Primary School Appeal

[Mumofboys94]

Hi

I appreciate there are plenty of threads on this but I would really like some advise on our situation.

Son (3) didn't get a place at our first choice primary.

We moved house in March - Old address was 1.6miles away and was on the application but it was noted that we would be moving within the next month or so.

We have pulled him out of his old nursery and he has started at the school we wanted him to get a place at in nursery this week. Older brother also attends this school in Y6 (Will be in high school in September so don't think this is anything to help us get a place)

Council have advised they have used our new address however they have given him a place in a school a far distance away (6 schools closer on google maps)

Our new neighbours son has got a place at the school we wanted (so why haven't we)

I understand that the fact we do not like the school or the area of the place offered is not worth mentioning in the appeal, however I have a few points below.

1. school is a 15 min drive - I have 1 year old twins and a mini van, so on days I have the van I'm looking at a potential 40 min round trip, getting in and out of carseats, in pushchairs, parking our large van in busy tiny streets. On days my husband needs the van I would need to take 2 buses each way, most of which I cant get a double pram on. School we are hoping for is a 10 min walk if that.

2. Work - again not sure if this is worth mentioning but I would have to reduce my hours, I work from home and already use my lunch to do the school runs

3. This school is a one class per year which is what we want as my son was massively overwhelmed at his previous nursery which had 40 plus children.

I understand there are worse problems to have, but we love the school and have a strong bond with the teachers due to 10 year old being there, the only reason my 3 year old wasn't in the nursery from the start is there was a nursery on our old doorstep and with newborn twins it just made sense to send him.

Do we have any stance of appealing due to our neighbours son getting in and us not? I have asked if they have used our new address and they said they have but I just cannot see it given the school they have offered us.

Also is it worth getting legal representation for the hearing?

Sorry for the ramble and thanks if you made it this far!!

Going to church means nothing unless the school supplies a clergy form for you to complete and supply alongside your application form. Did you do this?

None of your reasons for appeal are legitimate. You can only win an appeal by demonstrating that the admission criteria were not correctly applied. Given that you’ve been allocated a school so far away it seems likely your new address wasn’t used. That needs to be the focus of your appeal.

@CrownCoats OP has explained that they don’t go to church enough to fulfil that criteria

We don't go once a month to worship, we go weekly to stay and play sessions, monthly to the messy play sessions and to services such as advent, Christingle, easter ect. The church advised they do not see many of the forms but had to follow the wording of they confirm the family worships once a month, which we do not which is fair enough.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I understand that some of my points are irrelevant to the appeal process. I will contact admissions again today to understand more of why we did no get a place, fingers crossed we do get one on the waiting list, in the meantime we are looking into keeping our son at home until we get him a place closer to home :)

If it is a single form intake you need to be realistic about likelihood of a place coming up. What is your position on wl currently and how likely are you to go down if someone meeting faith criteria or with a sibling takes priority.

Can you be sure that other applicants didn’t have a clergy form to support their application? You said that you thought you would be higher up the list because you attend church but then you said you’re just going to playgroups which is not the same as attending a regular church service.

How many reception classes are there?

A weekly stay and play is just a toddler group. If you don't qualify for the form, you don't qualify.

I agree with others that you were probably treated as a late application, in which case it wouldn't matter that your old address was close to the first choice school - they've told you they used the new address, but they wouldn't have been able to use it in the initial allocations as you weren't living there then. It's complicated and so I suspect who you've been talking to hasn't got the full picture, but this is essentially what happened when we were in a similar situation - moving after the Jan 15 deadline and having to let them know we were at X address for now but were buying Y address. In our case it had to be treated as a late application because even though our form went in on time, the new address mid-process meant it belonged in the late pile. In our case, we got a place last min in the summer via the waiting list but only because we were right by the school in our new address and the school was fairly big. Yours is more of a longshot if it's only single form entry. Hope you can get to the bottom of what's going on and you can try for an appeal if mistakes have been made, but it's also worth getting your head around the allocated school - a 15min drive isn't so bad and even with more than one form, the DC tend to be with their group most of the time and the numbers aren't significantly different in terms of overwhelm potential unless you go private. Your DS will hopefully adjust and come to like his new school.

