Moving and in-year transfer, advice needed for appeal

[MrsBobDylan]

Hoping for some advice. We are buying a flat (hoping to exchange in January). Local school is 0.1 miles away.

No spaces in the four nearest primaries to new home. Looked round nearest school today with ds7/yr 3, and Head said 'there could be a space if you appeal'. She repeated this a couple of times and I sort of felt like she was encouraging me to make an in year application, then appeal the result.

I have a disabled child who goes to a special school in another town. I have to drive him because he is too scared to travel by taxi following an assault by a CC employed taxi driver last year.

I need a really nearby school so dh can walk ds and pick him up (he wfh) and we don't have a second car.

There are other reasons I'd like him to go to this school because it is in the heart of our new community and I'd like him to make local friends. It is Ofsted 'good' whereas others are good or outstanding and is in the more deprived part of the community (where we will live) so definitely not just trying gatecrash the best school.

Is my reason one which a CC would consider? I have read the criteria but it doesn't give a great deal of detail.

Just bumping for the teatime crowd...

It's not the County Council who would decide an appeal, it's an independent panel. If the school is it's own admissions authority (for example if it is an academy) it will provide it's own "defence" for want of a better word, otherwise the local authority will.

A year 3 appeal would be on the grounds of prejudice; is the prejudice to your child of not attending greater than the prejudice to the school of taking another pupil?

Logistics on their own are very unlikely to win you an appeal, though in your circumstances they may well be taken into consideration I suspect if you can evidence your need to drive your other child.

what other features about the school are of strong benefit to your child? Specific specialisms, clubs, etc?

Also look at the number of pupils in each class for evidence that the school can cope with more than 30. The school should provide you with detail if you ask.

Infant class size legislation isn't considered for a Y3 place so the panel will basically weigh up the disadvantage to you (of not being offered the school) against the disadvantage to the school (of admitting an additional child).

The HT may be one who is happy to admit over numbers and who does not put up much of a fight in appeals. Some schools do this because they like to be full and the LA have a policy of not allocating over numbers.

They may be encouraging you to apply because they know children are leaving over Cmas - but they can't allocate the place until the leaver has not returned at the start of term