Story’s of successful appeals

[Becca0410]

As the title states, if you have had a successful appeal for a primary school in the past, please can you advise how you were successful?

I am appealing, as we did not get our first choice and I need all the help I can get. The Head at the school I’m appealing for has let class sizes go over 30 for several classes over the years (one class has 34), so this is what I’m basing my appeal on amongst other things, but I know it’s a long shot so any advice is welcome.

As in the head has let KS1 classes go over 30? Or KS2? Reception & KS1 classes cannot legally go over 30 children per class unless there is a significant administrative error upon offer or there is a child in care/specific needs who needs to join..

You don’t have a leg to stand on if it’s the KS2 classes that have gone over 30, there is no law stopping that & appeals are often successful. My school seem to mop up kids needing spaces mid-year, KS2 is chokka. We have:

Yr R: 29, Yr 1: 30, Yr2: 28, Yr3: 34, Yr4: 36, Yr5: 35, Yr6: 32

If the head has allowed KS1 to go over 30 on numerous years, there will have been appropriate reasons..

You won’t learn much from other people’s appeals. If they won, it’s because the panel was satisfied that, for that child at that school at that time, the detriment to the child of not getting a place outweighed the detriment to the school in admitting another pupil. If they won an ICS appeal, it’s because the panel found an error in the admissions or was satisfied that refusing a place was unreasonable in the legal sense.

Better to focus on your own reasons for appealing. Why do you want to appeal?

I won an appeal but it was for Yr4 and there was a procedural error (which the council informed us and the board of on the day, and the board had noticed another error in the paperwork, so we had an automatic win)

So my advice would be to examine closely to make sure the application process was followed correctly.

I won an ics appeal in recent years by demonstrating that the decision to not admit was unreasonable in the legal sense. The threshold is extremely high and from my understanding and going through the process not many are won on these grounds. As others have said without knowing the school, LA and the circumstances that you wish to appeal under no one can give any comment as to whether any other appeal might or might not be successful.

We won an ICS appeal because the admission criteria had been changed but there was no public consultation within a reasonable time frame before the application deadline. Please, please stop using the word 'choice'. You give preferences, you do not choose a school. The council provide your child a school place and take into consideration your preferences if they are able to. You only choose a school if it is a private school.

Oh and good luck but please don't appeal if you just don't like the outcome - you're just wasting everyone's time.

If a school is over 30 in YR and KS1 it’s usually because the school is named for an send child or looked after children come into catchment. In these cases the heads tend not to object. Most appeals fail where a class will go over 30.