Please help: Junior school Appeal

[MamaNaz20]

We didn’t get our first choice for the junior school for my son. Should we appeals and what are our chances?

My son is currently in an infant school and normally all the kids in his school will get accepted in the next door junior school. This year a quarter of the kids didn’t get through and almost all are appealing, so reduced chance for everyone.

We have moved to this village 3-4 years ago, it has a very close knit community and it took us ages to be able to find our feet and make local friends through school and for our son to settle in school. We are a family of three with no relatives in the entire UK and all we have is our school community.
He is offered a place in a school in the next village , so all our efforts to settle in is lost.

My son, is suspected to be somewhere in autism range but not diagnosed so we have no medical evidence . However, he is not as emotionally mature as other kids his age, even though academically he is great- we have had such a difficult time in the past year that we debated getting him to a psychologist a few times and just because of Covid we thought we should wait. I am worried what will happen if we change his community, given how difficult it was to settle first time. Specially as the school he got a place in is a primary school, all kids are coming to junior together.

Yes He has no siblings in the preferred school as he is the only child, but All he ever has is his friends from the school .

Do you think we have any chance of success if we appeal and would you appeal if you were me?

I am sorry for long message and Thanks so much in advance for your help

Hello all, We finally got a date for hearing and the school response. The response is really blunt and very dry- it goes on to say if they take even one more child for any class they would need an additional table which does not fit in the class and people can not move in the classes then. (having visited the school ealier on I don't think this was the case, but I have no evidence to support my thoughts)
We have provided evidence from school and Senco that our child needs to go to the familiar Junior school he went to afterschool club for the past few years and stay with other friends and familiar faces and taking this away would have a significant impact on his learning and development- the school has read these and the answer says any school is equipped to accomodated Kids registered with SEN and help them in transition. They also say there is no Care Plan which names the school, so that's that.

I have two questions:

• they have sent a long calculation sheet on Net Capacity which I don't know how to read and how to use? any guidance please?

• given how blunt their answer is, is there even a chance we may win this? should I still be hopefull?

Thank you so much for reading and helping.

P.S. All appeals are only by Audio only (traditional teleconference method)- No idea why department of education is so stuck in the past- Covid has been here for a long time now and all private and even public institutions have adopted to it by video conference- communication only by audio is really difficult and not even very effective in my view

Appeals are audio only because appeal panel members are in their own homes and entitled to have privacy - some panel members may inadvertently show features that may identify a house and where they live.

The school is required to oppose your appeal. Don't be put off by their response. They don't make the decision. That is for the appeal panel.

On the net capacity calculation, the important figures are the maximum workplaces available and the minimum workplaces available. These set the range within which the school's net capacity must fall. If they have chosen a figure near the lower end of this range that will help you.

It is up to the admission authority whether appeals are by video call or audio only. The DfE is happy for an appeal to use video.

If one appeal member requests audio only then every person is audio only.

That sounds like a pretty standard case, honestly - all schools will say they are full, they can't squeeze another pupil in, they only have 30 laptops/ipads, there is no space in the canteen, etc etc. As prh says, they are required to oppose the appeal, and there is a set of pretty standard reasons they will use. And all schools will say that other schools can cope with SEN, difficulties with transition etc, - because all schools are expected to be able to do so.

If they have over 30 in any other class that is useful, as it shows they can cope if they need to.

If your evidence specifically names this school as the only one that can meet his needs, that is helpful .

And on the video point - yes, that is down to individual authorities, the D of E is fine with video if all agree. However, many panelists don't want it, so it doesn't happen - panelists are volunteers, who can can drop out whenever they like, so the LA will go with the most conservative option, to avoid losing panelists.

The appeal papers sound very standard in character. the school saying there is no EHCPlan is just the school trying to suggest to you that without a plan you have no chance of winning. Just ignore that as is the complicated net capacity figures. AS PRH says the only bit that is relevant to you is the maximum and minimum work places available. If the figures are lower than current pupils then that makes the appeal a bit more difficult but if the figures are higher than current number of pupils then that is too you advantage. To be honest the net capacity figure is not as important as the number of pupils in the year group you are appealing for. If it is significantly above the PAN then that makes the situation more difficult, if it is at PAN then it is down to the panel and the strength of your case.

You are all so great- thanks so much for being here- I wasn't sure if you will check the thread again but you are all brilliant and your help is really appreciated.

