Primary school admission appeal

[Emperzar]

I'm really not sure if anyone here can help me. I have seen some threads here from a Google search and understand there may be people that can help me put together a case to fight the Council's decision.

I understand that I have little to no chance of being successful, but I really need to try. My chosen school is 0.4 miles away. All other schools are over a mile away (the one we were allocated is 1.2 miles away). I do not drive, there is no public transport within easy reach and my daughter is disabled (cerebral palsy) and will be in a wheelchair. It will take me 28 minutes to walk her to the school then I will have to drop her off and walk 20 minutes back to work, and repeat the process in the evening.

My daughter does not have a statement or an EHCP yet.

Does the admissions criteria include a medical and social need category, and if so did you provide information to apply under this category?

Is the school you’ve been allocated able to manage having a pupil in a wheelchair (putting aside the travel element for a moment)? Do they have level access, accessible toilets, a lift if there’s more than one floor, etc?

As EduCated asks, did you apply under a medical/social need category? Will this be an infant class size appeal (ie the admission number for the school is 30/60/90?). Is there anything else about your preferred school, apart from its proximity, that makes it better able to meet your child’s needs?

Infant class size appeals are difficult to win but, in your situation - and especially if you provided the relevant information with your application - I think you can argue that the decision to refuse your child a place is so unreasonable that no rational LEA would have done so. The appeal panel might agree.

I didn't apply under any category, I didn't know you needed to. I just had to fill in a statement explaining why I wished to go to that school. I mentioned in that statement that she had Cerebral palsy and couldn't walk and that an EHCP had been applied for.

I think the allocated school will be able to cope with her. It's a good school and one the physio recommended. I've not been to see it.

The first reason for refusal is our distance. They have said we're 0.523 miles away and the last child they accepted was 0.318 miles away. We are a driving distance of 0.4 miles but as the crow flies, in a straight line, we're 0.32 miles away.

Their second reason is class size prejudice to comply with the duty to limit the infant class to 30. Apparently they turned away 26 children this year.

When I emailed school admissions on Monday explaining again our special needs, they replied back and said that without an EHPC or a statement her special needs would not be taken into account.

No there's nothing I can think of about the preferred school that sets it apart except for it's closeness. But ironically by saying we're half a mile away they are sending us over a mile away to the next school. All my daughter's friends have got into the preferred school. Bearing in mind her selective mutism I think she will find that difficult too. We have also been in correspondence with that schools Senco because I've known for a year that I wanted to send her there. We were trying to set up a tac meeting with that Senco. She has been aware of my daughter since last year.

Everybody highlights how good the staff are at the preferred school and it had a lovely, caring attitude. They had a more disabled child there at the time and were able to show how they managed him. There are steps to the playground but you can go a longer flat way around or use a chair lift.

I'm heartbroken for my daughter, so upset and crying lots. I'm a single mum by the way and have no other support. It was thought that my mum could pick her up on a Friday from school when she's not with her dad. But my mum has osteoporosis and is 77. There's no way she can walk 28 minutes to the allocated school and back. It's really going to cause so much hardship for us.

Just to add too, the school isn't an easy walk. Half of the walk is steep downhill, the other half is steep uphill. Pushing a growing child in a wheelchair is going to be hard. Plus we always have wind and rain which will comprise her health.

I've read so many negative things about appealing and I'm so worried about it. But I feel I have to do this and try for her. Because she's so important to me.

Oh, I'm 47 too. So nowhere near as young or as fit as I was! And I have arthritis coming in my knees from an old injury.

Sorry just want to ask, have you asked allocated school (as you cannot get there as you do not drive) if they could provide transport or ask the council if they could provide transport?. I used to go to school with a boy who had some type of genetic inherited dwarfism and was in a wheelchair, his house was as far as mine was and it was a good 30/40 mins walk on a flat road and they got him transport for both him and his brother both in primary (1.3miles away) and secondary (1.7miles away) I’m just unsure who through. I’m in my early 20’s so it wasn’t too long ago

Ok, so the first thing to check is whether the admissions criteria includes a ‘social and medical needs’ category. Not all schools have this in their criteria, it’s not mandatory. Some will have it, but lower down in the criteria than other categories.

If there is this category in the admissions, you then need to find out if your application was considered under this category, and if it was the reason you weren’t successful - was the evidence you provided not sufficient for them, or was the evidence what they needed, but they didn’t feel that your DD’s needs were strong enough?

You need to check, as EduCated says, whether the school/LEA has an admissions priority for social/medical need and whether your application was considered under that heading.

The other thing to look at is the distance measurement. Does your LEA measure by straight line or by driving route? Either way, it seems that your own estimate doesn’t match the LEA’s measurement. LEAs use a computer package that (usually) measures from a data point on each house to a data point on the school, so this is a more accurate measurement than you can do yourself on google maps or whatever, but here it is certainly going to be worth double-checking that they got it right.

As you’ve confirmed that this is an ICS appeal, I still think that your best chance (although it’s not guaranteed to succeed) is to argue that, in all the circumstances, your child needs to be at the closest school, and the decision to refuse a place is unreasonable.

