Help with the admissions appeals process

[bumblestiltskin]

We are due to return to the UK from overseas and are doing an in year application for my daughter who is in year 4. I have been told that we are unlikely to get a place at our local catchment primary school due to oversubscription. In fact, I think most of the schools in our area are oversubscribed. I was told that if she didn't get a place, we have the right to appeal.

I have read the council guide to the appeals process, so broadly know the format that this will take. However, I was wondering if there are any other online resources that I could access that would have useful information. Maybe details of the kind of information that is useful to include in the appeal letter, any supporting documentation that is useful to have or the kinds of appeals that have been successful in the past? I know there is the added complication of Covid-19 so I am just trying to gather as much helpful information as possible now, rather than waiting til the last minute. We are in Trafford, Manchester if that makes a difference.

This is all new to me so any help would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks

Mumsnet is by far the best online resource for school admission appeals in my view!

As your daughter is in year 4 there are two ways you can win:

• by showing that a mistake has been made which has cost your daughter a place. That is unlikely for an in-year application.

• by showing that the disadvantage to your daughter from not attending this school outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with additional pupils.

The LA should come up with a school place for your daughter somewhere. It doesn't have to be at your local school, however. Note that your daughter will be entitled to free transport to and from school if the allocated school is over 3 miles from home by the shortest safe walking route. If the LA fails to come up with a place you will have a very strong case for appeal.

Assuming the LA does offer you a place you should accept it. Rejecting it will not help and could harm your case. You then need to look at the differences between the allocated school and your preferred school. What does your preferred school have that is missing from the allocated school and is particularly relevant to your daughter. Those are the things you need to build your case around. So, for example, if your daughter is musical, the preferred school has a lot of extracurricular musical activities and the allocated school doesn't, this is something you should raise.

Note that transport and childcare issues do not generally win appeals. Unless your daughter has a medical condition restricting her mobility the appeal panel will take the view that transport and childcare are a problem for you, not for her, and hence are not relevant.

@prh47bridge thanks for that info, that’s really helpful. My daughter used to attend the preferred school. She was there for reception and year 1. Would this be an avenue worth focusing on? Or would it be better focus be something more specific about the actual school?

Having previously attended the school has no direct bearing on the appeal. However it firstly should give you an insight into the advantages of this school which you will need to illustrate in any appeal for the school. You can also use the fact that your child will know some of the pupils so that you can say that this will help re-integrate your child into the school. This later idea is not a strong reason for a place at the school but is definitely worth mentioning.

I presume that you are not either serving in the military or are a crown agent because both of those groups will be treated slightly different in terms of admission to a school.

The other thing to say is that the Local Authority will always say the school is full and cannot take any more pupils when you enquire about places. You need to get the application for your preferred school in, so that the LA will then discuss with the school whether or not there is any chance of taking the pupil. Do this now before the schools start to shut down for the summer break or you will not get anything sorted this side of September or even October.

@admission Thankyou, again lots of useful info. No, I am neither in the military nor a crown agent!

The in-year admissions process is currently temporarily suspended due to Covid-19. It reopens on July 1st and I was aiming to apply as soon as it opens.

That is interesting because they are not supposed to be, I have done a number of in-year admission appeals in the last two months. I can understand the issues and the LA really needing to get the "block" appeals out of the way but not sure how legally correct that is.
As the 1st July is Wednesday I would just apply now, but that is me being impatient!

@admission it is an online admissions application and they have totally shut it down so there is no way to apply before the 1st July! Pre Covid I was advised to apply a couple of weeks before our return, so that I could get the ball rolling and we would not be waiting too long for a school place. I too am quite impatient and I tried to apply over a week ago but there was no possible way to do so. I cannot access the website as they have disabled the link to the applications process. The office has shut down and is not taking incoming calls. I did email to see if there was any other way to apply was told that I just have to wait!

The normal turn around time for an in-year application that then goes to appeal is something like 6 to 8 weeks. Getting an initial response to the application is usually within about a week.

Normally for a September start the advice is to apply mid June as there are few appeals possible in August - schools are shut and staff not available.

Clearly this year things are taking longer and I know that there are in-year applications near to me where we are already booking dates in September for in-year appeals.

@prh47bridge please may I PM you?

This almost exact thing happened to me. So much so that halfway through reading your post I checked to make sure it wasn't mine!

I got lots of help on MN. What to put in my appeal and just as important, what not to put.

My LEA couldn't find my dd a year four place anywhere. It was very frustrating. We ended up winning our appeal though. I can send you my statement if you like.

@willaby123 - Of course you may.