Appeal Hearing help please

[MaCB3th]

Hi all i have an appeal on thursday for my son.
My reasons for appealing is that there admissions code is wrong. The issue i have is with their catchment areas and how they measure distance to the school.
breakdown of it is this:
The schools catchment areas are unreasonable and follow local boundaries and not a reflection of their local community. The school has 5 catchment areas.

One of the catchment areas is on the other side of Birmingham. Over 4 miles away from the school. Catchment areas must be designed so that they are reasonable I do not see how this is reasonable that children living over 4 miles away are given priority over children living across the road from the school. The catchment areas themselves are defined using the local authority boundaries and in response to the Greenwich judgement local authorities carried out reviews to ensure that catchment area boundaries and local authority boundaries did not coincide without justification. The school itself is not in its own catchment area.
My other issue is that once all their catchment places are filled up, they allocate a certain amount to each area. They then measure distance to school, however they also measure distance to a completely difference school in Aston! over 4 miles away. So children who are across the road in aston of this other school get a place before a child one road away from the actual school. This to me seems totally unreasonable as the admissions code states Distance from the school 1.13 Admission authorities must clearly set out how distance from home to the school will be measured, making clear how the ‘home’ address will be determined and the point in the school from which all distances are measured.
They have clearly not measure distance to the school and have therefore set a prejudice and gone against the admissions code. I also find there catchment areas unreasonable in that what sane person would set catchment areas for their school on the other side of a city and set by boundaries that are set by a local authority that where set up 15 years ago and due to be changed next year.

Please help feedback advice
Thanks

It is permissible under the Admissions Code to have the point from which distance is measured on a point other than the school (for example, main school not satellite site) and to have non-adjacent catchments. It's used - maybe - to give rural children a choice of a town school, or to give a deprived area priority for particular schools.

It is however wrong to structure catchments to give a perceived 'advantage' to the school. What are the demographics of the various areas?

I have seen this in relation to faith schools. I think generally you need to raise catchment area issues when they publish proposed admissions criteria before applying. Don't think that an appeal panel would be able to over turn a catchment area.

A school local to me does something like this. It's because it's a very popular single sex school, and if they dealt with entry purely on the basis of distance then people who have a genuine reason for wanting single sex education but live further away would stand no chance of getting in. People have tried to object a few times via the appeal system, but have never succeeded.

Hard to comment without knowing which school we are talking about and taking a proper look at their admission criteria. However, to pick up on a few points...

It is not necessarily wrong for catchment boundaries to match local authority boundaries. It depends on the circumstances.

I don't see the relevance of boundaries changing next year. That does not mean catchments have to change this year or at any other time.

Convincing the appeal panel there are problems with this school's catchment areas is not enough on its own to win your appeal. You have to convince the panel that your son would have got a place if the catchment areas had been correct. The appeal panel cannot make up a new set of admission criteria. So you may have difficulty persuading them that your son would have been admitted.

One of our schools is not in its own catchment area. That in itself is not a problem as long as it serves a community which requires a school. We have never had any objection raised because of this and it often occurs when an area experiences growth quickly with other schools nearby.

Thanks for response. The school is an Islamic ethos based school Olive school. There are several Islamic ethos schools within the Aston area already. My thing is the admissions code is distance to the school. Does not mention schools using others schools to calculate distance and if the kids in Aston hadn't been allocated places in the catchment or on the waiting list my son would of got a place. The other reason is I suffer from recurrent depression ptsd n bpd mental heath and there r days I might not be able to get my son. My support network is close to that school. My friend who would pick them up is across the road she would not be able to pick him up if the school was the one allocated to me as it is too far... She has 3 children of get off her own.

It's entirely legal, as others have said, to have catchments that aren't adjacent to the school, and also to have multiple points for admissions measurement as long as this is clear - many schools will have several entrances, so criteria will say something like "measured to the nearest gate to the applicants home".

In this case, though the admissions criteria are somewhat convoluted, as long as they are not designed to give a disadvantage to certain groups (ie. exclude areas of deprivation, for example) they are legal.

It would seem that Birmingham are explicitly trying this type of admissions in order to ensure schools do "create a mixed intake - mixed in terms of socio-economics, ethnicity and academic ability" - see
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32412744

which refers to another school in the area, another academy (albeit a secondary), doing the same.

Unless you can prove that the catchments are designed to do the opposite of this - to in fact exclude areas that the school deems undesirable - you will struggle with this. I would expect a local appeals panel to be aware of the school above, and of the local circumstances that make it necessary.

As this would be an ICS appeal, your medical needs cannot be taken into consideration I'm afraid.

So could I argue that because they have gone with the local authority boundaries they have not been inclusive. As in I am on the otherside of the road to the catchment area where the council estate is n there line stops where the nice houses stop n the estate begins. Even though Aston is a poor area like mine across the city. Or is that a very long shot. Also are schools are suppose to place catchment areas to cover where there is more need of school places. So putting the catchment area in a poorer area where there are multiple schools instead of a poorer area close by where there is only one school would be wrong? I'm at a loss what to do I might have to end up homeschooling ☹ thanks for all your help x

So could I argue that because they have gone with the local authority boundaries they have not been inclusive

You can try. I doubt you will succeed since, although they have excluded your area, they have included other poor areas. But unless you try you will never know.

There is nothing in the law or the Code that says schools should place catchment areas where there is more need of school places. Again, you can try the argument but I'm not convinced it will succeed. You may stand a better chance with the argument if you are only in the catchment area for one school whereas the catchment areas for this school are served by multiple schools but even then there is no guarantee of success.

You are, in essence, trying to persuade the appeal panel that your street should have been in the catchment area. That is definitely a long shot. It may work but you need to have a plan B.