Cheesenacho123 it is my understanding that they only provide transport if you are a distance of 2 miles away from the school. I am not. Now whether they could change this becuase of my daughter's special needs, I don't know. It may be possible.

But even if they did do this, it still takes her away from the close friends that she has made at nursery (they all having a place at our preferred school) and still leaves me with 40 minutes walking a day from school to work and back again because I would have to travel with her in the taxi.

EduCated The school admissions criteria is as follows:-

1. Children in care and children who were previously in care.
2. Children with siblings.
3. Children who live in the designated area - if there are more then criteria 4-6 will be used.
4. Children with an unequivocal professional recommendation from, for example, a doctor, school medical officer or educational psychologist, that non-placement at the preferred school would not be in the best interest of the child and that placement at the preferred school is essential. Such recommendations must be made in writing to the School Admissions Team and must give full supporting reasons.
5. Children of a parent who is a practicing Christian (not relevant at this school).
6. All other children.

So they do take into account medical needs and this was mentioned in my application BUT they will not accept what I wrote and they did not have this evidence in writing from a professional. Therefore I have to assume that this information was not taken into account in her application.

I can provide written evidence from an educational psychologist etc. It won't be an EHCP because we need to re-apply but she does have an educational psychologist that I can contact for a letter/report.

PanelChair they seem to have calculated the distance on driving. But there are two routes - one is longer at 0.523, the other distance is 0.4. As the crow flies though, the school is 0.32 miles away.

But you haven't said how they measure the distance? Or which category you are in - do you live in the designated area? If you do did you send the recommendation in category 4 from a professional in? If you didn't then of course they can't take that into account - why on earth didn't you?

It’s very unusual to measure according to driving distance but, if that’s what they do, you need clarity about how they did it and whether they used the shortest (and, assuming this is part of their criteria, safest) route.

It doesn’t help your case that you didn’t submit a health care professional’s opinion with your application but what’s done is done. Gather that evidence now and (as I suggested) use it to argue that the decision to refuse was unreasonable. Of course, if there was an error in the distance measurement that cost you your place, the LEA ought to correct the error without going to appeal, but many LEAs will insist on it going before the panel.

I honestly didn't know I needed to. Nobody told me that I needed to and I have never had to apply to a school before. I filled in the statement and there was no mention in the application about having to provide medical evidence etc.

Honestly, if I had known I would have done. I had no idea that this was going to be so hard. I've been talking to the professionals for over a year about putting my daughter into that school and not one told me that it was going to be so hard and that I needed to prove evidence etc.

If I could go back and change things I would do, I am gutted by all this, constantly in tears and depressed over it.

I have appealed stating that the decision was unreasonable and will be providing letters from my physiotherapist and the educational psychologist.

If they have measured as per driving distance, surely that's a flawed measurement? Because that's certainly not how I would have done it. It makes sense to measure in a radius from the school rather than going on driving distance!

Do you think I have a chance at overturning this decision? I'm not asking for a definite yes or no, I know nobody can say that. Just looking for a ray of hope.

One good thing to come out of this is my weight - I was getting overweight at 11st, but I haven't eaten for 2 days with all the stress etc and I've lost 3lbs.

I think there is some hope, yes, because (on what you say here) it seems to me that there’s an argument to be made that it would be unreasonable to expect your child to go to any school but the most local one. So I think you’ve got a better chance of success than many others who’ll be appealing for a YR place, but we can’t escape the fact that this is an ICS appeal and they are always hard to win.

Explain to the panel that you didn’t know you had to submit evidence from health care professionals, but it’s very likely that the LEA will say that this information is in their school admissions booklet.

As for the distance measurement, the key thing is to be sure that the LEA measured it in the way that they say they will in the admissions booklet or on their website and that they did it accurately. They can’t use one method for you that they haven’t for other applicants, as it has to be consistent. That said, using driving route is unusual (and odd to assume that everyone’s going by car),

If the last child admitted was 0.318 and you are 0.32 (by your measurements) then you still wouldn’t have got a space...

Hello. I was in a very similar situation a few years ago. My son has CP and uses a wheelchair. The application for his statement (as it was then) was made about a month before the school applications deadline in January of that year, so like you, I just put on his school application that he was a wheelchair user and would have a statement (because it was blindingly obvious there was no way he could access an education without one). However, of course the statementing (now EHCP) process takes up to 6 months, so was not completed by the date when the school places were announced, and the system is black and white, so you are either a statemented child or not, there is no middle ground for 'EHCP has been applied for and very likely to get one'.

So, when the places came out we had been allocated our 4th preference school, which was too far to walk. I broke my heart and started lots of letters to the council, also started the appeals process.

However, we never went to appeal, because in May the provisional statement was issued (as predicted, it was clear that he needed one). At that point he became a 'statemented child'. Those children are classed as 'excepted children', which means a school has to take them, even if full, unless they are not able to meet the child's needs. Therefore he was immediately offered a place at our chosen school, even though that took the class size to 31. We had been in contact with the school throughout and they had been supportive and welcoming, so were expecting him as well.

