Reception appeal advice!?

[Treely912]

Hello,

I’m attending my sons appeal in a couple of weeks to try and get him into reception, and I’m wondering what chance we stand of succeeding.

He’s attended the preschool/nursery for the past 18 months so has strong friendships groups and absolutely loves school, I feel so sad for him that he might have to move schools. This is our situation.. when we first applied for his place we were living out of catchment area. We are now close to completing on a new house less than 300 yards from the school.

Also, I’ve been unwell over the past few months and been diagnosed with Crohn’s. I’ve been heavily relying on my sister for pick ups and drop offs when I’m unable to leave the house. If my son is in another school she will not be able to help me at all because her children attend the school we are appealing for so she wouldn’t have time to get to a different school. Also, we use a childminder additionally who cannot pick up from any other school.

Do you think a major change in our circumstances, the house move and new diagnoses will help sway the appeal?!

Have we got a case at all do you think?

thank you 🤞

I'm sorry but it is very unlikely unless you can provide strong proof of the move. Even then, that won't guarantee him a place. They can't now take away a place from a child who is admitted and they have legal ratios to meet so can't go above their PAN numbers for reception.

What the impending change of address may do though is increase your priority on a waiting list. Unless of course, there is someone else on the waiting list who meets higher priority e.g. catchment and sibling.

It all seems to hard and unfair. However, there have to be fair entry criteria and as much as it is rubbish for those of us who don't get our preffered choice, we are in a similar boat.

All you can do is put your case together keeping it factual and use the entrance criteria to shape your appeal. Your house move is the most valid reason. Unfortunately your health won't be part of the consideration although I know that doesn't seem right.

Wish you luck.

Assuming reception to year 2 are arranged as classes of 30 this is an infant class size appeal which are only won where a mistake has been made that cost your child a place - because it is illegal to have more than 30 children in a class. So no, sorry not a chance.

If it isn't ICS then again those are weak arguments. They are about your convenience, not about what your child needs which is all the panel can go on.

Sorry. Do you have an offer you have accepted for another school? You'll need to put something in place for that school if so - a new childminder for example.

Is it an Infant Class Size appeal -are there 30 per teacher in reception (or Yr 1/2)?

If so, they are very hard to win as there is a legal maximum of 30 per teacher in those years, so in order to win an appeal you have to show either -

• the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied;
• or c) it decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case

that is a very high bar to reach; I think nationally less than 1% of ICS appeals are successful. So realistically I would suggest no.

If it is not ICS, there is more scope; you would need to show the detriment to the child of not attending is greater than the detriment to the school of taking another pupil.

Appeals do not need to be shaped by the admissions criteria - that is the whole point of appeals, to allow parents to bring other reasons that don't fit into the criteria! However, your arrangements for getting to/from school are not a strong case, nor is the house move, though the latter may, when you can prove it, probably move you up the waiting list.

Sounds like you are still living out of catchment (if there is a catchment, most schools use distance). Are you on the waiting list, if so, be sure to update when you have exchanged / completed / moved in.

You need to look at the oversubscription criteria.

You mention using your sister and a childminder for childcare, how is that working if you do not currently live local to the school?

We currently live 3 miles away but hoping to complete on the new property in the next couple of weeks. He is number 2 on the waiting list currently but when we move I’m assuming he will move up to first because of how close to the school we will be.

My sister/childminder currently collects him from my house and takes him in if I’m unwell.

How many children in the class?

30. I know they have 31 in years 5 and 6 but I’m sure the rules are different for primary school.

It’s probably even more annoying for me because I know one of the other parents have used the child’s grandparents address to get them into the school 🙄

We moved in the Feb, the day before allocations were made and they accepted the move then - we were told had we been 2 days later they'd have allocated based on our old address and we'd have had no chance (9 mile move)

They will always only use the address you have on the day they make the allocations.

The childminder not using the other school isn't their issue, you'd be expected to arrange another one.

You could always dob them in....

If you know this for a fact, and the address used 100% isn't the child's main residence, then can this not be brought up in an appeal against the admissions criteria? Surely that shows the allocation process wasn't done correctly? Although that still wouldn't mean your child got a space, as you say you are second on the list? I'm not sure how these things work. All I'll say is since my children have started school, there's been alot of movement between reception and year 2, so a place for your child may well come up in the future.

I'm always at this, we had to provide a council tax bill and a letter from child benefit showing the new address, and then the completion documents on the day so they could use it - all to prove we would live in the area at the time.

If you are sure, then you can let the admissions authority know and they can investigate.

The appeals panel can't do anything about this though, nor take it into account, as we can't investigate and we can't just take your word for it.

As others have said, the Infant Class Size regulations restrict class sizes to 30 unless there are certain circumstances. Unfortunately, your illness is not a factor, nor is your transport difficulties.

However, if you live more than 2 miles from your allocated school after the move, your DS would be eligible for transport. Sometimes LAs will even give an exception and transport at a shorter distance if there is a need.

Just to encourage you - my son is about to finish reception and there have been quite a few children that have left and new ones taking their place so even if you don’t get in now you may well get in pretty quickly come autumn.

please tell your local authority - it is unfair when people cheat to get kids in to school.

Sadly grandparents will often collude and put their child's name on the council tax, add them to a bill and allow them to use the address for post etc - this means that they can provide the proof of address.

That's simple - report to the LA and they will take the place off them.

That is far from universal. We didn't provide any proof.

I've taught in Reception where we've had 31 in the class. It's not unheard of to be asked to accept a child even if there are already 30 in the class.

Obviously it depends on circumstances.