Help with primary school appeal - shortest walking distance incorrect

[Hannah2409]

Hi mums.

It’s my first time on Mumsnet and I’m hoping you might kindly offer some advice on school appeals/challenging the refusal of a place.

My daughter has been refused a place at our first preference school (after spending five terms in the attached nursery - for info, I realise this has no impact on likelihood of admission).

What with being in the midst of a pandemic, speaking to anyone at the LEA has been almost impossible and it has taken two weeks to get a reply to my email after offer day.

We know now that we are just 28 metres further away than the last place offered. I finally managed to get a map of the route the LEA used to calculate our distance (shortest walking route) and there is a shortcut they have missed that shaves around 130 metres off our distance (by my calculation using Map my Walk). The ‘shortcut’ is a proper footpath a few metres long, lit by two streetlights. It’s recognised and shows up as a walking route on Google Maps etc.

I called the LEA and miraculously got through to someone and explained the error in the distance calculation. She said it wasn’t an error, that the software used is unique to the LEA and that it is used consistently for everyone. I asked if they would take the information into account and reinvestigate. She said no - that I’d have to take it up in an appeal 😔

We know their software must accept some shortcuts as there is another child we know (no siblings/SEN so same category as us) who got a place and the only way their distance could be shorter is if they used a (different to ours) shortcut. So I don’t see how they can argue the software only uses big main roads or anything.

I’ve emailed the admissions dept anyway with evidence of the shortcut that has been missed. I understood that if there is an error like this that they LEA have some kind of obligation to sort it out before an appeal!? Can they just argue ‘that’s the route our software calculates and there’s nothing we can do about it’!?

The admissions policy oversubscription criteria states the shortest walking distance is used to give priority - but in our case the shortest walking distance has NOT been used. If it had, my daughter would have been well under the distance of the last place offered and given a place.

Has anyone got any experience of this they can please share? If I do take it to an appeal, do I stand a chance?

There is a second factor. The LEA has not said we have been refused on infant class size prejudice. Just that there were more applications than places so the oversubscription criteria has been used. What I’m wondering is... The PAN is 50. The school usually has a mixed age split (in the current year it is Rec/Y1 - but this can technically change). The current year group is also a bit of an anomaly - it is undersubscribed by four places. I’m wondering if I can argue that because of the class split (my daughter would very likely be in the Rec/y1 split class as her birthday in October so she is one of the oldest) and because of the underfilled Y1 class, that admitted her would not cause any problems to the school. Is this plausible?

I would be beyond grateful for any help and support. I’ve lost sleep over this for weeks.

Apologies for the long post and thank you for reading.

Hannah x

If the LA agree there has been an error they are supposed to offer a place without any need for appeal but in practice this rarely happens. Most LAs insist on an appeal.

The central question is what the admission arrangements say about allowable routes. The fact they've used the same software for everyone is irrelevant. The question is what conditions do they specify for a path to be included and does your shortcut meet those conditions. If your shortcut does meet the conditions you have a very good chance of winning your appeal.

The LA would not say you have been refused on infant class size prejudice. That only comes into play when we get to the appeal stage. The question is how the classes are organised. The description you give suggests that they may have 5 classes covering Reception, Y1 and Y2. If that is so, it will be an infant class size case. That means the panel must assume that any currently unfilled places in infants will be filled, so I'm afraid you can't argue that the spare places in the current Reception mean that your daughter can be admitted with no problems (or, to be more accurate, you can argue this but the panel should not accept your argument). However, if you are right and a mistake has been made, this is irrelevant. You will be able to win even if it is an infant class size case.

Thanks so much for your reply @prh47bridge. That’s a bit gutting to hear that they rarely correct the mistake - seems such a massive waste of resources, especially at this time. But equally encouraging that you think we’d have a strong grounds on the shortcut element. I don’t know what the criteria for an eligible shortcut it, but I really see how ours could not meet any criteria. It is properly paved and lit and only about seven metres long from our road until it connects with the main road the LEA’s route uses. I wanted to attach an image to show you but I don’t think I can. So now I have a shred of hope. Which is more than I’ve had for the last couple of weeks.

