work there I had seen how marvellous that school was. And finally my older DCs school got hit with "requires improvement" at one point, it didn't the school any worse than when I choose it and it was "outstanding", in fact it got better. Lots of people end up sending their children to schools they didn't choose and being pleasantly surprised.

Home Ed doesn't have to be that hard, and quite often the education takes up a lot less of the day.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[DesertOrDessert]

OK, and home schooling for Y1.
Did he cover phonics in YR before you moved? I'd focus on reading, writing and Maths basics. If you Google KS1 targets, that will let you know what the new curriculum is asking for. You've also got what your oldest was doing before you moved.
I'd mix the reading, (w)riting and (a)rimithic into a topic of your choice. Dinosaurs, space, insects and under the sea have all been popular with my two.
Look at Oxford owl for books at the right level.
We like gold stars books for basics.
It will all work out - and you'll be out the f here before the temperature picks up, or Ramadan starts. Two massive positives in my book

[writingonthewall]

Yes, I meant private in the UK. At least as an interim measure to keep them together, maybe switching back to state for senior school if you don't want to do private long term. Depends where you live - if out of London, schools will often have places.

Wasn't meaning to criticise your choices

[DesertOrDessert]

I think writing was suggesting you consider private in the UK, if they have spaces, as an alternative to the school you have been offered 2 spaces with?

[angelzinflight77]

Writingonthewall.... Yes we moved to Saudi for the money.... It also meant that we could be together as a family instead of my husband working away. Trust me it was not a decision we took lightly...
There were no jobs where we live and lots of people being made redundant, so we did what was best for us.
They did have a private education but in comparison to the UK it is no where near the standard....year 1 has just started phonics and year 2 haven't even touched on nouns/verbs. So I made the decision to come home.
It is massively going to impact our family life being apart but I've had to choose what's right for my boys....
Unlike the mJority of people on our compound, I'm not prepared to sacrifice my boys education for money.

[riceuten]

How would i find out if an admissions mistake has been made?

You wouldn't necessarily know - you might suspect this were the case, if, for instance, someone else in your circumstances were admitted. But, to be honest, it sounds as if the school really is full.

[writingonthewall]

Private? obviously don't know your circumstances but people usually move to Saudi for the money and lack of needing to pay tax.......

[DesertOrDessert]

Then all the best for your move home. I think we've been exceptionally lucky. Fingers crossed there is some movement in school places over the next few weeks. And just think of the . I know it's not MN etiquette, but ((xxx)))

[angelzinflight77]

Desert - its been awful for us - the compound is hell - bunch of women with nothing to do except making peoples lives hell and then add in the school......
We tried Khobar but the waiting list is really long.....then there is that road...

Saudi isnt just for us......

[DesertOrDessert]

Would you consider moving to Khobar, if one of the two British schools could take you? It's (just) commutable, but a pig of a road from Khobar to Jubail.
PM me if you want more details. I think you've decided to get out of the Sand pit, but just putting that out there incase it's an alternative. it's a leap of faith making a move as big as you did. Sorry it hasn't worked out.
Kids are more resilient than you think. We started in UK in September, and then did 6 weeks in an "international school" which sounds similar to yours before landing true UK schooling. Virtual to get you through another benifit if moving south, 45 mins to Bahrain

[meditrina]

"Would the fact that it would impact on his mental health not be a good enough reason?"

No, because this is an ICS appeal. So this would fall under point a) the list posted by LittleNelle - ie children admitted outside the normal admissions round with
statements of special educational needs or Education,Health and Care Plans specifying a school. Coming from abroad, you might be able to argue this at appeal on the grounds that your paperwork about his health needs originated in a different country but this is how it maps into the British system. You would also need to show why the appealed for school is the only one who can provide your DC with the support he needs. You won't be able to make a case based on remaining with his brother when you already have an alternative offer which means they two can remain together.

[angelzinflight77]

We are in Old Jubail in Saudi - the school is a complete farce...no where near the level of the education at home in the UK, hence coming home.

My husband isnt coming back to the UK to live - so ill be living on my own with the boys.

Its going to be very hard for all of us and i was hoping just to go back into our old life including the old school for the boys.

It sounds as though i won't win the appeal based on the above facts - but I've got to at least try.
In the meantime ill keep him on the list and home school him until a place becomes available.

[LittleNelle]

Unless he has mental health issues that means he has a Education, Health and Care Plan naming a specific school then I don't think it will make a difference.

[meditrina]

You can ask for all information you think will be relevant to your appeal, such as have they placed your child in the correct entrance category and have they measured your home to school distance currently.

But none of that will matter if the error did not cost your DC a place they would otherwise have been offered. As there was no place available, even if they had made the most flagrant errors ever seen it would still not have deprived you of an offer and so will not win you an appeal.

If you can demonstrate that they actually have a vacancy they offered to someone else when your DC was top of the waiting list, then you would have a winnable appeal. So worth asking what year 1 places have been allocated since you applied, on what date and what was your DC's place on the waiting list in those dates.

[angelzinflight77]

Would the fact that it would impact on his mental health not be a good enough reason?

[DesertOrDessert]

The only hope is your oldest starts at school, and spaces open up over the summer. Sorry. We would have been in exactly the same place as you if we hadn't managed to secure coveted British School places over here well, YR and Y2, but otherwise identical My sons y2 place has gone, as someone was waiting for a y2 place. It really tough. Is Dad coming back with you? There are decent schools in SA. Where are you?