Primary school appeal - advice needed!

[Blueberry12]

Hi, like many others here, my son didn’t receive a place at his first choice rural school (where his sister is). It’s the first time the school has ever been over subscribed! There’s a huge new housing estate nearby which is a big reason for the over sub this year. We are going to appeal as he should be joining his sister, the school’s published admission criteria state they ‘aim to provide sibling places where possible’ and (although the infant class size limit of 30 is applied here) the school has previously admitted 45 children, has two reception classrooms and only 19 children in the current reception class.

Infant Class Size legislation states that a class with more than 30 pupils means the school must take ‘Qualifying Measures’ – i.e hire an extra teacher and find an extra classroom. My question is, does the fact the school have previously admitted 45 stand in our favour? The headteacher really wants to admit the children who weren’t accepted (there are about 5 in total, 3 are siblings) and bump up the current reception so there would be a combined recep/yr1 from sept. Admissions are saying that this would mean taking places away from other schools. Does anyone have experience of similar and can tell me how it worked out?

Thank you!

I have no advice, I'm just shocked that siblings didn't get a place! That's crazy?! Siblings are normally very high up on the criteria...

"Taking places away from other schools" is not an argument at appeal. The question for the appeal panel is the effect on this school, not the effect on other schools.

The fact they have previously admitted 45 doesn't help in an ICS case. However, if the headteacher gives evidence that the school would be happy to rearrange classes to allow them to take additional pupils without breaching class size regulations, that will certainly help. The question is whether they can actually do this. If PAN is 30, the fact that they may be able to accommodate additional pupils now doesn't help as they may be forced to take Y1 and Y2 up to PAN, leaving them in breach of class size legislation.

Thank you for the useful information - do you work for an admissions dept? Yes, the current pan is 30 - all other year groups have close to 30 children, y2 is at 29 and y1 at 27. It's just current reception that's very low - hence the head wishing to accommodate the siblings if she can.

And yes, not admitting siblings is frankly ludicrous! Everyone is shocked! 😤

"where possible" sounds really vague. Is it a community school?

Prh47 is a solicitor with specialist education and admissions knowledge, OP.

'Where possible' is extremely vague... the school have never been over subscribed so haven't published specific criteria to support what they say (some schools have)... it just falls to the standard over sub criteria which, in south gloucs, doesn't prioritise siblings over a 2 mile radius. Bristol council does give priority to siblings before distance which makes it all the more frustrating. I asked the school where their catchment area was before we applied and they said there wasn't one as they'd never had to consider it.

Ah, that explains his expertise! 😊

It's a CEVC school

I'm in the same boat and it's shit

@sonicknuckles yep and if no one wins their appeal the school will end up losing all the older siblings - can't have children at different schools, unfair on them both. System desperately needs a shake up, no one agrees siblings should be split, apart from the council it seems...

In my case though I can't move my eldest as he loves his school and he is settled so if we don't win the appeal they will be going to separate schools

If they have a specific category for siblings and have failed to give siblings priority that is a mistake which can result in a successful appeal. However, if they don't have a category for siblings or they do but there simply weren't enough places to admit all the siblings I'm afraid there is nothing that can be done. Splitting siblings is certainly undesirable but it happens regularly. Sometimes there are so many sibling applicants that the school simply hasn't got space to accommodate all of them, especially given that they must admit children with an EHCP and looked after/former looked after children before they start on the siblings.

Thank you. They have sentence about siblings on their admissions page but that's as far as it goes.

This is why we are hoping that the admission authority will be able to work with the school and admit the few children who weren't accepted. It's probably quite unusual that the school genuinely want to do that and as they were once 1.5 form entry, could potentially revert to that (with the new housing dev and planned new housing, applications will increase year on year anyway) There is still the second round to go so we could get extremely lucky but we will certainly be appealing the decision.

They took 9 local siblings and 21 other children - so there was plenty of space for additional siblings in this case.

What exactly does the admissions criteria say? There must be a clear and explicit list somewhere.

Whelp you say admissions page do you mean in the south glos admissions booklet or are you referencing the schools website?

I think the council is the admissions authority for VC schools isn't it? So your LEA admissions policy would apply.

So you presumably live over 2 miles away from the school and there is a nearer school you could have applied for? Going by the SG criteria, there is no sibling priority for your child in that circumstance.

The approach taken by South Gloucestershire is becoming more common. The idea is to stop parents moving close to their preferred school to get a place for their eldest then moving away and relying on sibling priority to get their younger children in to the same school.

Unless the LA has got this wrong and the school is the OP's nearest school I'm afraid an appeal is likely to fail.

I'm not sure the willingness of the HT to take on extra pupils is a huge point in your favour; I've sat on pre-appeal hearings (to determine the facts are correct before parents proceed to appeal) and although the HT would have been perfectly happy to admit extra pupils, there's no way she'd have been directed to exceed the reception PAN by an appeal panel.
What sort of distance are we talking about here?

Sorry to jump on this thread but we are 0.7 miles away from the school (walking distance) but technically we aren't in catchment. Sibling at the school but we didn't get our youngest in. We're appealing but we've got no chance have we?

If it is an infant class size case and there were no mistakes in the admission process your chances of success at appeal are minimal. There is always the possibility that something will crop up in the hearing and you don't lose anything by appealing so I would still go through with it, but work on the basis that you are almost certainly going to lose so winning would be a huge bonus.

Thanks for the comments.. We are just out of the 2 mile catchment (Otherwise we'd have a place) but it's a rural school so draws pupils from all over the place. I know winning an appeal is a long shot, having researched just about every angle, but we will appeal @sonicknuckles I hope you do too, people do win and sometimes places become available in the second round so then the appeal wouldn't be necessary. I find it crazy that a headteacher can't slightly extend their school if there is capacity, willingness to do so and it's been done before.

when you say "just out of the 2mile" how close are you - is it possible your distance has been miscalculated?
I think the advice on these ICS appeals is that it is always possible that an error may be unearthed but usually unlikely. The south glos admissions document showed 0 appeals being upheld. But if you go into it with your eyes open and at the same time focus on making the allocated school a positive option for the DC then you have nothing to lose.

@myrtlewilson we're 2.4 and no mistake has been made in measuring, I've checked!

That's a real shame. I think that although you can say the head would like to take the additional siblings, it's the LA who are the admissions authority and in terms of the admissions arrangements, they have no obligation to treat subsequent children as 'siblings' if they are outside the 2 mile distance.