School appeal - urgent

[monyk12]

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.

We never got to the bottom of whether this was an ICS appeal. Perhaps it wasn’t. Or perhaps OP was correct when she said the distance had been measured wrongly. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Well it seems congratulations are in order OP, much to everyone’s surprise! I really do hope the point about no sibling priority doesn’t come back to haunt you if you have a second child needing a school place in a few years time.

With all due respect to those of you who are not believing, is purely your choice.

The way we have presented our case was relevant:
-distance was miscalculated;
-we had attenuating significant medical circumstances (not SEN or disability);
-we did compared the two schools in details in terms of curricular activities;
-our jobs are high risk and we want to ensure that we contribute at maximum to our daughter attendance, therefore we want to be able to bring her and pick her from the school and the option that was offered erred by the council was in opposite direction to our work place;

We also payed a specialised lawyer to prepare our pitch and we have read through.

The questions we were asked were nasty, such as:
-due to your job, do you actually care for your kid?
We then explained in details what activities we are doing with our DD in our time off - is rarely that you see a kid that is well travelled by the age of 4 (we have 4 holidays/year), that speaks 5 languages fluently, swims independently and dances ballet and has seen more than 60% of the theatre plays in London to date- she is taking private individual lessons for ballet. This answer was longer than the actual appeal; this has shown them that we are very involved and they shouldn't judge us based on our jobs - and I did say it politely.

-do you think that your kid is under pressure to achieve?
We have answered that our daughter is going to the lessons and extra activities that she has chosen alone after being exposed to those, and only if she wants to go. We did explained what impact music has on brain development a and neurolinguistic programming and we did emphasise how important are their music and instrument classes that they are oferring; I did explained that their curriculum is build to achieve and they are also proud to be an outstanding Academy.

-why do you think your kid is prejudiced by not attending this school and why is she a good fit?
We went in details to explain how their curricula fits the personality of our DD and we emphasised that; it probably helps that I have a Pedagogy background and I did went into details re. their amazing structure.

All in all, it was not an easy undertaking and definetely our circumstances were unique from a number of reasons including council's fault.

I strongly encourage all the parents to appeal and use common sense, explain their situation in detail and do not ever think not to appeal just because so many parents had negative experiences or think that you don't stand a chance. Do it, without it you will surely not win. You should take this right and use it in your favour, even if you don't have the knowledge needed to present so fluently.

This is my last comment on the thread and I honestly thank you all for actually replying, regardless of your attitude.

Wish all the parents who want to appeal best of luck in this process, all the kids that are due to start Reception best of luck and least but not last, have a lovely holiday!

We also payed a specialised lawyer to prepare our pitch and we have read through

You paid a specialised lawyer to draw up your case, but we're posting on Mumsnet at half 6 the night before your hearing asking for urgent help preparing your appeal.

🤔

If it came down to the distance being miscalculated then all your other stuff was irrelevant.

Your four year old speaks 5 languages fluently and has seen 60% of the plays on in London?

Plays such as The Crucible, Hamlet, Dr Semelweis, As You Like It, to name nut a few?

If she's seen 60% of all plays currently on in London, then you must take her several times a week. There are 242 theatres in London, so that's at least 145 shows.

😂

Having two or more kids is a personal choice.

Why do you think is fair to give 2-3 places to the same family whilst other kids can't benefit from an outstanding education?
I know examples of families who have more than 2 kids and:

• they have secured a place in the Academy I am talking about and now they don't even live in the area any longer, for example. What is your opinion about that? What if you move to an area and your kid doesn’t get a place because you have families that have 2 kids in the same school?
• families who played the game for church stamps-for example, to get in; how christian is this?
• families who took disability cards without a disability and got in.

And I asked the school directly how they are managing this scenarios - unfortunately the school can't kick the kids out (!) but they should, but the parents will suffer the consequences of lying and conniving the school, in civil court. But I did disclose it to the authorities.

If this parents would've been truthful, their kids would've gone to their local schools and give opportunity to at least 7 other local kids in the area who actually deserve the spot more, including my kid.

