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Original poster

School appeal - urgent

189 replies

monyk12 · 04/07/2023 18:31

Dear parents,

This is a desperate post re schools and appeals; apologies if not allowed, I can delete if needed.

I have appealed for reception for my daughter and I am looking to find information, reasons, motivations on how to build a successful school appeal.
I am concerned that the offered schools is unsuitable for my daughter and the hearing is tomorrow.
Any information welcomed.
Many thanks in advance.

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Original poster
monyk12 · 12/07/2023 01:11

Lougle · 05/07/2023 12:04

To be fair to @monyk12, @EmmaGrundyForPM , we have no idea what LA she is under. Some are better than others at giving information about the process. I'm in Hampshire, and all appellants are given a comprehensive guide to the process, including the statistics on success rates.

Most people think that an appeal is an opportunity to plead your case for admission. They don't realise that there is a set of rules. Often, people think that they can tell the panel how lovely their child is and how good it would be for the school to have them.

I am in Newham and the school is an Academy.
There was minimal information given which we have brought it up during the first part of the appeal and we have requested written information to be sent over to us. The reason why we wanted an opinion the night before was to check against our cirucumstances, as you can't lie in an appeal. It was good in the end - we've won!
I agree that some people have different styles in communicating or sending a message, but I believe some are blatantly rude - which I ignore.

OP posts:
Original poster
monyk12 · 12/07/2023 01:17

ThickSkinnedSoWhat · 05/07/2023 07:15

I think you should just stop being so entitled and accept the fact you are coming up with laughable excuses here. Where I live, there are hundreds of children in the area with NO school place, due to lack of provision for SEN. I'm sure many people would be delighted for any school, myself included. Whilst I assume your child does not have SEN, coming up with reasons like criminality rate and drop off times not suiting, really? Its not a daycare centre, its a place of education. As for the crime rates, what exactly are you expecting to happen in a school building, and why is your child more important than anyone else's?

You are rude.

Every parent is trying their best for their kid and is my right to fight my kid right to attend the best school.
I am sorry that there are areas where kids don't have a place - this is a very, very sad situation and I really hope you can afford private school or if you can, opt for the shortest distance school available. Criminality rate is important if you consider your kid will travel by foot back and forth to and back from the school - I am sure you wouldn’t want your kid to be a victim of any form of abuse, antisocial behaviour or crimes.
And if it doesn't fit my schedule is important too - because I want to do as many school drop offs and pick ups as possible and I want my daughter to have the best start too with us present rather than constantly relying on external person-eg nanny.

OP posts:
Original poster
monyk12 · 12/07/2023 01:20

MarchingFrogs · 05/07/2023 07:28

Compared with the school she was oferred which has an above than national and borough average criminality rate, with hightly transited public roads increasing the risk of accidents and endagering personal safety, be believe that the location of the Academy schools has less criminality rate

And yet you named this school as your third preference on your CAF? Which means, you actually applied for a place there.

You should have received a) back on 17th April, a letter explaining why you didn't get the schools you named as a higher preference than the one you were being offered, and whether the refusal was based on Infant Class Size legislation.
And b) as you have submitted an appeal, the school's written defence statement should set out details such as its PAN, class organisation, the admissions criteria and under which criterion the last offer was made, at what distance. If any of this information is missing and the Independent Appeal Panel fail to ask for clarification, you can ask for these details yourself when questions are invited from the parents appealing. Also re any subsequent offers. Remember that after initial set of offers, all late applicants must be ranked in their correct place according to the school's oversubscription criteria.

Childcare issues etc may be why you personally wanted a place a particular school, but are not something which will ever form part of a school's admissions policy- it's something that parents are responsible for sorting out for themselves.

a). We didn't received any explanatory letter, although we have requested it prior to the appeal and during the first part of the appeal (we are still waiting for this).
b). Point noted and highlighted.

You will be surprised to hear that our circumstance was actually considerred as a priority and we actually won on all reasonable and personal grounds.

Very grateful for your helpful comment.

OP posts:
Original poster
monyk12 · 12/07/2023 01:23

Fadeintoyou · 04/07/2023 21:08

You sound totally under prepared, just because you didn't get your choice of school is not reason enough to win an appeal and I can't understand how you are thinking of going to the meeting tomorrow without having a strong case of appeal already prepared.

The only grounds you have are distance and if the figures you have given here are correct, based on last years admission have no chance.

We have won - despite you thinking we were underprepared!🎉

OP posts:
user40643 · 12/07/2023 03:23

monyk12 · 12/07/2023 01:01

@ezzysmom : Yes, thank you for your concern. We have won the appeal and we are over the moon. :D

Impossible to win on the grounds you were appealing on. I don't believe this for a second.

YourNameGoesHere · 12/07/2023 05:48

I'm sorry but there is absolutely no way you won your appeal on the grounds you stated. That's not how it works for an ICS appeal.

user40643 · 12/07/2023 06:29

5/6 of your messages, in the space of 24 minutes were you bragging that you won the appeal. I don't believe it.

Did you appeal on different grounds?

Whinge · 12/07/2023 06:40

There's absolutely no way you won an ICS appeal on the ground you stated, and claiming otherwise is going to give false hope to other parents who may think they have a chance of doing so in the future.

PinkFrogss · 12/07/2023 06:53

To any parents thinking of appealing in the future and reading this thread: you will not win an infant class size appeal using the same case as OP.

