Help with school appeal please!

[Kemet]

Hi,

I have 4 children, 3 are at school.

My 9 year old has just started year 5 in a school that she has attended since the age of 3 at the nursery attached.

I have 4 year old twins who also attended the nursery attached to 9 year old's school.

Before I became pregnant with the twins I moved via social housing into a bigger property due to being overcrowded.

Since this house move my local authority changed the sibling priority in getting a school place only if you have moved within 0.7 miles of the school.

My house is 2 miles from 9 year old's school.

My twins never got my first choice reception place in the school that 9 year old attends and I accepted my second choice which is local to our house, with the view of keeping them on the waiting list and maybe appealing.

They are number 15 & 16 at present on the waiting list and I would like to appeal.

The basis of my appeal would be strong social or emotional reasons for them to attend the same school as their 9 year old sibling.

I'm a single parent and I'm now having to fork out £50 a week extra on breakfast and after school club in order for all children to get to school on time and do both pick ups (I'm aware the inconvenience and added money I have to pay out is not relevant to the LEA!).

The twins are very unhappy about not attending the same school as their older sibling and they really settled in well at the preferred school's nursery.

Everyday I drop the 9 year old off to breakfast club they are distressed as they want to attend the same school!

I would be very grateful if anyone can give me some pointers on how to make my appeal as good as possible.

In the meantime I will keep their name on the waiting list and I'm also trying to do a homeswap via social housing to try and move back into the area.

Thank you in advance to anyone who replies.

Save yourself the stress, those aren’t reasons to win I’m afraid.

You wont win an appeal with those reasons.

Why not move the 9 year old? That would make way more sense than trying to appeal and get the twins into a school 2 miles away.

Your 9yo has only 2 years left. Why would you want to commit to another 7 years of a long commute and possibly face same issue with your youngest. Do you have any friends who could take 9yo to school rather than take everyone on such a diversion? You won't win an ICS appeal unless a mistake was made in the admission process.

Appeals are only successful if the school has failed to follow its admissions policy in relation to your child’s application. Have you been through their policy and pinpointed where it was unfair on your children? Did you apply with special circumstances? You must have provided all the information at the time of the application.
You can also complain if the policy itself does not follow the rules laid down by the DoE by appealing to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.
Be aware that appeals are funded from the school’s budget.

Sadly those reasons alone won’t win you an appeal. The easiest solution is to move the 9 year old to your twins’ school or just wait on the list. Tough on you all but the school/council is following established admissions rules and won’t make exceptions for those reasons.

how were you overcrowded if you moved before you got pregnant with the twins? Misses point of thread.

Surely the sensible thing to have done when you moved was to move the child currently in year five, who would only just have started year one by my calculation to the school local to your present address.

Obviously that's water under the bridge now, but if you win your appeal for the twins you are going to face the same situation when your youngest starts nursery/school. Not to mention that if the LA allowed your appeal they would be opening up the floodgates to every parent with older /younger children in your position.

Your realistic options are either move the 9 year old for their last two years of primary, or keep everyone where they are and bite the bullet with drop offs and wrap around.

Where will your 9 year old be applying for secondary, if you are not careful you might end up (if you won the appeal) with four children in three different schools.........

I would tell them that they go to that school now because it's near their lovely new house and it will be lovely when they make new friends who will live close by. Their new school is their school now and I would be doing everything I could to make them feel settled there.

I'd tell the nine year old that nothing has changed for her, except for getting to live in a bigger house with more space. The twins aren't going to be going to that school so she shouldn't miss them being there. She will have her own friends and relationships at her school.

Most, but not all, Reception appeals are infant class size cases. That means you can only win if a mistake has been made which has cost your child a place or the decision to refuse admission was unreasonable. Nothing you have said suggests that either of these applies so I'm afraid an appeal would be a long shot. It is possible something will emerge during the hearing but you need to be realistic about your chances.

If this is not an infant class size case you have a better chance. You would be able to win by showing that your twins will be disadvantaged if they don't attend this school. Nothing you have said in your post will carry any weight with the appeal panel. You need to find things that this school offers that are missing from their current school and are particularly relevant to them. For example, if they love sports and the appeal school has a lot more sporting activities than their current school.

Agree with others - it's going to be difficult to win an appeal.
I'd be tempted to move the 9 year old (if necessary appeal - appeal for a 9 year old much easier to win). Presumably they will go near a secondary school near your new home and that will give them a chance to make friends they will move up to secondary with.

Incidentally, you must lodge separate appeals for twins, each decision is made separately.

They won’t accept new information, you must have made the school aware of all the facts when you first applied. Any additional circumstances must have been supported by the correct documents from the doctor, social services etc.

www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/appealing-a-schools-decision

Thank you all for your responses.

@viques - Just to clarify my other child is in their early 20's and we were overcrowded as me, my partner and the 2 children we had at the time were in a 1 bedroom property.

I decided not to change schools for my 9 year old when we moved as it is a very good school (outstanding Ofsted) , she was and still is doing very well and she has a good friendship group. The school is just like extended family, a lovely school.

I was not planning on having any more children and the drive to the school is 15 - 20 minutes, depending on traffic so we decided to keep her on at the school.

My 9 year old has been at the school since she was 3 and me taking her out would deeply unsettle her.

I will go ahead with the appeal as you never know I may win, stranger things have happened!

My other options will be to keep them on the waiting list and keep trying to move via social housing home swap.

@prh47bridge, thanks for the advice on showing how the twins may be disadvantaged if they don't attend the preferred school and to show things that the school offers that are missing from their current school and are particularly relevant to them. That is very helpful.