What next? Out-of-county in-year Admissions Appeal (Wales)

[DraigAman]

I urgently need to get 2 children into a school (Years 3 and 5) just across the county border. The LA has rejected both applications since the AN of 30 has been passed in both cases (40 in Y3 and 35 in Y5). They are clearly splitting into mixed age classes, but haven't told me how many children are in each class.
All that has happened so far is an acknowledgment of the appeal. How do I start to build a case in time for the hearing? The LA loses almost every appeal, but I don't want to be one of their rare victories! In the 2015/16 year, all 6 appeals for this school were upheld (I don't know how many were in-year).
Put simply, what next? All the LA have said is that they are arranging the date for the hearing.

Your case needs to be built around the reasons why your children need to go to this school and how they will be disadvantaged if they don't. Look at what this school offers that is not available from their current school (or, if you've just moved into the area, whatever school has been offered) and see if there is anything that you can show is particularly appropriate to your children.

So there's no point in seeking to find out if admitting the children would pose problems for the school?

As this is for years 3 and 5, you case needs to revolve around showing that the prejudice to the child of not being admitted outweighs the prejudice to the school of admitting them.

So you need to make an argument about why you child(ren) need this specific school, and how the prejudice to the school is relatively lower. If other year groups are already over PAN that will help as you can show this as evidence that the school can cope with a year group over normal numbers.

The school's argument will essentially be that yes, admitting the children will cause problems because, for example, classrooms are set up for the current number of children and no more, there wouldn't be enough computers in the ICT suite, the dining hall/playground/sports hall can only fit the current number of children, etc....There is normally a standard list of arguments a full school will use.

You need to counter them by, for example, showing that previous years have had more than X children and coped, and that the needs of your children outweigh the inconvenience to your children of not being admitted.

The fact that the admissions authority lost all 6 appeals last year doesn't really tell you anything on its own - it could be that the LA makes a terrible case and the school has loads of room/extra staff so can't really make a case, but it could mean that the years your children are in are already several over PAN so winning your appeal is harder! You need to know the actual numbers in each class and how the school is structured.

Thanks both.
I suspect that the PAN is regularly exceeded after appeals. Who can I ask about the actual numbers and year groups involved in each of the classes? Does the school or LA have to provide this sort of information in advance? Or should I ask at the hearing if all the extra children have in fact prejudiced effective education at the school? The school always get the highest ESTYN results, and the HMIs don't talk about overcrowding.

I got all of that information sent to me by admissions before my appeal.

The admissions authority have to provide all relevant information to you, so yes do ask - they should be able to tell you numbers in all classes, and number of teachers and TAs in each class. If the school's results are high and it has regularly admitted over PAN thanks to appeals then yes that will help you as, as you say, it suggests that the school can cope.

So they do have to provide that information. Good news. Thanks again.

For the school to be over the AN of 30 in both year groups by 5 and by 10 would suggest that the school is actually taking pupils over the AN as well as losing school admission appeals. It also suggests that the school has far more classroom space than the 7 classrooms that an AN of 30 would suggest as they clearly have a number of mixed age classes.
The other thing to note is that Estyn's inspection report will not normally say anything about overcrowding unless it has got to stupid stages, so you cannot rely on that as a positive.
I suggest that you look at the school website because somewhere on that it will talk about the number of teaching staff and the number of classes. That will give you a good idea of how the classes are set up. Whilst the maximum number in an infant class is still 30 (in theory) in Wales, it is quite common for the classrooms to be a bit small and it is not unusual that there are only 20 to 25 in each classroom.
If you PM me with school name and LA I might be able to give you some more information depending whereabouts in Wales you are.