Infant class size appeal

[Ellie54278]

Please can anyone give me advice. I’m a disabled single Mum urgently needing advice as my hearing is 5 July. The primary school I applied for did not have a medical/social policy for me to apply under. Also I was not given the option to give reasons for my need for the school. I’m reliant on carer/childminder who can only collect from this one school. This is my only form support for when is I’m unable to look after my daughter due to my disability and involves having my daughter from when she wakes till she sleeps. It’s not about putting her in breakfast and after school clubs. With my situation the childminder is also the 2nd most important relationship in her life and has been since she was a baby so I’m extremely worried about the emotional harm of separation. In previous year my daughter would have got a place easily with our distance and although the school has 2 reception classes one with 22 and the other with 23 it mixes Year 1 & 2 into 3 classes so saying this means they cannot admit above their PAN of 45 for the reception class so my appeal is being heard under the infant class size. I’ve said it’s wrong that I’ve not been allowed to give my preference or had them considered and that not having the social/medical part of the code is discrimination against a disabled parent. I’d really appreciate any advice as I know the success for infant class size are so low.

There won't be a criteria for you just your son.

ICS appeals are incredibly if not impossible to win. I'd start looking at a back up plan.

I doubt they are going to bump another child so yours can attend the school

sounds really tough for you though. Good luck for the 5th.

I’ve arranged for her to stay at nursery. If it had been any other primary school in my area they all have the social/medical rule. Doesn’t seem right that a school can be allowed to leave it out.

Thank you for your wishes.

The social/medical rule is for your child though - it doesn't generally take into account parent's needs.

I was trying to use the social part of the code as it’s about the disruption to her education without her childminder/my carer. My disability causes health issues and I never know when it’s going be a bad day. Unfortunately she can only take her to that particular school. I wish she could take her elsewhere but she can’t as all the other children in her care are at that school.

I doubt they are going to bump another child so yours can attend the school

They don't bump another child if you win an appeal. That isn't how it works.

@Ellie54278 I'm afraid it is unlikely that you will win your appeal. Schools are not required to have a social/medical category. Even if they do, most schools only apply that to the child's social/medical needs, not yours. The lack of this category will not help you at appeal. The appeal panel has to deal with the admission criteria as they are, not as you want them to be.

Whilst you should have been able to state your reasons for wanting this school on the LA's application form, they cannot be taken into account for admissions purposes. Admission authorities are not allowed to make subjective judgements based on the reasons stated for wanting the school. It is entirely about the which admission category your child is in.

It is possible something will turn up in the hearing to show a mistake has been made, or that a sympathetic appeal panel will decide to bend the rules. But your chances of success are very low.

Thank you for your replies, I’m going to keep her at nursery as I’ll need to look at what care options are available . I didn’t get any school I put as a preference. Do you know if there’s a way to question the accuracy of those? On the school she was allocated it had 0 against non ranked allocations which is wrong. I’ve heard the same for the school she needs children allocated it when it was not on their preferences but again the allocation summary shows 0 for non ranked

Do you know where she is on the waiting list for a place? Our school is a similar size and highly desirable but the waiting list often moves quicker than you might imagine. So a space might come up in the coming months.

I used to be a school governor and sat on the admissions committee. It’s a very strict process with no room for nuance. Applicants are ranked against the criteria set out and then by distance. The line is drawn after the appropriate number of children and that’s that. Having said that, we have sometimes been above the official capacity for one reason or another.

She’s no 5 on the waiting list. They have vacancies in all the years except reception. Im literally 100m off the distance the last one was admitted. As ex school governor do you know if I’m allowed to question how accurate the oversubscription policy has been applied?

Yes, you can ask them to check and confirm that you have been allocated properly. You should have had some sort of information about why you weren’t allocated/what the last allocated distances were. Check that these look correct, e.g. have they got you down as 3 miles away when you are only 1.5 miles?

Thank you I’ll get that check as the distance is close between the last child they admitted and my distance

I hope it's OK for me to tack on a related question to this thread.

A school has argued as follows in its case to the appeal panel for why it doesn't have any extra capacity:

"The majority of our non-specialist classrooms can only reasonably fit up to 24 seated occupants; this number necessitates a row setup, consisting of 3 rows of four tables. This would amount to having a maximum of 72 occupants per year group (as there are 3 classes per year group). The school must plan for the accommodation of 2 in-class SEN LSAs for each year group, as is the case for September 2022. The maximum capacity of three parallel classes would therefore be for 70 students after adult occupancy in the classrooms is taken into account."

Yet the school's net capacity assessment allows for a PAN of 105 per year group. Does the fact that the net capacity assessment is much larger than the numbers the school allows for significantly undermine the school's argument regarding its capacity?

@Ivka234 You may be best off starting a new thread, that sounds like quite an odd situation!

Thanks - will do.

I mean, you can ask, but at our school it is checked independently by a handful of people so it’s unlikely.

Hi please can anyone offer advice? I’m due to complete an appeal for my children’s in year school transfer appeal, year 5 and 1. We have just moved into the area. The year one class currently has 30 pupils. Our current school is 5.5 miles away and all other schools in the area are also full to new admissions, what are my chances ?

Start a new thread, you will get some excellent advice but people won't see it here

Thanks just done this 🤞