Her case was either not an infant class size appeal, or she was correct that distance was measured incorrectly and she lived within the offered distance, or she did not in fact win the appeal.

Lougle · 12/07/2023 06:56

Well if you won your appeal, congratulations. The panel needs retraining because if they allowed your appeal on the grounds you stated, they broke the law.

Wheelz46 · 12/07/2023 07:04

@monyk12 Personally, I have not come across any schools that do not prioritise siblings, I am not saying this can't be true but thankfully I live in an area where school admissions have common sense!!

If you have 2 children, attending different schools, primary for example and both children have the same start time, how on earth would you expect said parent to get both children to school, not ideal is it 🙄

cryinglaughing · 12/07/2023 07:08

Bullshit you won the appeal!

As for thinking siblings should not have priority, have you thought that through?
If you had 2 children, think how you would get the two of them to two different schools, possibly miles apart at the same time? I can't believe anybody can resent that criteria in admissions. It says a lot about you 🙄

PuttingDownRoots · 12/07/2023 07:13

In some areas siblings only have priority within a set an area, not all siblings. (So its sibling in catchment, catchment, out of catchment siblings, other of catchment for example).

qbansopwt · 12/07/2023 07:14

This all sounds very unlikely unless you've got additional genuine reasons you haven't disclosed. I have never heard of a school not prioritising siblings.

70sTomboy · 12/07/2023 07:18

Wheelz46 · 12/07/2023 07:04

@monyk12 Personally, I have not come across any schools that do not prioritise siblings, I am not saying this can't be true but thankfully I live in an area where school admissions have common sense!!

If you have 2 children, attending different schools, primary for example and both children have the same start time, how on earth would you expect said parent to get both children to school, not ideal is it 🙄

Mine are grown up, so no skin tre game, but a colleague put down his DC for the school his older child was at under sibling entry as they had moved out of catchment after the older one started. The school had changed criteria, no longer sibling priority. He didn't get a place, and his wife flatly turned down the offered school on the offer day withoutthinkingit through. They don't have a place for September. As it is a young in year child if they don't get a place at appeal they plan to defer.

Quiverer · 12/07/2023 07:32

Out of curiosity, OP, what reasons did the panel give for allowing your appeal under the infant class size regulations?

It would have to come within one of the three statutory reasons, i.e. that the admissions authority made a mistake in administering the admissions criteria, if the admissions arrangements themselves were against the School Admissions Code, or if the decision not to offer a place was perverse in the light of the published admissions arrangements. To be perverse it would have to be a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question could have arrived at it.

It would be interesting to know their reasoning for saying your appeal grounds fitted into that framework.

arethereanyleftatall · 12/07/2023 07:41

I remember thinking ti myself when this thread was started - 'I bet op comes back in a while and pretends they won.'

YourNameGoesHere · 12/07/2023 08:17

arethereanyleftatall · 12/07/2023 07:41

I remember thinking ti myself when this thread was started - 'I bet op comes back in a while and pretends they won.'

Yes I admit I also thought similar when I first read it even though absolutely nothing the OP said would win an ICS appeal I suspected they would come back to gloat that they won just to prove us all wrong.

For anyone reading this in future when planning an appeal, just remember the OP did not win her appeal for any of the reasons she discussed in this thread. If she did indeed win an appeal for her reception aged child then she did so because her actual appeal met the criteria outlined by serveral of the posters here and she is being disingenuous about why she won.

I like a previous poster hope this farcical thread doesn't give others false hope on their own appeals in future.

SheilaFentiman · 12/07/2023 08:27

OP, how can you say you want the chance to do as many school runs as possible with your DD and in the next breath say no schools should have sibling priority? You realise that other parents want what tug want to, right? And that is far more workable if not trying to take two children to different schools

Not to mention an earlier point I made, which you ignored - unless a family has moved between siblings, most siblings would get in on distance, as the first child would have needed to be close enough.

SheilaFentiman · 12/07/2023 08:27

But I have my doubts about whether any of it is real, so I’ll leave it there.

StrictlyJowita · 12/07/2023 08:29

I have never heard of a school not prioritising siblings.

Nottinghamshire did it and I've got a feeling it only lasted a year although it might have been two. It was disastrous anyway.

I can see why people would think it unfair and there is no doubt that people play the system but not having it leads to no end of problems.

AppealSuccess · 12/07/2023 08:41

To give the benefit of the doubt to the OP, she didn't say it was an ICS appeal or not (avoided answering any questions about that) so maybe, might, possibly, perhaps may have won.

She did say in one of the earlier posts that it was unfair siblings were given priority and then in recent posts said they weren't though... weirdly inconsistent.

PatriciaHolm · 12/07/2023 08:41

At no point did OP actually confirm it was ICS - we all just rather assumed.

A non ICS appeal is much easier to win.

YourNameGoesHere · 12/07/2023 08:47

PatriciaHolm · 12/07/2023 08:41

At no point did OP actually confirm it was ICS - we all just rather assumed.

A non ICS appeal is much easier to win.

In her first post she specifically said the appeal was for her reception aged child.

PatriciaHolm · 12/07/2023 08:51

@YourNameGoesHere yes, I know, but that doesn't automatically mean it's ICS. That only applies is there are, or would be in Yr2/3, 30 pupils per qualified teacher. It is possible for that not to be the case, though it's less common.

Nothing OP said should have won her an ICS case. A non ICS case is possible.