Thanks for this, fingers crossed we get on the wait list and hopefully get a place through this, so annoying as we were due to move in December but various issues delayed the move.

The 15 min drive isn't too much of an issue on the days when I have access to the van, its the getting 3 children in and out of car seats into pushchairs, there's nowhere to park near school and then having to do 2 other school drop offs on top of that, fitting it into work or paying for wrap around care which is also a nightmare to find at the moment, I really do understand that there are worse problems to have and that isn't grounds to appeal but as a mum of 4 with an already hectic day it is just a lot. I've placed DS on a few more wait lists of closer schools and we are looking into reducing my hours (Which I would have to do anyway with the new school) and keeping him at home with us until we get a place closer. He is a July baby so not legally required to attend yet anyway but will keep his place open for now.

Is there any chance you could have the van and your husband buy a second car, even on finance? Or that he could drop off when he has the van?

If this means less of a reduction on your hours, that might work out better financially.

How has your elder dc been getting to school if your properties were a distance away? Can he get himself to secondary or your dh do drop offs on day he has the car?

Unfortunately after buying a house which has doubled our mortgage we cannot justify another car for 2/3 uses a week, we would never fit all the children in a smaller car so it would be pointless. To be honest, its not something I want to do, if the school was right and had good feedback from other parents then maybe, but it isn't right for us, with there being 5 schools within walking distance from our house we are just going to hope that we can get a place through a waiting list to another closer.

School runs were shared between myself and another parent, or he would scoot home in his final year, our old property was only 1.8 miles away so not that much further than where we are now just the opposite direction. The issue is the new school is further away, his high school is not an issue it backs onto the field behind our house, (another reason why we wanted the chosen primary as it is a feeder school to this high school) the issue with that would be no one would be home for approx. 1 hour when he finishes high school and I don't know how I feel about a newly 11 year old having a key or even being home alone. (This is a whole new issue I will have to deal with, appreciate not to do with the primary school placement but its something else I hadn't thought about)

the issue with that would be no one would be home for approx. 1 hour when he finishes high school and I don't know how I feel about a newly 11 year old having a key or even being home alone.

All children are different, but my August born was taking a train to school and very much being home alone with his own key at 11 (and he also did it a couple of times a week in year 6)

Thanks everyone I have finally spoken with someone helpful in admissions, they have infact used our old address despite 6 different people on the phone and email telling me that they had used the new one.

They have advised that once the systems unlock later in the week that I can call back and see about waiting lists for other schools, including our first choice. Hopefully given the distance to school now, we may have a chance by getting on the waiting list.

I understand peoples points about he may get on fine at the chosen school, but as parents we know our son and we know he will struggle, we also would not of put that school down as any choice as it isn't in an area we would want our children going to, appreciate all schools have to have certain standards, but everyone wants what's best for their children and we do not feel like this is a school he would thrive in.

If you put the school which was closest to
your old house down on your preference list, you may have a case that there was an error in not assigning you that school, if they were using the old address.

@prh47bridge can comment, but I think such an error might be an exception to infant class sizes.

Assuming that school is preferable to the one you were assigned!

Yes, one of the situations where an LA or an appeals panel can admit an additional child even when there are already 30 in a class is when there has been an error and they should have been offered a place. A pupil issued in this situation is excepted, which means they don't count towards the infant class size limit.

I agree with @SheilaFentiman – it would be worth checking that they treated your application as on time with the old address, and that the results make sense on that basis. For each school you listed on your application, I think they should be able to tell you what criterion you fell under in (e.g., #6, out of catchment, no sibling), what criterion they offered down to (e.g., #4 in catchment, no sibling). If distance was involved, they should be able to tell you what they calculated your distance as and what the cut off was (e.g., you were 0.8 miles away, the last child who got in was 0.65 miles away).

If you applied for your nearest or catchment school and the allocated school is over a certain distance away, you can get help with transport, but I'm not sure quite how that works when there's a house move involved as well. How far away is the allocated school from the new address and the old address?