Primary School Appeal

[Cloudyday91]

My daughter will be starting primary school in September in Reception class. We got rejected from our first choice and got given our second. The first school isn’t classed as our catchment but is two miles closer than our catchment.

We are appealing the decision as my daughter attends the nursery attached to choice one. I rang the first choice primary school today as we are on the waiting list. They were at full capacity in April but said people have since declined offers and all the spaces were given away to late applicants in that catchment instead of those on the waiting list.

This doesn’t seem right to me, I would have presumed the waiting list would have priority at this stage. Has anybody experienced similar? Im struggling with this as all of our friends will be attending choice one, so it’s a lifestyle curveball too.

No, once it goes to waiting list, the list is the order of the over subscription criteria, so can go up as well as down as people move or apply late.

I’m assuming the late applicants would bump you down the list if they were higher priority. Especially if LAC or with EHCP.

This. The places will have been given using the admission criteria. Those late applications will have all been higher on the list than your child who I presume is probably one of if not the last possible criteria of child with no sibling at the school living out of catchment.

So the list only applies after all late applications are received? I guess right up until the last minute or until appeals have been actioned. I’m new to this so it’s all a bit confusing. My daughter has no siblings but we are a military family, although I’m not to sure on the conditions around this as it’s vague.

The waiting list is not ordered by when you went on it, it is ordered by the admissions criteria. So if someone moves in next door to you and closer to the school and applies, they will go above you in the wait list.

When you went on the list makes zero difference it's the admission criteria that is the important part and it sounds unfortunately like your child fall at the bottom of that criteria so it is unlikely she will be offered a place at this school.

It is probably better to see it as an expression of interest. Each time a place comes up they look at everyone who has expressed an interest and see who is most qualified. Each time there were more on the list who were more qualified.

You don't have grounds to win an appeal based on attending the nursery. You're looking at an infant class size appeal so your only option for a successful appeal is basically to prove the admission criteria has been applied incorrectly for you, but that's very rare.

If you’re a military family have you checked the criteria?

I don't think the Military Covenant will be relevant here because the OP has made an application in the normal way for a Reception year place. My understanding is that being a military family can push someone up the admission criteria if applying for an in year place subsequent to the normal admission round,ie on moving to a new area due to new posting. Unfortunately for the OP it seems as though she lives out of the catchment for her preferred school and is therefore quite low in the order to be considered for a place. I would not hold out much hope of a successful appeal.

If late applicants were also waitlisted (ie no space was available at the time of application) your dc will have moved down if they were living in catchment and that takes priority. So as those places were released they were offered them ahead of you.

When is your appeal? Assuming no error was made in the original admission process and infant class size restrictions apply, unfortunately it is unlikely to succeed.

Thank you everyone, your answers have been helpful. In terms on the military aspect it seems quite niche as the above poster has mentioned I think it may only apply to new postings within the area.

Families in our area have been accepted in previous years, all on appeal. But sadly this may have been based on luck.

It won’t have been luck! Please don’t think that, rules have to be followed

It won't have had anything to do with luck.

The Military covenant helps you get A place, but necessarily in the closest or your preferred school. Its more when there a shortage of places. You have a place in your second choice, so that's fulfilled.

Your only way of winning would be a mistake... if someone further away had been offered a place.

I mean luck in terms of them being undersubscribed in previous years. All children in our village are automatically rejected due to catchment. But on appeal all of the children in previous years won on appeal without special criteria being met. This year unfortunately everyone got rejected and I suspect nobody will win on appeal.

Have you checked if any of the schools concerned use the Service Pupil Premium in their admissions policy / oversubscription criteria?

Also, have you checked if you qualify for home to school transport? Do you live over two miles from the school allocated?

I believe they do use it but it doesn’t form part of the oversubscription criteria etc

Yes thank you for raising, we will qualify for transportation. Although given her age I’m not overly keen on this option as it’s not a bus and would likely be a taxi service.

This doesn’t quite make sense. The admissions authority will be using the admissions criteria so there isn’t an automatic rejection of children in a certain area. It must just be that they fall into a lower criteria, maybe because of distance. If they were under subscribed in previous years, these children presumably got in off the waiting list rather than through appeal? The appeal process tends to be challenging and there are only a limited number of specific ways that an appeal can be won.

I know I would have thought that too but a lady who works at the school, also from our village said her child got in on appeal after rejection. This was also confirmed by multiple other families in the village, which I guess is why I feel we’re a bit unlucky as it’s the first year that they haven’t had enough spaces.

But if they had places after allocating to in-catchment applicants they would not need to appeal. Those beyond catchment would be allocated places according to the admissions criteria, often based on distance but sometimes applicants with siblings at the school are higher priority than non siblings, for example. Only those unable to be allocated a place either initially or from wl would appeal and those are unlikely to succeed if ics applies.

I think you might be getting confused about what an appeal is. Maybe because people you are talking to are using the wrong terminology. I understand that you didn’t get into your first choice school and you are on the waiting list. Your position can go down as well as up so when there were spaces, people ahead of you on the waiting list - including late applicants - will have got the space.

You can remain on the waiting list and hope a space comes up. Or you can appeal but as a pp said, it’s an absolutely tiny tiny chance of you winning an appeal. What are your grounds of appeal? I think you need to put what happened in previous years out of your head.

The school is based on a new build estate, and the school have a priority for residents, the school agreed this with the council. They have had spaces in the previous years and still rejected our villages - less than one mile away on the basis they were waiting for more residents to move in and to allocate spaces too. Even families who have siblings at the school are being rejected and put on the waiting list even though the school confirmed they do now have spaces available at current. But they are saving them for future residents - as in late applications.