Primary school admissions and appeal help

[discotils]

I have two children one who is in year 1 and one who is in year 4. My eldest age 8 and in year 4 has now been without education for 6 weeks. I first applied for a school place for both my children on 6th July 2022 when we moved to the area (relocated) I was informed eventually on 14th September 2022 that both my children were rejected from our 3 choices. One which we are in the catchment for and the others are all walking distance.
I only found out they had been rejected after I emailed profusely for weeks on end to the directors of the council one of which passed my details on to the head of admissions who finally responded on the 14th September 2 weeks after school had started.

The head of admissions at Leicestershire County Council informed that they were rejected over email - till this date I still have not received a formal rejection letter. I was offered a Church of England school by the head of admissions on 14th September 2022 for both my children which is over 3 miles away (80min walk) that goes against our cultural values and it has been rated requires improvement on all 4 areas of its last Ofsted which I rejected.
I managed to call numerous other schools in the area and found one school close by which had a few places for year 1 and I was able to get my youngest into that school on the 20th of September by asking the school to contact the local education authority.

A week later I received a call from a legal representative of the council to tell me that if I want my eldest to get a school place, I might be better off trying at the school that my youngest was at. I made a midterm application at that school (even though I had no formal rejection from the previous application.) This week I received a rejection letter from that school to say my eldest couldn’t join the same school as his sibling as they were capped at 30 and that was that.
I do have the option to appeal, I wanted some advice – do I still chase the rejection letter for the first three schools so that we can appeal them or just appeal the school that my youngest is at (my preferred choice now as it would make life easier in terms of drop offs, school holidays and they can support each other).

When I do appeal what can I say/include to increase my chances of winning the appeal? My eldest is very anxious, he has missed out on making friends in the area and he really wants to go school. He does get envious of his younger brother going to school, socialising etc. plus home-schooling for me and my husband has been stressful whilst both working full time from home.

Thank you for – if you’ve got this far!

Has the council come up with any solution yet?

In similar circumstances I was told by the school to appeal as they couldn't offer the place but appeal board was likely too (unofficially. And she was). The main thrust was she had no school place (although was offered one by appeal) and she would benefit from being in the same school as her sister.

It helps that your eldest is not in the infants, where there is a requirement to keep numbers to 30. In the juniors, you need to argue the balance of prejudice - that the disadvantage to your child in not being admitted is greater than the school's disadvantage in adding a new pupil.

I'm sure better help will be along soon, but, in the meantime, I would be doing 2 things. The first would be to find out what the class sizes are in the juniors, and particularly if there are any larger class sizes in the years above (so that you can argue that the school can cope). The second would be to look at all of the reasons why this school is the right one for your child. Does it offer anything that particularly aligns with your child's interests and abilities etc?

Good luck. I won a secondary school appeal many years ago. It was a stressful time but I was glad that we had persisted. It feels better to be doing something sometimes!

It is a shame you rejected the place offered. That could damage your chances at appeal.

The previous poster is correct that the appeal will be about the balance of prejudice. You need to show that the disadvantage to your child from not being admitted outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with an additional pupil.

Since you rejected the place offered, you can't use the fact that your child doesn't have a school place. That was your choice. The council has fulfilled its duty by offering a place. They don't have to do any more.

Wanting your children to be at the same school is unlikely to win an appeal unless the school's case to refuse entry is extremely weak.

You need to look for things this school offers that are particularly relevant to your child that they won't get elsewhere and build your case around that.

If you want to appeal to the other schools, do so. You shouldn't have to wait for the rejection letter in order to do that. However, note that being awarded a place at one of those schools will not mean that your youngest also gets a place at the same school. If you want your children to attend the same school, your youngest would have to go on the waiting list and hope to get a place that way.

As you can withdraw Dc from RE and elements of the worship at a CofE school, I don’t really think you should not have rejected it. These schools are often culturally diverse. I do not think you have strong grounds. You had school places.

I was a governor of a y4-6 junior school. We held classes at 30 and won appeals. Had DC arrived naming the school, it would have been different. DC wanting this school were offered places elsewhere. We were full and held the line, despite not being legally required to keep classes to 30. If your chosen school has numerous junior classes over 30, you could argue an extra child doesn’t prejudice anything if the class was going from 30 to 31, particularly if other classes are 31,32 etc.

As is now local tradition, I agree with prh47bridge.

In this situation, I always suggest that parents should appeal on the basis that the child needs a place in school, to integrate into the community and make new friends. That argument is going to be trickier here, because your child could have got those things from the school you rejected and their lack of a school place is a consequence of that rejection. But, what’s done is done, so I suggest you identify all the other reasons why your child might benefit from this school and hope that the appeal panel looks kindly on it. Also check the numbers in other year groups; if any year group in KS2 is currently at 31+ you can argue to the panel that the school has evidently coped with additional pupils in the past and could do so again for your child.

Thank you all for your advice, it will help with the appeals process. I have found out that all the other year groups/classes are over the 30 class size numbers (approx 32), Year 4 I think has around 30 so I feel we have a fighting chance.

@TranquilityofSolitude Is it ok to PM you Im in the middle of the appeals at the moment and wanted to ask you a quick question. Thanks.

Of course. I'll help if I can, but the other posters are much more knowledgeable!

I would personally appeal all the schools you want places at prioritising the school your youngest is at.

Appeal straight away and make sure you son in on the waiting list at each school straight away.

why were the original schools rejected, this will help understand what you focus on.

We successfully won appeals for our yr4 & yr6 DDs this year, both are in class sizes of 32, I think one is 34. The year groups are only 15 normally but they mix years, currently year 5 & 6 together, so the appeals board had to not just consider class sizes for this year but next year too where class sizes exceed 15.

Our main focus was religion (catholic school, baptised catholic children) and mental health for our 8year old. It helped that our youngest had got a place in reception on the waiting list, so having a sibling already in the school bumped us up the criteria list.

Our situation was different as we had previously attended the school. This was also a focus of our appeal, our DDs mental health had suffered since leaving the school.

The appeals board had to consider the effects of putting another child in the class on the other children i.e was there enough resources in the class that it would not adversely effect the other children. It really helped that the HT was on our side and wasn’t putting up a fight to keep us out. She obviously had to do her spiel on why the application was rejected but didn’t argue against the appeal.

It’s hard but keep emotion out of it, focus on the facts, speak to the school about what to focus on. They will just be following protocol rejecting the application, it dosnt mean they are against your son joining the school. How many children are currently in the class vs teachers & TAs.

Whats the schools admission criteria, where do you fall with in that. Is there anything on that criteria that you haven’t used.

It dose sound like you have a crap LA admissions department, keep on at them, phone and follow up with emails. Do you have grounds to complain, hold the LA responsible for missing out on places due to their delays in dealing with your application?

good luck

@discotils - I suspect I am one of the posters referred to as more knowledgeable by @TranquilityofSolitude . I will be happy to help if you want to PM me.

Quick update: We won the last appeal for the school that we are in the catchment for so we will have to do 2 school runs but at least we have a school for my eldest. They refused the schools case (we appealed 3) before we got a chance to say our case - very unusual I think but i believe all the information we put on our application and supporting evidence really helped. Thank you to everyone on this thread and a huge thank you to @TranquilityofSolitude and @prh47bridge - firstly for answering all the questions and for going out of your way to offer more information I couldn't have done it without both of your support. Thank you :)

Great news! Well done!