Secondary School KS3 - Appeal

[sr76]

Hello,

Looking for some advice please. We are moving house to a different LA. We have been offered a place for DS in KS3, but the school is around an hour by public transport from our new house. Likely to be more in rush hour and I am unable to drop or pick him.

There is another school (own admission authority) less than a mile from our house but no places in the year group.

I am looking to appeal on three reasons;

1. He had issues when starting secondary, only got along well with very few people he knew from Primary and had difficulty making friends with new people. School had called me few times to discuss this in the past and they are willing to give a letter explaining this and how he struggled with people other than people he had known for a while.

Our friends kids go to this nearest school (not the same year though) and he has met them in the past so he would be comfortable in the surroundings and they could help him settle down soon.

1. DS is among the top five in his class for his ability in Maths and the nearest school has excellent reputation in Maths.

1. Distance of the school offered would put great pressure on him. He gets dropped off and picked up by our neighbor currently and public transport would be a big stress, specially in a new area.

Not sure even if I have a chance here, any suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

You need to evidence any statement you make. If he is suffering from stress evidence this from the doctor who will name the school and the reasons why he should attend.
You need to evidence he needs support 're friends and why.

Any school can cater for any child in maths or any subject.

Think outside the norm and add some educational reasons about what the school can offer and why your son needs this. Use evidence

If you can get professional evidence to support your first point it will help. Without that the appeal panel may not give it much weight.

You definitely need to rephrase your second point. At the moment it is basically saying that your son is smart so needs a good school. That won't go down well. However, if you can point to things that the school does to achieve good results in maths you may be able to build a case that your son will be disadvantaged if he doesn't have access to that.

For secondary school pupils a journey of up to 75 minutes each way is considered reasonable under government guidelines. If the journey will be less than that it will be difficult to persuade an appeal panel that the distance is too far unless you get professional evidence to support your argument that he needs a school nearer home. Remember that your son is entitled to free transport if the school offered is more than 3 miles away by the shortest safe walking route. If he qualifies for free transport the journey time will be based on whatever form of transport the LA provides.

Thanks very much cabbageking and prh47bridge

First point, I am getting a letter from the current school's head of year. Not sure yet what exactly they are going to write but in summary, it should state the difficulties of him adjusting with people he didn't know from Primary. I can't get a letter from GP for this.

Second point - The school we are appealing is the region's lead for Maths Hub.

Third - Agree, distance is still reasonable in terms of time but it is 4 miles walking distance, most part along a very busy A road. So likely that eligible for free transport but it is the first two points that I am banking on

At the moment, those look very weak grounds, I'm afraid. What you are trying to do is show that the prejudice to him in not attending is greater than that to the school having to take another pupil.

A letter from school is better than nothing, but realistically lots of children struggle making friends to start with and have to go to schools where they don't know anyone; and having acquaintances in other years won't make much of a difference. The panel are likely to be sympathetic, but without medical evidence it's very weak as grounds.

The maths hub -again, it's weak I'm afraid. It's worth talking about, but unless there are a lot of specific activities going on at the school (maths clubs, competitions, etc) that he can't access elsewhere, it doesn't really show much in appeal terms. Being a Maths Hub lead doesn't necessarily mean that school itself offers significantly more in the way of maths content/clubs than surrounding schools.

Assuming the public transport is around an hour, then that's largely irrelevant too as prh comments.

Of course, the school may put up a very weak case - I had one this week! - but at the moment these are very weak grounds I'm afraid.

PatriciaHolm, Many thanks for the honest opinion, it helps that I have to prepare more. I am also hoping for a weak case and counter school's arguments, any pointers you can provide on this would be helpful.