I’ll give up on the argument about last year being undersubscribed then and just focus on the distance thing and hope for the best. Do I still need to come up with an argument to challenge the infant class size part or will the distance thing be enough?

Thanks again - really do appreciate it x

If you would like to tell me which LA is involved (PM me if you don't want to post that publicly) I'll be happy to take a look and see what their rules say regarding walking routes.

You can only really challenge the infant class size part if they are saying it is an ICS case when it isn't. That does happen sometimes but not very often. If it is an ICS case you need to concentrate on proving they've made a mistake.

You will receive the case to refuse admission before the hearing at the same time as the papers are sent to the appeal panel. They may also put an ordinary prejudice case to show that they really can't admit any more children under any circumstances (classrooms overcrowded, insufficient equipment, teachers overstretched - that kind of thing). If they do it is worth challenging that if possible. But if their case is simply that this is an ICS case you don't need to challenge it.

In terms of the shortest walking distance, all LAs that use this method tend to be very fixated about not easily agreeing any changes. I can see their reasoning in that if they did consider every suggested short-cut they would be overrun with requests to alter routes and the vast majority would be rejected.
However what does tend to happen is people go to appeal and when they win a case the LA add that short cut to their approved list. There is every reason to appeal, especially if it is tarmacked and has street lighting, because they are the usual standards which are applied by both the LA and appeal panels. What you need to do is get some good photos of the short cut and the lights, which is what the panel will want to see if they are to agree with you that it is an appropriate short cut. That is especially true this year when the appeal is likely to be a virtual appeal.
Again like PRH very happy for you to PM me if you want another opinion on what I think the LA documentation says.
There is however a significant obstacle to overcome and that it is firstly the panel needs to be convinced that if they accept the shortcut, that you would have been offered a place. That might seem easy to confirm but in reality what needs to happen is that the LA and the panel will want to know what agreeing this is an approved short cut does in term of all the pupils who applied for a place at the school. It could be that there is a large number of pupils who if measured using this short cut would also have correspondingly lower distances.
It would not be unsurprising if the LA came to appeal and said that you did not get a place initially and having reviewed all the distances of pupils using this shortcut that you still do not figure in the top 50 in the list.
Sorry to say that, but you do need to understand that it is not necessarily as straight forward as you think. I have chaired to many appeals like this where things have not been straightforward.

Thanks so much for adding your thoughts @admission.

I should have added, perhaps, that we are first on the waiting list. So although it is possible, I think it is unlikely that there are other children who'd benefit from the shortcut being added before us!? I think we were just really unlucky.

It's good to know how tough it can still be to get a decision overturned, even with seemingly solid evidence. PRH kindly replied to a DM to confirm what I thought - that the LA in question haven't included any info on what is classed as a walking route.

Also, in their first email reply, someone in admissions did say that the GIS system is regularly updated to reflect new infrastructure but that if I wanted provide additional info on the route/distance they would 'of course investigate' (I replied to say without seeing the route I had no idea what info to provide, and then they sent the map) - which kind of insinuates they would correct any mistakes!? But then when I called I spoke to someone else who very negative about the whole thing.

Part of me is really really hoping someone might withdraw when all offer responses are made on May 7, and we might get a place as first place waiting list soon after that (hopefully before the appeal deadline on May 14). Is that too much to hope for, do you think? Should I prepare to appeal anyway?

If I may, what do you think my chance of success would be on appealing on the shortcut matter?

Thanks so much!

A friend of mine had exactly this, and won her ICS appeal for her twins. The key point was the country council maintained the streetlights on the route she wanted included. This apparently meant they should have used the footpath in their software. Maybe take a look at the streetlights and see if they have a county council ID number on?

Yes, you might get a place via the waiting list but you should definitely prepare to appeal. If you don't the risk is that you don't get a waiting list place and others get in via appeal, which means you will only get a place if several children are withdrawn.