School Appeal - Moving to a New Area All Schools Full

[DoctorOnCall]

Hello all,

We've hit a bit of a snag. We are moving into a different city next month and DD is going into Year 5 in September.

We've put in only 1 application for a school. The reason for this is that EVERY school on the Council website is showing 0 places for Year 5 except for 2 schools that are over 7 miles away from our house (both have very bad Ofstead reports).

The local primary school 500 metres from our new house but they have rejected our application. They have said there are currently 60 places for Year 5 but already 62 pupils and 7 on the waiting list in front of us (siblings, which take priority over catchment area). The grounds of the rejection were "To admit another child would cause prejudice to the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources at our school."

However DD is moving from a different council area and currently doesn't have a school for September. The city is heavily over-subscribed in every school as I've said.

DD has dyslexia but not severe enough for an EHCP. The SENDCO at her current primary has put her on a Learner Plan (after extreme efforts from our part).

DD has also experienced bullying as an ethnic minority in her current school which is one reason why we are moving to a bigger city (there will be more ethnic diversity).

I would be very grateful for any assistance in preparing an appeal.

It will be on the following basis:

1) The diverse makeup of the new primary will assist in DD making friends (her current school has no ethnic minorities in her Year 4)

2) The current school has an Outstanding ofstead rating and will be in a better position to cater to her dyslexia.

3) All other schools in the nearby area current have 0 places available. DD will be without a school place in September.

I understand there are people here who've assisted in panel appeals before like @panelchair @prh47bridge @PatriciaHolm and would be very grateful for any feedback on our appeal.

Thank you

Have you asked the council to find her a school place?

There is something called the Fair Access Protocol but you need to be rejected from all the schools first.

Thank you for the reply.

Yes in the this city (we are in England by the way) all applications go to through the council website first.

It's Ofsted, not Ofstead. I'm curious why you assume that a school rated Outstanding by Ofsted would be in a better position to cater for a child with dyslexia.

This happened to me when we moved when my dd was in year four.

It was a complete farce as they would not tell me where there were any places, I had to apply to every school, then wait to be told there was no place, then I could appeal. On and on it went.

Nobody at admissions would help me. They just kept saying things like 'you will have to speak to Tom but he's on holiday' or 'Jane will ring you back after lunch' and when she didn't they would say she had retired. I felt like I was going insane.

When I found out about Fair Access Protocol on Mumsnet they seemed a bit more interested.

In the end I appealed for my catchment school and I won. I think it helped it was just an ordinary school and not outstanding or anything and I think the panel were quite surprised that I could not get her a place anywhere at all.

Overall she was out of school for two and a half months.

I would not say that the school being outstanding will be the best one for your child. Like other schools are good enough for other peoples's children - children like the panel's children for example but not for yours.

In reality, there will likely be some movement in one of the schools in the next month.

I would apply for places in every school rather than just one.

That is awful, did you homeschool for the 2.5 months?

Regarding the appeals process, did you go in person to the panel meeting? I have a choice of, in-person, Zoom or not to attend at all. Obviously we will go in person but wanted to know how long the process took and how were the panel members

The new LEA do have an obligation to find her a place once you have an address in the area , and the website may not be up to date. So once you move, talk to them immediately and they will need to find something. It may take a couple of weeks though.

An appeal lodged now is unlikely to be heard before the September term anyway unless you already have a date?

Realistically your grounds are quite weak. All schools would be expected to deal with dyslexia, and the ofsted is really irrelevant for an appeal. The friends point is relevant, but if the area is more diverse generally, all local schools are likely to be able to provide this.

Not really. We had moved from Australia so she wasn't in the system so to speak so nobody was involved in what she was doing. Also we had no furniture as it was all on the boat.

I did go in person to my appeal and it was really arduous I thought. They went in to a lot of detail about a lot of things. Everyone was very kind and there was plenty of opportunity to say what I wanted to say but it's difficult talking about your own child in those circumstances.

We have been told we will get an appeal date within 20 school days of submitting the appeal.

Thanks for the reply RE the bullying.

Regarding the Ofsted report, it's specifically mentioned in the last report "The school has an additional resourced provision for pupils with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia" which is why I would be minded to include reference to the report in the appeal.

Thanks for the reply.

Mentioning the ofsted report won’t help your appeal. Schools have a local agreement for SEND and all have to be legally equipped to meet special needs. Unless you have a place in the resourced provision then she probably can’t access that anyway. Resourced provision places are usually allocated by the council via an EHCP.

I don’t think 7 miles is that far if you have your own transport. What is the commute time? If you don’t have a car, and it’s going to take a very long time to get her there, that could be used as part of your appeal.

I'd suggest you apply for all schools in the area directly. The website that says if a school has places or not is dependant on the school keeping them updated and having been one of those people whose job it was to inform them it isn't updated very regularly by a lot of schools so they may well have spaces even if it says they don't.