I bought a house in an neighbourhood that the house costs for a 3 beds are above UK average to make sure my DD gets into this school and I will make sure our rights are respected, purely by stating the truth.

I am a strong believer that all kids needs fair access to the best education and I will not let my daughter suffer from unorthodox behaviour of some parents and a chronically sick and unfair system.

I have twins - not a personal choice from one pregnancy - do you think they should not automatically go to the same school? Thankfully the majority of schools have a sibling priority.

Campaign for the admissions criteria to 0nly give sibling priority within a fixed reasonable area (2 miles for example) then... or won't you care next year as your child has a place now?

There's a huge difference between having more than one child and lying to get a school place!

The sibling policy is fair and equitable.

I am not talking about twins here who are of the same age- is absolutely imperative to keep them together should you opt for this. And in some areas I have actually seen 4 family with twins included triplets. I don't have an issue with this at all.

I am talking here about parents who have cheated at the expense of other kids they ,,moved'' (some even fictional ) once in our area then you have never seen them. This is purely malicious and premeditated.

As a former chair of the education appeals board in my borough and surrounding ones I call bullshit on your update. It is illegal for an appeal panel to grant an appeal based on personal circumstances if it's for an infant class of 30 children.

After the entitled tripe spoken since the OP, constantly convincing everyone she was going to win, I knew OP would come back and say they won regardless. Yet you'd think, if indeed they won, they'd have come back a hell of a lot sooner by the way they were getting on. I don't believe a word of it and OP still sounds off their rocker anyway ffs

There are many experts by experience in appeals on this board.
There are many panel members and chairs here too.

I'm hope that parents who search MN for appeal advice in the future heed the advice of experts rather than a parent who appears to have found an obscure loophole in this system and/or hoodwinked the appeals panel she attended.

OP, you are obviously doing whatever it takes to secure a place for your DC in your chosen school. You obviously consider your DC more special and more entitled than others. I hope you are being equally as mindful of your DC's development in social skills - team playing, fairness, equality, learning to fail, resilience, acceptance, honesty, integrity etc.

• “families who took disability cards without a disability and got in.“

What the everliving fuck is this nonsense?

“The way we have presented our case was relevant:
-distance was miscalculated;
-we had attenuating significant medical circumstances (not SEN or disability);”

The first point is relevant if it was ICS (which you still haven’t answered)

The first and second were probably most influential if it wasn’t.

Why do you think is fair to give 2-3 places to the same family whilst other kids can't benefit from an outstanding education?

Why do you think it is fair to give a place to a child because of their parent's jobs when other kids can't benefit from an outstanding education, OP? Why is it fair to give a place because of where the child's parents choose to live when other kids can't benefit because they've taken the place?

The plain fact is that every school place allocation involves choosing one child over another. Why should a child lose out just because they have a sibling?

families who took disability cards without a disability and got in.

What's a disability card and how do you get it?

If you claim that a child with no disability got in on the grounds of disability, on what basis do you claim to know more about that child than the doctors who will have diagnosed and certified that disability?

She hasn't said it was a class size appeal but she has given out enough info to identify the school, which has a PAN of 60.

I bought a house in an neighbourhood that the house costs for a 3 beds are above UK average to make sure my DD gets into this school and I will make sure our rights are respected, purely by stating the truth.

So it's fair in your book for someone to be able to buy their way into a school, but not for them to attend the same school as their sibling?

I wouldn't bother trying to reason with the OP. She's not making any sense and is almost certainly lying.

I hope you didn't use the phrase disability card in your meeting

Hahahaha yes it was this nonsense that sealed the deal for me! Someone’s telling fibs…

The child speaks five languages fluently, yet the OPs posts are riddled with spelling, punctuation and grammar errors 😅

They also start work at 7am and finish at 8pm, yet they somehow intend to do school runs and have somehow taught the child these 5 languages whilst simultaneously taking her to theatre frequently. Amazing.

Hi mums,

I am looking for a good nursery in Mitcham for my daughter that will start in September, was undecided between Cranmer primary school and Liberty primary school?

Could you kindly give me your feedback on nursery and primary

Thanks