Appeal Hearing Didnt go well

[Masonj377]

Hi all

I had my appeal today and I dont think it went very well. I had the feeling when I arrived that a decision had already been made but I was allowed the opportunity to speak and present my case. The head teacher from the school we were applying for was present ( I wasnt aware of this before hand - however I wasnt concerned). The head sat with the admissions lady and backed up every comment the admissions rep raised.

I asked questions as I was advised on here - the head replied but was a little patronising towards me, the panel barely asked the admissions team any questions.

Stage 2 - I presented my case which had been quite clear from the outset - again the panel asked me very few questions but did confirm they fully understood what I had submitted in my written evidence regarding my daughters health and the bullying. When admissions questioned me she was had a very agressive tone, she had been in contact with my daughters current school and knew that my daughter had attended the preschool attached to my daughters current school, she said that she had spoken to the school who had confirmed my daughters absence and the school had told them that they were not aware of any bulling issues and had offered me a change of class's and more or less feel that I am making more of an issue than there really is. I had letters and emails whic contradicted that which the admissions lady did not like when i told her the information the school had given her was incorrect and I could prove it etc .

I wasnt happy with how she spoke to me but I could handle myself, when the hearing was over as we were gathering our belongings together the chair and the admissions lady was having a friendly chat about her getting a copy of a report to him and it felt like a done deal between work colleagues if Im honest.

Outside the hearing room the admissions lady approached me as I had emailed the admissions team last week to ask them to check a postcode of a property I was considering moving to to see if it would bring my daughter back into 1st position on the list - she said to me - "Oh the email you sent about moving house we would need written proof and if its your parents address you would need to hand your parental rights over to them so they are in receipt of child benefit for your daughter before we wold update any address, she then said but theres no point because the person at the front of the list lives next door to the school so you wont have a chance of getting in that way. !!

Needless to say today did not go to plan. Thank you to everyone who helped me with all of m questions etc, I do feel a bit deflated as my daughter will be devastated but I just honestly feel that they had already made up their minds before I even walked into the room. :(

Forgot to add. The school nurse telephoned me on Fri to say that my daughters schol had contacted them as she had been absent for some time and they did not know why. I explained that this was a lie and that had telephoned daily to report absent, sent dr letters, reports notes etc in to them and they had at no point made contact with me directly.

The admissions lady said that the school had mentioned my daughters absence to them and I exlained the above - the admissions lady raised her voice to me saying that I always telephoned before school had started to report absence - I explained that I had reported daily before 10am, provided notes, reports and had offered to come in and discuss my daughters absence but no one had contacted me, she said that the school had said they were trying to arrange a meeting to for me to come in - but I am not aware of this. I appreciate that the admissions team have a job to do but I wasnt expecting them to contact my daughters school, preschool etc and if the school had provided this information to them why did I not have a cppy beofe the meeting ??

As I said I could handle the lady and counter argue her statements and had evidence submitted to back me up but I just was not expecting that xx

It is perfectly reasonable at the appeal for the head teacher to be present to answer specific questions about the school, which the admissions rep may not know.
There is no need for people to be aggressive in tone at appeals, though i appreciate that people do get very angry about things at times. So the admission rep is out of order there but it would not really constitute grounds for a referral to the Ombudsman. The admission reps reply about your other address are also not appropriate and by disclosing more or less where the person who is number 1 on the list lives have compromised confidentiality which is not appropriate.
The conversation between the chair of the panel and the admission rep is definitely not best practice and despite it probably being a perfectly innocent remark nothing to do with your case, it has made you question the independence of the panel. That is exactly why panel members are told to not have such conversations. Again though unless it had direct relevance to your case it does not give any cause for a referral.
Whilst you have assumed that the lack of questions means that the panel had already made their mind up, I would suggest that this is not necessarily the case. If you have presented a good case with all appropriate documentation, then there will be little if any need to ask questions and they may already be minded to agree the appeal. You cannot assume this but it is always best in these circumstances to be slightly pessimistic.

Thank you admission, I did not mind the head being present but in my opinion she was there to back the LA rep not to be impartial.

