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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

need advice, help,... about primary school appeal.

18 replies

kokoriko · 09/05/2019 20:05

MY daughter turns 4 year old this July, can u help me ,give helpful advice to me- how can or where can i appeal this, is it something powerfull option then council .

OP posts:

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GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 09/05/2019 20:09

What exactly are you appealing? What are the circumstances?

CloserIAm2Fine · 09/05/2019 20:29

There are some brilliant admissions experts on here who very kindly give excellent advice free of charge. You’ll get general advice from other threads regarding appeals, but if you want specific advice you’ll need to share a few more details such as whether it’s an infant class size appeal (usually where multiples of 30 children are admitted, or if the classes will be combined with another year group at some stage in infants with total pupils a multiple of 30) as this hugely affects the kind of thing that will help.

Also generally why you’re appealing - has a mistake been made? Do you just prefer the appeal school over the allocated school?

Original poster

kokoriko · 09/05/2019 22:09

My daughter turns 4 year old this July, I chose 2 school which are very close and local council sent my daughter far away in to another school. that s why I am appealing admission.

OP posts:

coffeeforone · 09/05/2019 22:39

How far away is the school she has been allocated?

coffeeforone · 09/05/2019 22:41

If there has been no mistake made and it's just because the schools are oversubscribed, I think what you need to do is ask to be put on the waiting lists for the 2 schools that are close, but accept the other school you have been allocated in the meantime.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 09/05/2019 22:44

Yeah you won’t win sorry.

ItsAFuckingPotato · 09/05/2019 22:50

Did you fill in all of your options? Were there extra admission criteria for the closer schools?

LIZS · 10/05/2019 07:58

What did the letter state as reason for refusal? Did they measure distance correctly, were there siblings with higher priority? How many schools did you list and was at least one of those one where historically you would have got a place.

If you only listed 2 and they each have a small intake with lots of siblings applying then your chances of a place reduced. If they measured your distance correctly and it is an infant class size appeal it is unlikely you would win.

Hoppinggreen · 10/05/2019 10:00

On what grounds are you appealing?

Pppppppp1234 · 11/05/2019 08:01

Have you put her name on the waiting lists for your preferred school ,this is the best bet rather than appealing. To win an appeal you have to show that essentially they didn’t follow their procedures which I would imagine they would have....

prh47bridge · 11/05/2019 08:56

The big question is whether this is an infant class size appeal. That depends on the size of classes in your preferred schools. If, when they are full, they would have classes of 30 in Reception, Y1 or Y2 it will be an infant class size case. That means you should only win if you can show that a mistake has been made or that the decision to refuse admission was unreasonable. The bar for being unreasonable is very high. You may think it is unreasonable to send your daughter to a school that is some distance away but that is very unlikely to be enough. If the allocated school is over 2 miles away by the shortest safe walking route your daughter will be entitled to free transport to and from school. Provided the journey by whatever means of transport the council provide is less than 45 minutes in each direction the allocated school is not unreasonable.

If your daughter was placed in the correct admission category and the home to school distance was measured correctly (assuming distance is used as a tie breaker) you are unlikely to win if it is an infant class size case. You can still try. You have nothing to lose and you may strike it lucky. But you need to be realistic about your chances.

Most appeals for Reception are infant class size cases but some are not. If yours is not an infant class size case you have a better chance of success. You can win by showing that the disadvantage to your daughter from not being admitted outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with an additional pupil. To build a case for this type of appeal you need to look for things that the preferred school offers that are missing from the allocated school and that are particularly relevant to your daughter.

AMC40 · 11/05/2019 12:03

We’re appealing against ICS - does LA have to supply proof that we didn’t get place due to distance? 42/60 places to siblings and 18 others were in catchment. We are also in catchment - 0.7 miles. Nearest school as crow flies is not catchment, 0.3 miles, but on other side of road, but we didnt get place there either, it only has one reception class. 17/30 places for that were siblings and 12 in catchment, not sure about the missing 1 yet. Very realistic about chances, no EHCP and last year lived closer but had to move to bigger house when had 2nd child! On waiting lists and prepared to wait. Allocated school is 1.4 miles away. Any advise/help much appreciated xx

prh47bridge · 11/05/2019 12:14

They have to state why you didn't get a place. If it was due to distance they should state the distance from your house to the school and the distance of the last child admitted. They will not give any information that will allow you to identify the last child admitted, so they won't specify that child's address, for example.

PatriciaHolm · 11/05/2019 12:17

What do you mean by proof?

The letter you had refusing a place should have said what they have measured your distance as and by what method (straight line or shortest walking are the most usual). If you think they have measured it incorrectly, you can question it, but realistically most admissions authorities use sophisticated measurement programs that can measure very accurately, far more so than anything like Google Maps for example. They don't have to provide a map or anything.

Do you think they have made an error?

AMC40 · 11/05/2019 13:31

We haven’t received distance info yet - so if they are allowed to tell me my distance compared to other, then that’s fine. I don’t know if they made a mistake, unlikely - but need to check it out.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 11/05/2019 14:35

What grounds are you appealing on AMC40 ?

AMC40 · 11/05/2019 15:16

Mistake if I can prove criteria not been correctly applied. Think am grasping at straws!

PatriciaHolm · 11/05/2019 15:51

If you think there has been a mistake, you would also have to prove that that mistake directly cost you a place (for example your distance was measured significantly incorrectly and you are actually well inside the distance for allocated places). It's not enough to show, for example, that someone else got a place they shouldn't have unless that directly cost your child their space.

What do you think they have got wrong?

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