Appeal process

[Anxiousmummy2]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post here, but I would really appreciate some advice and see if anybody knows something that may help my case. I hope this is an appropriate thing to post about.

The situation is that my daughter will be attending primary school in September, she wasn't given any choices that I applied for.
She was given a school in an unfamiliar area which is a bus journey away and a 20 minute walk. Its the bus journey which is an issue really and the unfamiliar area.

I want to appeal based on my mental health and the fact that I will be having a new baby in November.

The school I want to apply for is an 18 minute walk away from me, more like 15 really.

I know there is a lot of stigma around mental health, but I have anxiety, depression and borderline personality disorder.

I am under a specialist mental health team for mums to be and new mums.

Mental health risk is at a peak after having a new baby, I'm concerned about travelling to an unfamiliar area as I experience a lot of anxiety and a bit or paranoia. Also, bus journey with the side effects of grogginess and dizziness from my medication will make it difficult to commute such a journey to and from the school given.

Not to mention travel costs too. These reasons are why I applied for one within walking distance which I am familiar with. I just want to stay well for me and my children.

I'm also worried that my child will get to the school late as it's a longer journey and I don't want that to reflect on theor education.

Does anyone have experience with the appeal process? Do I have a chance? It's all quite daunting to be honest and getting me down.

Any advice would be helpful?

Sorry about the long essay and thank you for reading.

And this?

Afraid not

Damn, I'm really sorry to hear that.

Honestly op I can't see this being agreed through an appeal. The school you'd want would need to take an extra admission and therefore over subscribe a class and I don't think the bus journey is going to be enough to make a class of 30 to 31. It's quite hard to win an appeal

Thank you. It probably wasn't as bad as it sounds. We were planning on moving in the short term anyway and we already knew that we were likely encounter issues with schooling. The system is completely fair and transparent, we had to be proactive about what we could do rather than railing against what we couldn't iyswim.

If this school is likely to be the one that your DC attends, what can you do? Practise the route with your child? Do it with a friend/family member and on a good day. Build up to it. Get to know the route and timetable. Visit the school. It will be tough yes, but you do have a little time to think about what you can do.

Are you getting enough perinatal support?

Are there any closer schools that you didn't apply for?

Any you can get on the waiting list for?

You need to be appealing about why this isn't the best school for your child, and not you.

You need to be appealing about why this isn't the best school for your child, and not you.

I thought it was more about appealing for why the school you want is the best for your child, not why there's something wrong with the allocated school?

Although with an ICS appeal, it's even more limiting and only about process being followed correctly.

OP, unless there is something truly untenable about the bus journey, I'd try to stop focusing on the worst case scenarios as a bus journey and a 20min walk should be manageable even with a baby in tow. It will be a challenge at first but will very soon become routine and at least as you'll be on maternity leave, there'll be no pressure to get to work - and the baby will probably have you awake early anyway so you can get the bus in time. The area won't be unfamiliar for long and you've got four months to get familiar with it now before school starts. In that time, a waiting list place may well come up or one may come up at any point when your DD has started school, but until then, perhaps talk to your MH support so this isn't starting off a self-fulfilling prophecy and you've got strategies in place to cope and adjust to it okay.

Ah yes I got it the wrong way round. You need to appeal why it's the best school for the child- not the parents.

Apologies, I read that as a bus ride OR 20 minute walk. A bus ride AND 20 minute walk makes a lot more sense as I couldn't understand why a few more minutes was so undoable.

However, you've still not answered whether there are more local schools which you did not originally apply to OP? To be allocated a school a bus ride and additional 20 minute walk away suggests that there are a lot more schools potentially closer that she didn't get into. Is that because sone weren't on your original application?

It's definitely worth shopping around by visiting other schools and getting her name on their waiting list. People move around all the time, or turn down allocated places due to their own appeals. There's plenty of time for something more suitable to turn up, but you might have to give up on the idea of getting her in to your original first choice. It's better to be flexible and consider all realistic options, with the aim of getting her in somewhere more local, rather than pinning all your hopes on this one school.

To answer your question - I have applied for three schools which are all closer than the given school, so they were on my application.
It's not that I want my first choice, but at least one of the three would be good.

@Anxiousmummy2 were any of your three preferences your actual closest school or your catchment school, depending on how your Local Authority manage it?