Regarding the Ofsted report, it's specifically mentioned in the last report "The school has an additional resourced provision for pupils with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia" which is why I would be minded to include reference to the report in the appeal.

This would only be relevant if this provision were accessible to all students, but the way it is referenced suggests not - this sounds like a specialist unit within the school that has its own PAN, and own admissions, usually via EHCP. If that is the case, it won't be relevant to your appeal I'm afraid as your daughter wouldn't have access to it.

You would need to evidence 2. specifically Any school can support dyslexia but maybe this has a particular strategy or resource. The school's response is standard. Why does your dc not have an ehcp?

Is There any faith aspect to your application? When we appealed for year 6 & year 4 places we were strongly advised by the HT to push the faith aspect above everything. We had other reasons but the HT was right, faith was considered above everything.

No it's not a faith school.

Regarding other questions about DD's dyslexia, I presume it's not been considered sufficiently severe to warrant an EHCP.

Current school never seemed particularly bothered and I had to pay for a private diagnosis as the school didn't seem to think it was warranted. We had to push very hard to get a Learning Plan in place as the general agreement was that she didn't need additional help (probably because we work a lot with her at home which probably masked the issue).

Generally, resourced provisions are managed by the LA - that is, they have a separate admissions process. It isn't normally the case that children admitted in the main school PAN can access the RP.

Ofsted ratings make no difference - the panel has to hold the view that all schools are suitable for all children.

The fact that your DD has been bullied could be relevant, but I have to agree with @PatriciaHolm that it's likely that all schools in the area will be similarly diverse.

If a school is allocated that is more than 3 miles away, or there is no safe walking route, your DD will get free transport.

You need to focus more on the positive reasons why you want a particular school, really.

@DoctorOnCall thanks for explaining why this particular Ofsted-rated Outstanding school might meet your DD's dyslexia needs. I taught English in a school with a Specific Learning Difficulties (SpeLD) base and contrary to what other PPs have said, it meant that all teaching staff had a greater awareness of the difficulties dyslexic students had. InSeT days were used to train subject teachers in the topic, for example.

Surely all the schools in this new area will be just as diverse? So that factor isn't something which makes this particular school more suitable for your daughter than any other schools in the city.

Unfortunately, without an EHCP naming this school as the best one to suit her needs, you're unlikely to win on the SEN aspect too. Whilst this school has that mentioned in it's Ofsted report, all schools should be able to cope with and support with dyslexia. You don't have any firm evidence to suggest that this is the best school for her particular need, just that it's something they do well. It's not to say other schools in the area wouldn't do just as well on that score.

I wish you all the best OP, but if they're already over PAN with other people ahead of you on the waiting list it doesn't sound likely that you'll win. They definitely have to find your daughter somewhere, but it doesn't have to be this preference school. Hopefully some of the other full schools won't be over PAN yet and will be able to squeeze her in by going over PAN for you. It's a shame you probably won't get your preferred choice but that's life I'm afraid.

I'm afraid I agree with others that this isn't a strong case. Point 1 is unlikely to carry any weight. Once you move into the area, the LA must find a place for your daughter even if all schools are full, so point 3 won't fly. That leaves us with point 2. The outstanding Ofsted rating won't help, and I wouldn't mention it. If the school has specific provision for children with dyslexia that could help. That is your strongest point. But you need more positive reasons why your daughter needs this school.

UPDATE FROM OP.

We won our appeal.

It was quite an intense session, the business manager of the school was quite blunt (rude?) in her questions to us, but we held firm. In the end we won on the following points:

1. Fair Access Policy. Every child requires a place and we were able to show that the nearest primary with a school place was a 15 minute walk away which is against guidelines (I believe it's 10 minutes or less but I'm not sure).

2. Dyslexia. We had a letter from our independent dyslexia expert who initially diagnosed DD. She knows the school and was able to pinpoint areas in which DD would benefit from the larger primary school resources with specific examples that she has seen with other pupils (names kept confidential of course).

We also had a letter from our GP supporting our case but in the end it wasn't needed.

To anyone else considering appealing, I would say submit as much paperwork as necessary and don't worry about it, it's free anyway. However the court clerk did tell us that less than 10% of appeals are successful.

I would strongly suggest going in person and wearing a suit. The couple who were in before us had turned up in athletic wear. The chairman and the 2 assistants plus the clerk were all in formal business attire and I'd recommend doing the same.

Thanks to everyone who replied. DD has been very happy at her new school these past few weeks.

While I'm pleased you won your appeal...

Its nonsense a 15mins walk is too far. Its two miles then needs transport, and 45minute travel time!
Most of the country don't have a school within 10 minutes walk

It must be a relief to have won. I don't believe a 15 minutes walk will have swayed your appeal. It's also nonsense that what you wear influences an appeal. It would be a shocking show of prejudice if it did.

Well done on winning.

As others have said, it would be very surprising if a 15-minute walk was a factor in the decision. The guideline is for a primary school child is that a journey of up to 45 minutes each way is acceptable.