So this is the informaiton we recieved:

Their pan is 30 per class and two in LAN centre , it’s two forms so 64 overall- they have 5 in centre this year -(so 65 overall) they say the LAN centre kids will join Main Stream for some lessons and 32 per class is the absolute maximum they can have (event though they already got 33 in one class this year and in previous years they have had 6 in the centre too so not sure if that stacks up) .
I have previously enquired and they have not admitted any more than 30 per class for mainstream in any of the past 3 years.

Their other arguments are set as below:
-Additional kids will put additional strain on our teaching resources given they have 8 SEND in main stream
-Difficulty meet targets in the Key Stage 2 National test
-Additional tables in classes will make movement more difficult
-Heath and safety in overcrowded classes
-No space for additional lockers!
-Toilets only designed for 32
-Additional burden for teachers

Then they go to net capacity which shows all basic workplaces are only 30 per class and 4 resource workplaces- but they do have two classes which have 5 and 15 resource workplaces!!! (So they do have a couple of bigger classes). I have checked the defenition of resource workplace in the LEA guidance and it is just very strange and unreasonable. If a class has space for 15 more workplace and even the smallest class has 2 more workplace (than 32 they claim) then on what basis are they saying movement will be difficult with one additional student?

Also Every year they are losing two students per year group at year 5 consistently (I imagine to private schools) so their year 5 and 6 students are smaller.

my thoughts to their case is:

• Additional strain on our teaching resources given they have 8 SEND in main stream: In some other years they have even more SEND kids so the school is already dealing with it

• Difficulty meet targets in the Key Stage 2 National test : I have checked online and for the years the results are available these are not related to number of students

• Additional tables in classes will make movement more difficult : their net capacity doesn't really support this argument

• Heath and safety in overcrowded classes workplace health and safety is a reference in area guidelines for mainstream schools, so shouldn't this be already taken into account in net capacity?

• No space for additional lockers! seriously!? so are they leaving one student without locker this year with 65

-Toilets only designed for 32 again as above

-Additional burden for teachers well... its whether this additional burden is given more weight or a child/family wellbeing

They have also answered our case, saying eventhough we provided supporting evidence (from SENCO & School teacher) their admission team believe any school would be able to deal with my son's issues.

Now my questions are:
1- do we stand a chance?

1. what should be my strategy in the appeal? I have read about the procedure before but am not clear if I can go through the school case first and offer counter-argument before making our own case?

Thank you so much for reading a long text and your opinion will be much appreciated.

P.S. All about reasons for audio call understood- its just difficult not to see somebody and know what to say next based on their reaction.

Yes, you have a chance.

I usually put counter arguments in the form of questions to the admission authority after they have presented their case but there is nothing wrong with giving your counter arguments as part of presenting your own case.

Thank you so much @prh47bridge - would you also ask questions if there were multipe appeals and the school case was all by paperwork as it was for our case?

We finally only have a few hours left to prepare for the appeal hearing- any final tips would be really appreciated all @PanelChair @PatriciaHolm @admission - I know you are all busy so hopefully you don't mind mentioning you.

any do (s) and don't tip based on your experince for our case?

Also are the additional "resource workspaces" of significance?
Thank you again

It depends on the exact format. If I am given an opportunity to question the admission authority's representative, I would use that to counter their arguments. If not, the only option is to make the counter arguments part of your case.

I think the others have said it all! The gist of your argument (I think) is that the problems the school identifies probably aren’t as severe as they say (you’ve pinpointed some salient points above), they could be managed (as they obviously have been managed in the past) and, anyway, whatever the problems and the detriment to the school, they’re outweighed by the detriment to your son if he doesn’t get a place.

Assuming that the SENCO letter says that your son needs a place at this particular school, point out to the panel that this indicates that the school is wrong to argue that his needs could be met in any other school.

We can never know what the panel will decide, but good luck.

Hello all,
Just wanted to say we now had our appeal hearing. it was a very dry session (maybe partially due to it all being audio we felt it was very mechanical). We dont really believe we have a lot of chance; so even before recieving the answer we are trying to move on from it emotionally and try to find solution for the new difficult situation we will have to handle.

However, I just wanted to thank every single of you for being here, for helping and commenting. Dealing with school appeals can be very tough and emotionally involved- I am not sure if you all know how valuable it is to have you here- but want to thank every single one of you @PatriciaHolm @prh47bridge @PanelChair @admission for spending your time and helping people here- it is much appreciated.

Special thanks to @admission for looking into details for us too. it has been very kind of you really

All the best

You’re very welcome. Whatever the outcome, I hope you feel you’ve done your best and made the best case you could.