Are these sufficient grounds to appeal?

[PutYourRecords0n]

We live in a town with 4 primary schools - 1 catholic (1 form), 1 CoE (1 form) and 2 none religious, state schools (1 x 1 form and 1 x 2 form entry). The two religious schools require church attendance and are oversubscribed.

We live 0.38 miles from the 1 form state primary. Any other year, the furthest admitted was roughly 0.8 miles, so we would have been easily safe. We sorted out a childminder for both of our children on this basis - 3 days per week for our 1 year old and before/after school care for our 4 year old.

In the space of a year a housing development has been finished and the school has become the school of choice for SEN provisions. There are a lot of siblings.

We found out on Tuesday we didn’t get in by ~ 40 metres. Ie the max distance has more than halved in 1 year. We are 3rd on the waiting list. We’ve been given a place in the other none faith school, 1.8 miles away. We only own 1 car that my husband needs for work and our CM won’t pick up from that school. All the other CMs near the other school are full.

Obviously the council haven’t technically done anything wrong apart from not building more schools, but we are absolutely screwed. Is this sufficient to appeal?

My understanding is that appeals are rarely successful unless it is an administrative error on the part of the LEA.
Partly due to the fact that they have a set limit of children in a class and once those places are offered they can't exceed them.

It's so hard but they have to have a cut off somewhere and it really sucks that you missed out and were so close.

In reality I think of you challenged it that you'd be told you have been offered a place at a school which is still (on paper) very accessible to you - it is less than two miles away. Where I live it's quite rural and many people have to travel 2 or 3 villages away for their nearest school so 2 miles would be much closer!

3rd on the waitlist is a fairly decent position though - there will be children who move house, whose family opt for private school instead or for any number of reasons reject their offer - our LEA told us during a webinar that there is a lot of shuffling about between offer day and the start of term, and so only needing 3 children to move out of their places is not the worst, you could be the 20th.

It doesn't solve your wraparound / pick up issue but you may have to accept this.
Does the school run wraparound care that can be worked with your work commitments?
Would your / dh employers allow flexible working to facilitate pick up (even if that meant you dropped them back home to the CM then picked up your work at home?
Do you know any other parents whose children will go to this school who you could do childcare swaps with - my mum used to drop us at a friendly neighbour for breakfast and in return picked up her kids and dropped them home as that worked for both of their working arrangements.

In our area loads of Facebook groups are already set up "st johns primary reception 2024 class" so you might be able to find other parents there and identify possible childcare options that way.

Good luck!

Fairly sure this would not be grounds for appeal, unless there is a very compelling reason why this is right school for your child, not just your logistics.
Someone might come along with a better idea but I would accept the other place and hope that something shifts on the waiting list between now and September.
Can you go on the waiting lists for the faith schools as well? Are they any better for you logistically?

3rd on wait list is high. Likely to be a lot
of shuffling around in the next few months so accept place and wait.
you don’t have grounds to appeal

No, transport/childcare issues are very unlikely to win a place. You have a reasonable chance from the waiting list.

Unfortunately the children in the new estate are closer and children with specific medical needs usually rank higher, so criteria have been applied fairly.

I'm afraid the answer is no, there is nothing in your OP that would be the basis for a successful appeal.

Most appeals for Reception are infant class size cases. This applies where the school is running classes in Reception, Y1 or Y2 that have 30 pupils in them (or would if the school was full). If this is an infant class size case, you can only win if you can show that a mistake has been made that cost your child a place, e.g. they have put your child in the wrong admissions category or measured the home to school distance incorrectly.

You have a better chance if this is not an infant class size case, but even then you need better arguments. You would need to identify ways in which your child be disadvantaged if they aren't admitted to the preferred school.

The first thing to determine is is it an ICS appeal - are there 30 children per teacher in YR,1 or 2.

Many/most reception years are ICS; Infant Class Size, which are exceptionally hard to win as the law caps classes at 30 in years R,1,2 unless there are exceptional circumstances (basically if the admissions authority made an error that cost you a place, or the decision not to admit is so unreasonable (in a specific legal sense) that no sensible person would have made it). Very few ICS appeals are granted.

Non ICS appeals are different and I won't go into depth here as each appeal is different, but essentially you need to show that the detriment to the school of taking another pupil is less than the detriment to your child of getting a place. Note, it is not the case, for non-ICS appeals that you can only appeal on the grounds of something in the admissions criteria! You can appeal on a wide variety of grounds to show detriment. If you decide to do this, post and ask for help! A number of us here are happy to do so.

But there is no particular detriment to the child, the school just doesn't suit op's aftercare arrangements.

Thanks all. Yes, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to appeal this. The school is full and they haven’t measured anything wrong as far as I can tell. The faith schools are full and we are way down the waiting list for those as we are further away and we are not religious. It’s just so rubbish that the distance, which has been roughly the same for years and years, could change so massively and cause such chaos. I appreciate that in the countryside people travel much further than this, but part of the reason a lot of people chose to live in towns/suburbs is to be able to walk to a close primary school. The other school is good and it does have wraparound. I am grateful as some people have to go out of town as we don’t have enough facilities for the increasing size. It’s just going to make 4 year olds day horribly long as he’ll have to leave with my husband and be first in the door at breakfast club and last out after tea. Anyway. Thanks all again.