So, my questions to you are 1) when was the EHCP applied for (ie how far through the process are you?) 2) Is your daughter a full time wheelchair user, or are you just talking about using a wheelchair for the walk to / from school and she would then walk around school on her own? 3) How affected is she overall by her CP? eg will she need help dressing and undressing for PE, will she need someone to scribe for her? The reason for asking those is just to assess how confident you are that she will be awarded an EHCP. Have you been advised (by someone who knows!) as to how likely she is to get one? It does seem to depend (unfairly) on which area of the country you are in as to where they set their thresholds.

If you are confident that she will be awarded an EHCP and you know your chosen school can meet her needs, then she is extremely likely to be admitted to that school once her EHCP comes through, even if they are full, because that is the law. I wish someone had told me that...... would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights.

However, I would continue to pursue all other routes at the same time, eg waiting lists, appeal etc.

It is also worth keeping in communication with your preferred school, so they know where you are up to, and could provisionally start to think about what support they will need to put in place for her.

Good luck! I always felt it was hard enough having a disabled child, without this sort of unnecessary stress!

OP. would you mind PM'ing me the school?

I think I might have found the distance criteria, which are rife for error if true (they seem to do it by distance "by main roads" from your front door to the main gate of the school.) Whilst this is reasonably accurate, for the purposes of school admissions it's poor - where on the front door? where on the gate? who defines "main roads"? This is why so many admissions authorities go by straight line using fixed GPS data points now.

Also - do you know which criteria they went down to? It looks from your list of criteria that category 4 is only used if all children in catchment who want a place got one. Are you sure it's that way round? If you were considered under Cat 3 anyway, the discussion about medical proof is irrelevant as they never got to that category anyway.

Oh and yes, would echo the push the EHCP for all you are worth point too. That will be by far the easiest (!) route to a place.

PanelChair Thank you very much for that, you have at least given me some hope.

I will of course be saying that I did not know what was required for the application - I have nothing to hide and will be very clear about it.

I have looked on their website and can see no mention of an admissions booklet or how they measure the distance.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat Incorrect - if they had taken into account her disability then yes, she would have had a place.

Well that would put you in a different category and distance wouldnt have come in to it at all.

I’m saying it didn’t matter how they measured the distance- it wouldn’t have affected you getting a place (though it will going forward for wait list places).

dandlmum Thank you. This means so much to me, reading your message brought out the tears again. When I actually applied, my daughter could not walk at all and was still bum shuffling/struggling to crawl. She only started talking first steps in December last year and as only really started walking from March.

In response to the questions, the EHCP was applied for and refused on 12 March. They stated that their reasons for refusing was because her additional needs could be met through the school's own SEN support network of 15 hours support a week. We are now trying to get together more information to submit and the Educational Psychologist is due to see her again next week. I myself have not seen the actual application form and have requested this because I now need to see what they've actually put on it and I'm really concerned now that they are letting my daughter down.

No, she will not be a full time wheelchair user. It was discussed at the last TAC meeting (17 Jan) that she be moved into a wheelchair as I was pushing a buggy still which she was starting to grow out of. A wheelchair was the next step up because she could not walk more than a few steps. I applied for DLA in February and she was granted middle rate for care and higher rate for mobility.

It is envisaged that she should be able to move around the classroom independently but will require a wheelchair at all other times, ie changing classrooms, going to the playground, to and from school and on all school trips. Her walking is still very much at the stage of a toddler learning to walk. She is very unsteady and falls often. She has severe flat feet and has to wear splints. She tires easily and walks pretty slowly. She obviously finds it easier to walk on the flat. When using a wheelchair, as she is affected on her left side, she is unable to push a wheelchair on her left side. If left on her own she will go round in circles.

Considering she only has half a brain she is an amazing child. Her speech is slightly affected, she definitely needs help undressing and dressing, she even needs help going to the toilet because she cannot pull her clothes up or down sufficiently. She cannot put on jumpers, she finds it hard to pull up her tights, pants, etc. She is only now just starting to become toilet trained.

She has great fine motor skills with her right hand but does not do much with her left hand, where she has to wear a brace to stop her thumb going under her palm.

Her falling reflexes are bad and she cannot put out her hands to save herself when falling.

I am not confident that she will receive an EHCP. I believe she needs one and she should have one but this all appears to be such a huge struggle and the authorities do not seem to be helping as much as they should.

When I started this process, I believed that the SEN people would sort out the school application under the EHCP and then found out I had to do it myself. I too wish I had known all the facts so that I could have pushed harder and earlier for the EHPC.

PatriciaHolm Yes, I will gladly send you a PM.

Re the criteria - the actual wording for category 3 is as follows:

"Children who live in the designated area of the preferred school or whose parents can provide evidence at the time of making the application that they will be living in the designated area of the preferred school by the date from which admission is required.

If there are more designated area children wanting places at a school than there are places available after the allocation of children under criteria 2, the following criteria 4-6 will be used to decide which of these children should have priority for admission. If there are still places available after all the designated area children have been allocated spaces, criteria 4-6 wil be used to decide which of the remaining children should have priority for any spare places."

As the school was so oversubscribed, they would have had to go down to criteria 4, surely?