Appeal this week - Best way to approach it.

[crazygirluk]

I have my appeal this wednesday and am looking for advice from the experts :)

Here is some information.

The addition information to support the school is as follows:

2017 - All classes apart from Year 2(3 spaces) and year 5 (7 spaces) are at capacity. Next Sept, the figures are as follows:

Reception - 30
Y1 - 30
Y2 - 31 (LAC)
Y3 - 27
Y4 - 30
Y5 - 30
Y6 - 24

Therefore we are near to full capacity @ 202 on roll. Maximum school number is 210.

Information that I obtained from admissions is as follows:

Please be advised that from 1st September 2016 – 18th April 2017
The current admission numbers for each year group is listed below for your convenience. Please be advised that these are able to change at any point if a child withdraws from the school etc.

Reception – 30
Year 1 – 32
Year 2 – 30
Year 3 – 30
Year 4 – 31
Year 5 – 26
Year 6 – 30

Now, I realise that the Year 3 is full, but could I go with the approach, that in this current school year, they've had 31 kids in Year 4 (which if allowed in the school, he'll be in that Year in 5 weeks), so the precedent for Year 4 has been set in this current year.

Is there any wiggle room with the 210 cap on the whole school?

That is the facts and figures part. Any advice?

The softer facts is that in order to build his social community network, he's keen to do the after shool clubs and sports. He's also keen to do the school council.

So any tips?

The 210 figure is not necessarily the maximum number the school's infrastructure can support. They may have room for a few more. It depends on classroom sizes. But, on the numbers given, they only have 209 pupils in the school currently so there is theoretically room for one more.

The fact that Y4 is over PAN is an argument in your favour, especially if they have gone over PAN voluntarily as opposed to being forced to do so by an appeal.

I think you need to work on what you describe as the "softer facts". As you've written it here that isn't particularly strong. It would help if you can show that your son will benefit from specific school clubs/sports that are available at this school and not at his current school. That needs to be for reasons other than building his social community network. It would be better if he had interests or talents that would be served by these clubs/sports.