Appeal against primary appeal hearing

[Durbinc]

Hi
I have recently been unsuccessful in a primary school appeal hearing for our son which I am devastated about.
I am aware childcare arrangements etc do not usually win appeals however I had lots of supporting documents from GP etc for him to attend this school. His dad works away I work full time so have used the same childminder since he was 7 months of age. He was involved in a serious accident aged 18 months and childminder helped to care for him during his healing process. Due to school allocated we are going to have to make 2 major changes to his life with school and childminder. However we were unsuccessful due to the classes being at full capacity. The issue I have is that another parent was also appearing on distance however she is too out of catchment area. She has been very distressed and I feel played on this significantly throughout the appeal. They have won their case despite being out of catchment and as our letter states the classes are at capacity.
I am somewhat confused if the classes are at capacity as indicated to us and the other parent being out of catchment how they have been successful in winning the appeal?
Any suggestions?
Do you think I could take this further?
Thanks a very distressed mum

There could be a child protection issue for the other child that wasn't disclosed on the application

They were admitted on appeal because they had a significant need -the legal definition of significant - covering things like children protection as the pp said. Your case wasn't strong enough. For your case to have been significant you'd have had to show your child's mental health would have damaged - you'd have needed a consultant or similar to prove this.

Many many many children cope with both going to school and getting a new child minder. You could always get him used to the child minder for a few weeks before he starts school. But he'll be fine.

You cannot appeal nor can you submit a new appeal for the same year of entry. Unless you have a substantial change in circumstances.

Ok thanks however there are definitely no child protection issues.
Do you know am I able to view the records of the hearing with freedom of information act?

Appeals are held in confidence, and in the great majority of cases are not disclosable under the freedom of information act. Her appeal circumstances are private and nothing to do with you I'm afraid.

The panel obviously thought her circumstances warranted giving her child a place and yours didn't. There isn't anything you can do about that unless you feel your appeal was procedurally incorrect; the law wasn't followed in the execution of the appeal (not just because you didn't like the decision.)

Appeals panels set no precedent either; she could have extremely similar grounds to you and still win whilst you lost; appeals are considered on a individual basis.

You can of course appeal again next year - you can appeal once per academic year, unless your circumstances have significantly changed.

How do you know there are no child protection reasons? They're unlikely to shout about them

When you say that the school is at full capacity are you talking about the net capacity of the school or are you talking about the fact that the reception class is at 30 and the appeal was an infant class size appeal.
If it was an ICS appeal then from what you have said in your original post the panel would have been correct not to give you a place at the school.

What that means is that the other parent must have been able to show that a mistake was made in the original allocation of places and she should have been given a place. There is no other reason why she would have got a place.

I know the patent well.
The class size was full and also they were already over net capacity for the school. Net capacity 269 and have 270. I did query this in the hearing and didn't really get a straight answer as to why already breaching.

Were you appealing for a reception class that already had 30 in it?

Child protection issues can have no bearing on the child's parental upbringing. So there could be protection issues you wouldn't know about. I was in a similar situation but the parent who won the appeal had a valid reason which she didn't want to make common knowledge on her application. Class size was increased for her child only.
In that case FOI will not help you as said above as its personal to that child and data protection will protect them..
Honestly the best thing to do now is see where you are on the waiting list. If your not near the top ( I was second on the list and didn't get offered a place in my first choice school).
It all worked out fine in the end.

Lots of children have to change childminders etc when they start school and this can be distressing for all sorts of reasons, it's normal, it doesn't sound like you had good grounds to appeal. You don't know what her grounds were so you can't judge that her appeal was less worthy than yours.

I know it's really tough and probably feels unfair but the outcome of her appeal will have absolutely no bearing on yours so the details are irrelevant.

You need to move on from this now and start making plans for how you will manage with the school you have.

Thanks for all your help and advice have started the ball rolling with other schools etc today, as you say onwards and upwards.
It's just the uncertainty that is tough.

Good luck. You've done your best and you'll keep on doing your best for your child. That's all we can do as parents and will stand you in good stead for future.

It will come together in the end.