Infant size class appeal

[xxminniexx]

I am currently waiting for a hearing date to appeal my child's school place, has anyone ever appealed an infant size class appeal and won?
Do you have any advice?

I won my own ICS appeal as I was able to show that it wasn't actually an ICS case (although it took two hearings and two references to the LGO to get it sorted). I have helped some other parents win ICS appeals.

Having said that, it is very difficult to win an ICS case. You should only win if the admission arrangements are contrary to the law or the Admissions Code and this has cost your child a place, or the admission arrangements have not been administered correctly and this has cost your child a place, or the decision to refuse admission was unreasonable. I have come across occasional appeals where a sympathetic appeal panel has admitted the child even though, according to the rules, they should not have done so but these cases are rare.

If you would like to tell us a bit more about your case you will get more detailed advice. If you don't want to post details publicly feel free to PM me.

I'd have thought that at the moment there's no way schools will take more than the set number.

Legally the school has to admit up to the published admission number of the school. Above that yes it is possible for the school to agree to take more but would agree with you that most schools will not be looking to take more.
In terms of infant class size appeals, the fact that many primary schools are built around classes of 30 means that most primary school appeals are infant class size appeals. The legislation means that the appeal can really only be won by, as PRH did prove that it was not an infant class size case or prove that the admission authority made a mistake and the pupil should have been made an offer.
The problem is that you are quite likely to not know whether a mistake has been made unless you appeal, which why it is always best to do so. Though that also needs parents to accept that in the vast majority of cases there has been no mistake made and therefore the chance of success is very low.

Appeals are still going ahead in person or on line, by phone or written for September.

Time frames have been relaxed and provision of only 2 panel members to conclude the appeal if one member withdraws.

Thankyou for your replies, does anyone know how long it takes to get a hearing date? i sent the appeal in on 18th may and have not had a date yet, i do however know that they give you a date 10 days before the hearing itself but just wondered how long you have to wait to get a date.

No one can say 're Covid sorry

I know noone will know as of covid but was just asking for a rough estimate ie: weeks or months.

I'm a panellist and chair. As others have said it is very difficult to win one of these.

Occasionally the school or LA messes up so it is worth reading their admissions criteria very carefully and questioning what has gone on.

The only other category is people in absolute dire circumstances and the panel feels it would be unreasonable not to admit them. These are extremely rare.

In my area, the appeals are being done with either written submissions from the parents or audio hearings, but they are taking place in June.

At the moment, my LEA are still setting up secondary appeals, as its taken quite some time to figure out how appeals will work this year. I would expect an appeal date in July now, to be honest.

Thankyou, its just so i can be prepared, i have never appealed anything before so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thankyou, yeah i am aware that it is hard to win but well worth a try.

You will get at least 10 days notice of any date. If you can't make it let the clerk know asap.

On what grounds are you appealing?

We did - for my ds. We felt that my ds's mental health would suffer if he did not go to the particular school. It was a complex and unique situation and involved the life of his sibling, which sounds an exaggeration, but it wasn't. Also, fortunately for us, there was a technical problem. The child who had made the class = 30 before our ds, lived 2.3 miles from the school as the crow flies. But an error had been made and we actually lived closer than thought. I would advise doing proper research before going to the hearing. I did and it helped hugely.

Thankyou, I have read the appeal code and school admission code so am aware of that side of things i just didn't know if anyone had got any advice on do's and don'ts or anything like that.