The conversation regarding the other applicants location to the school was inappropriate but it was made immediately after we left the room so cannot be proven but I do think unprofessional. I agree the panel and the chair seemed over familiar with each other and I do think the report they were referring to was for my case but I cannot prove that - the whole process just felt like the decsion had been made in advance.

I presented my case as best as I could - I didnt feel that I had the strongest case in the world anyway and I understand that I dont have a case to complain about my appeal I just feel that the LA rep was unnecessaily agressive in her tone and hadnt expected the LA rep to have telephoned my school about my daughters recent attendance, bullying background and preschool back ground. My daughter dances professionally and the LA reply tried to tell the panel I had taken time off school for my daughter to perform unauthorised, this was not relevant or true and I did explain this but I as I said I wasnt expecting that to be brought up - overall it wasnt a positive experience and I just thought was worth sharing on here how it went. I await their decision xx Thank you again xx

sorry i mean the chair and the LA rep over familiar with each other not the panel and the chair xx

Hi op, I have been in your shoes ( twice ) and it's a horrible feeling.
We did pretty much have an amazing case, ds has asd and we had report upon report, CAMHS even came to the appeal with me to support the bullying argument and the panel looked like they couldn't be arsed being there.
I was convinced we were going to win the second one with so much evidence, both appeals were for the same school. We lost.

My mental health was shattered by the appeal process and I've ended up on anti depressants and beta blockers, the whole situation pretty much took over my life.

I explored a school that had a slight reputation and was so surprised by it. The pastoral care was amazing and my ds started there 3 yrs ago. He is now thriving and happy so all I'm saying is please don't
think it's the end of the world as it's not.

I felt like that. My ds was heartbroken and I felt helpless. Think outside the box if the worst happens. I could not see any other school other than the appeal school, it was the only option in my head but of course I was wrong and now I've let it go and made
my peace with it ( we ended up going through the EFA which is the ombudsman for academies ) as things were so corrupt.

I wish you the very best of luck

Thank you and I'm glad your child is now settled and happy. Our next step will be to home educate initially until my daughter starts to receive some help with her anxiety. Gp suspects School refusal ( a mental health condition) so tat the moment the appeal school is the only school I can get her to agree to attend. It's frustrating but also life I guess. I just want expecting the LA rep to discuss my daughters current school the way she did. The school have lied I have to produce evidence to support that which is fine so why don't they have to provide evidence to support what they allege? Why is current schools comments relevant to an appeal for a different school??

OP I have seen from your other thread that your appeal was successful after all! Congratulations, it must be such a relief :)

It has occurred to me the appeals processes (the way they work, the type of arguments allowed) kind of mean that it is nearly unavoidable that appellants are highly emotionally invested and that it takes a huge toll on them. Even very resilient and strong people find it hard.

When you are appealing for a school place on the basis that it is the only school that will meet your child's needs, then it is nearly unavoidable that you end up believing it IS the only school that will meet your child's needs. You kind of need to believe this, or how can you make a compelling case and argue convincingly at panel?

If you were telling yourself that actually, if your appeal fails you will send your child to another school and that would be fine, even if not your preferred choice - then it would be hard to convince a panel. Even if initially you do not feel that it is the only school (just the best/preferred school), in looking for arguments and points that might convince a panel that it is the only school, you are likely to convince yourself too.

But if you believe that a school is the only one that will meet your child's needs, then you are bound to feel terrible if you fail to secure a place at that school for your child - you are bound to feel that you are failing your child. Or that 'the system' is failing your child. And that your child will have a terrible future because of this.

So I think the system is structured in a way that sort of forces the appellants to become over-invested and emotionally supercharged. Appellants convince themselves that this particular school is the only one that would meet their child's needs, so if they do not manage to also convince the panel, they are effectively failing their child - in that frame of mind there cannot, logically, be a valid alternative that would also meet the child's needs.

Only once the appeal process is concluded does it become possible to 'see' alternatives that may work just as well, or in fact even be a better fit. I know, sometimes there ARE no alternatives, but I do believe that sometimes it may just be that appellants are mentally unable to see them, as all their mental energy is going towards proving that only one school will do.