So you have childcare options?! Honest to god the sense of entitlement here!!!

She simply asked, was told she didn't have much chance, agreed and accepted that.

Where, exactly, is a 'sense of entitlement' in that?

@SheilaFentiman where op stated (and I quote) "we are absolutely screwed" and implied they had no childcare options!

Bit harsh. Op asked a question. Was told the unfortunate answer and accepted it.

Oh, don't be tedious.

Clearly it screws their day if they had arranged a CM to cover both children, using reasonable assumptions based on prior years. OP is allowed to be pissed off that this doesn't work.

I'll leave you to it now. I don't play chess with pigeons.

Well it would screw the kids day up being at school for so many hours. The ops original plan was obviously the preferred choice. People are allowed to be pissed off when things don't go to plan

Until you've got a place don't arrange childcare on an assumption! But the drama in the first post is just ott!

The snark! 🤣
What's your problem?

The probable reason that no provision has been made for another school, is that the current schools have the capacity to take the children that need a place. The new builds have worked against you on this occasion, but if there are schools that are under subscribed, it doesn’t make financial sense to build a new one.

It’s very unfortunate for you, but do get on the waiting list and hope for the best.

<shrug>

MammyLoves was rude to the OP. Hence, snark.

Are you kidding me? Childcare has to be arranged around a year in advance round here given it’s so short. I’m not even sure yet that the school has space in wrap around so yea, we might still be in trouble. More generally your bar is really low to think being disappointed that we didn’t get into a school I can practically see from my garden and walk past to get to work in favour for one that is going to be really tricky to get to and requires a 4 year old to be out of the house for more hours then required is ‘a massive sense of entitlement’.

Thanks to everyone else for being helpful and understanding.

No im not kidding, this also stood out for me too:

"In the space of a year a housing development has been finished and the school has become the school of choice for SEN provisions. There are a lot of siblings."

I'm sure you are not begrudging children with SEN needs having a school place that can actually meet their needs, and understand why siblings would also then be a priority.

OP I do actually understand how hard it is to find wraparound care, but no school place is guaranteed and that's always been the case!

You also did not say that you "might not get wraparound care" in the allocated school you said that school provided it "but it would be a long day" for your 4 year old.

Anyway, given the governments agenda to make schools eduction, childcare and social care all in one.. the govt are having a massive push on providing wraparound care from Sept so I suspect you'll be ok in terms of the allocated school providing childcare. You may also end up with a place being third on the list so good luck!

Other options: could you look at getting a nanny instead of using childminder?

Also if others are in a similar boat you may find some childminders expand/local nurseries may re-think their wraparound offers and do pick ups from the school.

Does your preferred school have sibling as a criteria higher than distance?

I am just thinking that this problem might rear its head again for your younger child as the new pressure on places sounds permanent. It might be better to resign yourself to this current offer if having two children at different schools would be more problematic.

I'm sure you are not begrudging children with SEN needs having a school place that can actually meet their needs, and understand why siblings would also then be a priority

Why would you even write that? Where have I said I begrudge any of this? You are just making things up now.

And yes - not knowing if wrap around care is available whilst still also considering it a very long day for my 4 yo if it is available are not mutually exclusive.

Gotta love MN as well. Can you get a nanny? No, we absolutely cannot afford this seeing as it’s going to be a real stretch to even get a second car. And where are nurseries suddenly going to find the staff to provide school care seeing as a lot of them can barely stay afloat now?

OP I'm not surprised you are upset really... I think most people would be if they didn't get into a school 600m away! In a way its lucky you got the other school, as places are evidently in short supply.

I think you need to keep your fingers crossed for the waiting list.

@Mammyloveswine out of normal distance SEN kids need an education but so do local kids! Parents have to work in this day and age, we bought our house to be well within the distance for our preferred schools at a significant cost vs one just out of catchment.

You then have sibling links which make it even harder for local parents to get a place. All schools should have the same WlSEN precision so kids go to the local school.

@PutYourRecords0n then why mention anything about SEND provision at the school at all?!

You can't just make assumptions, I'm not trying to be goady but the fact you even thought you could appeal because of the inconvenience this causes for you got my back up as if school is just childcare and convenience.

I imagine you typed your initial post purely out of frustration and panic as you had thought you had a plan sorted and childcare arranged and this must have been a shock if you had gone by previous years admissions. I would check the admissions criteria for the original school for THIS YEAR and if this new estate popped up so quickly and was filled with families with children all due to start reception at the same time then there may be some chance of appealing on a technicality (ie the admissions policy doesn't mention the new estate or specifically includes where you are).

Anyway, I hope whatever happens your child is happy at their new school and you do get sorted.