If you applied for your 3 closest schools, and the allocated school is more than 2 miles away, your daughter may qualify for transport.

Put your daughters name down on the waiting list for every school near you.

And become familiar with that bus journey now, so it isn't an unfamiliar journey to you when you are taking her to school, if she goes there. ( she might get a waiting list place before September)

Your letter should state why a place was declined at each. If on distance you can ask what the distance measured for your home was and that of last child admitted - was yours correct, was your dc considered under the right admissions criteria. If not you can appeal on the basis of an error. Were you only allowed to list 3 preferences? Were there any circumstances such as a late house move or lack of proof of address on time which may have affected the process?

Are there other schools as well as those three that you'd consider, that are closer than the allocated school? If so, get on those waiting lists as well.

Are there any other schools which are closer which were not on your application (particularly your most local school, was that on there?). As I said earlier, it's unusual for someone to miss out on any of their choices if they have genuinely gone for their most local schools as you'd usually get in at least one on distance alone. It's usually when people bypass the more local ones in favour of ones with a better reputation etc that these sort of problems occur when they end up being allocated somewhere they can't easily get to.

I'm not judging you at all if that's what has happened, I totally get why people would decide against certain schools, even if they are their most local, or opt to apply to others instead. I'm just trying to establish how this has happened and how many other potential options you could have (as opposed to pinning all your hopes on your original choice).

Get her name out there on all the waiting lists.

The nature of the personality disorder you live with is that it can feel really, really hard to deal with something that isn't going according to plan. (I say that with no judgement whatsoever, purely as a reflection of how you may be feeling at the moment. It's really, really tough and I get that.)

It's totally, absolutely reasonable for you to be feeling disappointed, worried, and generally all at sea about things not playing out in the way you'd hoped. And I can absolutely see why putting in an appeal feels like a good idea, but my worry for you is that you'll be embarking on a stressful process that has very little chance of success (probably no chance, unless there are some unusual factors in play in your area). Because while your reasons for not wanting your child to go to that particular school are really valid ones, they aren't reasons that the allocation and appeal system can recognise or take into account. It would be a bit like... trying to bake a cake, but the recipe you're using is actually the instructions for building an IKEA bookcase. It just isn't going to work. And it's probably going to leave you feeling really frustrated and upset that you aren't being listened to, when in fact, however sympathetic the appeals personnel may be to your situation, they literally cannot do anything about it.

The good news here is that you have time until September to work on a plan, and people here (and, I'm sure, in real life too) who can help you figure it out. And you can do this. Whether it's through identifying closer schools you can target for a waiting list place, or getting comfortable with the journey, you can make things work.

Other posters have asked some great questions which might help identify some solutions that could really work for you - can you fill us in on those?

How far away, as in mileage, is the school you’ve been allocated? If it’s over a certain distance, transport may be allocated.

Your mental health is precious OP and fighting an appeal which simply will not be successful is not going to help that

I cannot advise on the appeal.. others here have given you realistic advice.

However.. you might be better posting in another section and asking for ideas on how to find support.

Speak to your midwife and ensure your perinatal mental health team are aware of the school challenges facing you. There might be a solution out there that with the right people around the table, will work for you. Health visitor, GP, social services, parent around the child team..

You could also contact Home Starts to see if there is a volunteer network in your area who might be able to support you, this could mean accompanying you on the school run or accompanying your child on the school run for some days / weeks around the birth. Your new child's school might be able to point you in the direction of some support, if there is a taster day in the summer term, you might meet other parents in the area who might be able to offer support or you can build this network in September before your baby arrives (that might not be feasible for you.. if not .. reach out to other support organisations). Your child's new school might be able to help put you in touch with support.

https://www.home-start.org.uk/urgent-support.. this link has some ideas and also the 'find your home starts' page will tell you if there is something in your area and how to access it.

Also... consider contacting local colleges as they may be able to link you with a childcare student who needs a placement.. this is not always as easy as it sounds and might not be the right solution for you.

I hope you find the support you need.

Did you express a preference for the nearest primary school to your home? Can your DH / DP do school drop off and pick ups, perhaps in conjunction with a childminder / wrap around childcare leaving you free to concentrate on your mental health and caring for your newborn postpartum. How far, door to door is the allocated school from your home?