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.

From the above wording I would take it to mean that all children in the designated area will be allocated a space on distance.
On then IF all the children in the designated areas have been given a space and there are spare spaces left them children from outside the area will be allocated a place on the criteria 4-6

I've looked at the actual school now. From the criteria, it shows that if there are more children in the designated area (cat 3) than there are spaces, they are allocated in order of 1 - professional recommendations (the medical/social criteria), 2 - distance. OP could have fallen into 1, but instead fell into 2.

The LEA have just emailed me (in response to my email) to confirm that they put the wrong distance in my letter. The correct distance they have is 0.32 miles. They attached a plan which shows a red line drawn from the middle of my flat to the school entrance.

A Chartered Surveyor from my firm has checked on Promap and done a calculation from the front of my house to the school gates. The distance was 0.318 miles - the exact same distance at the last child to be accepted. He is prepared to sign a letter confirming this.

If you are so close in distance to the last admitted child you will be at the top of the waiting list. Are on it yet? Find out how high up you are, if you’re in the top few you have an excellent chance of getting in. How many forms are there?

I applied this morning to go on it. Unfortunately they will not tell you how high up or low down on the list you are. But it must be fairly close. There are 2 forms.

That’s only because the deadline to accept/decline hasn’t gone yet so their could well be a spot straight away. There was for us when this happened.

It is also worth getting the letter from a medical professional asap to state that she needs that school as not only would you need it for an appeal but also it might affect your place on the waiting list even if it doesn't immediately give you a place without going to appeal. They can argue that without that they could not consider you under cat 4, but now they can for the waiting list.

Emperzar, I really hope you get a place from the waiting list or from appeal. If it looks like you’re going to be stuck with the other school then you can ask for school transport, and appeal if you’re turned down. Transport appeals are easier to win than ICS appeals - I have won one myself.

I’ll be cheering on your efforts to get your dd into your chosen school, but if it gets to the stage where you need a transport appeal I am happy to help - PM if needed.

shouldwestayorshouldwego I will be receiving next Tuesday a letter from our physiotherapist and next week the educational psychologist is seeing my daughter again to try and get some more information into the EHCP.

I've asked the nursery to print a copy of the EHCP out this evening so that I can pick it up when I collect her, and then can go over it to see if I can get anything added.

The EP is going to write a letter for me stating why my chosen school is better but she needs clear reasons from me. I am in the middle of drafting these and need to check a few details before I can get that to her.

Korg thank you for that, that's really helpful.

In my heart I want her to go to the preferred school because it will be easier for her to get to, and more achievable - one day she will be able to walk to it with me, there is no way she will be able to walk to the other school - and that would be such a big achievement for her.

Plus she has all her friends there. Being a selective mute (I call it shyness, but that's the label they've given her), she does not show much enthusiasm at nursery but at home she constantly talks about all her friends and what she has been doing. I hate to think what will happen when she loses that.

it is my understanding that they only provide transport if you are a distance of 2 miles away from the school

The law is that they must provide transport if it is more than 2 miles by the shortest safe walking route but they must also provide transport in a number of other situations. One of those is if the child is disabled or has mobility problems or SEN and it is unreasonable to expect them to walk to school.

Normally arguing over distance measurements gets you nowhere unless they have used the wrong address or haven't used the shortest route to school. However, the fact they gave the wrong distance initially won't fill the appeal panel with confidence that they've got it right. And if they have actually measured from the wrong place (e.g. measuring from the middle of the flat when the admission arrangements say they measure from the front) you may well be able to argue that they got the distance wrong. The interesting question is what they do when two applicants have the same distance.

If you would like to PM me the name of the school and LA I will be happy to take a look.

prh - I've seen the criteria and they say they measure from the middle of the property to the main gate of the school, which the map they have given OP shows, whereas the Promap distance is from the front door of the property. Which would suggest the Promap distance might be a little less than the school's measurement; though .02 miles - the difference - is actually 32 metres....which would make it a big building!

If the distance measurements are exactly the same, they use random allocation, but I don't think they have here because they think OP is slightly further away.

I think this is probably a situation where there is very little in the distance though it would seem OP is very slightly further away than the last child admitted. Hopefully it does mean OP is high on the waiting list.

The difference is actually 0.002 miles so 3.2 metres, which sounds more likely (I got that wrong too and had to look again!). But if they measure from the centre of the property a surveyor saying it is shorter from the front of the property won't help.

So this is going to come down to an argument about the medical evidence. Unfortunately, if I understand correctly, the OP didn't submit the kind of evidence the LA wanted. So it sounds to me like this is going to rely on getting a sympathetic appeal panel that is willing to bend the rules. However, it does sound like there is a good chance of a place via the waiting list.

There is nothing to be gained from trying to substitute your measurement for the LEA’s: to be fair and consistent they have to use the same method for everybody and it’s unlikely that your measurement uses exactly the same data point on your home and the school that the LEA does (unless you have access to the same computer package). However, as you seem to have missed out by a very small distance, you can use this to suggest that, even if there is only a tiny error of measurement, it might have cost you a place.

Ah. Internet problems - I cross-posted with prh and Patricia.

When is your DDs birthday? If she is summer born I would look at defeating reception for a year.

Ah oops my mistake on the distance maths! Sorry and well spotted.