Home educators making school appeal

[tolsta]

Hello everbody,
We have always been home educating our son aged 8. After the lockdowns and moving counties a couple of times in the next year, we feel he is changing and not motivated or socializing enough. Luckily we have a state democratic school close to our house that follows the same principles the kid is used to. We went to see it and it is perfect as a transition to more formal education and most importantly, he loved it and is for the first time willing to try school!
The council has rejected our application for an overcrowded class but the headteacher said that the class had 1 extra kid and this kid just left. He also added not to say that he told us, don't know why. I have now requested to the school (according to the freedom of information act) a list of the number of pupils in that class for the last 5 years. I have also read that is better to focus the appeal on how the child will be prejudiced ‘more than any prejudice caused to the other pupils’ if not admitted to the school. What kind of evidence could I include in the appeal? I already asked the school for the list of pupils and the headteacher to support our appeal with a letter.
Any suggestion?
Thanks very much for your advice!

How can it be state run? Surely state-run schools have to follow the national curriculum?

OP, if the school is a state maintained school, the admissions authority is the local authority, not the school. The Head is not allowed to explicitly support an appeal.

The school need to provide all reasonable information you need to support your appeal, information such as how many children are in each year at the moment, how many teachers and TAs they have, etc, and how the year groups are organised, but they cannot support an appeal - the Admissions Code explicitly says the Admissions Panel "must not" allow it.

In terms of prejudice - what are the key reasons he needs this school, not any of the other ones with space? What are the subjects offered that match his interests? Do they have any clubs that support his interest that it would be harder to support at home (or in other schools) - sports? coding? etc

@PatriciaHolm

OP, if the school is a state maintained school, the admissions authority is the local authority, not the school. The Head is not allowed to explicitly support an appeal.

The school need to provide all reasonable information you need to support your appeal, information such as how many children are in each year at the moment, how many teachers and TAs they have, etc, and how the year groups are organised, but they cannot support an appeal - the Admissions Code explicitly says the Admissions Panel "must not" allow it.

In terms of prejudice - what are the key reasons he needs this school, not any of the other ones with space? What are the subjects offered that match his interests? Do they have any clubs that support his interest that it would be harder to support at home (or in other schools) - sports? coding? etc

Thanks for the info, I didn't know the HT could not support the appeal.

In terms of prejudice, what match his interests is that there are not subjects, learning is done through practice, as we have been doing at home. They don't have special sports or clubs and it is a dynamic environment that is similar to what he is used to. But I don't know how to demonstrate this.

Well, that is essentially your argument then - that this school, and only this school locally, can match his current needs in terms of supporting the ways he is used to learning (and thriving with?). You need to show how he is being educated now, why that is the best for him, how that matches what this school specifically offers, and why he needs that approach from a school as well.

If he's never been to school, due to parental choice, you will probably be asked why you think a "normal" school won't work, given you (and he) have never tried it.

(BTW, Suffolk LA doesn't hold waiting lists for in-year applicants, so that part is correct.)

@PatriciaHolm

Well, that is essentially your argument then - that this school, and only this school locally, can match his current needs in terms of supporting the ways he is used to learning (and thriving with?). You need to show how he is being educated now, why that is the best for him, how that matches what this school specifically offers, and why he needs that approach from a school as well.

If he's never been to school, due to parental choice, you will probably be asked why you think a "normal" school won't work, given you (and he) have never tried it.

(BTW, Suffolk LA doesn't hold waiting lists for in-year applicants, so that part is correct.)

Thanks, Patricia again for taking the time to write. I get what you are saying about showing how he is being educated now and why we think he needs the approach of that school and why we think it wouldn't work for him in a normal school. We can just guess that it would be hard to adapt to strict timetables and subjects, as he has never done it, and he verbally refuses to do it. Obviously, kids get used to anything and it would be a matter of a few battles for a while until he gets used to it, like every other kid. The thing is that we started the homeschooling journey as we don't agree with the traditional ways of teaching in the mainstream and we didn't want our son to go through it. Now that we have found a school that is following our beliefs and ways of teaching, we will be happy to send him over. Especially after the lockdowns, he has been affected and it would be a perfect time. Still, I find it difficult to demonstrate any of this. Thanks for the clarification about the waiting list

Which school is it?

Just to let you know, an “outstanding ofsted report from 2012” isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

I am dying to know the school so I can see their website.

It sounds like they are replicating our schools reception throughout the school. Very interesting

Also to agree with Viques, an almost 10 year old Offsted report is even more useless than a usually useless one.