headteachers view of appeals ,please

[Laine4kids]

does anyone know if HT's of primarys hold it against you if you appeal for a place at their school?I'd rather not but we are waiting for a place to become availible and my dd is really unhappy and sad in her current school.she is in y4 and their limit is 60,they have 60 y4s but have 62 in other years.so had the extra 2 appealed do you think?
the school we are trying for is the closest to our home and my younger ds should get a place no problem but we only moved here in nov.
advice please,dd is crying every night after school and its breaking my heart.

We won an appeal for DS2 (yr4)to attend school nearest to our home. He started in Sept and is SO happy. He has never liked school before so it's such a relief. Everyone has been lovely to him. I'm sure no one would make your DC feel unwelcome. Go for it!!

thanks natsmum
so the head didn't mind then?
I had a bad experience with a failed appeal years ago for my older dd,It felt like the head there thought we were arrogant and were taught a lesson.I hope that is an exception.
I found the whole thing really stressful.(and scary).
I'm glad your son is happy,its such a relief isnt it?with 4 dc we have been through a few schools!

Remember when you are at the appeal hearing, you are all filling different jobs. Like barristers in court: the one who has the brief for the prosecution has to put the prosecution case, the one who does the defence has to argue that to the best of his ability, it's nothing personal, it doesn't mean that the prosecutor has to have a personal grudge against the defendant and the defence has to be fond of them.

At an appeal hearing, the person representing the school has to state the school's case, which is that the school is already full (otherwise it wouldn't have gone to appeal). That's his job and that is what he has to do. It doesn't mean he dislikes your daughter personally (or will put two and two together when he meets her in the corridor).

I know it feels personal, but really it isn't. It's about principles. When we appealed for dd's secondary school, there were iirc 35 appeals on the same day to get into the same school. Clearly the deputy head did not have a personal grudge against every single one of those 35 children. In the event, most of them didn't get in, but dd did. He has never shown any signs of associating her as a person with that appeal hearing. I had to brace myself when I met him in the corridor for the first term, but I've got over that.

I had to appeal twice and go to the Local Government Ombudsman twice to get my youngest ds into his school. The head was very supportive and helpful throughout the process, although clearly he couldn't openly support us at the appeal. The people at the Local Authority, on the other hand, took the whole thing personally and the letter in which they finally gave way was extremely ungracious.

The appeal is about determining whether the prejudice to the child in not admitting them is greater than the prejudice to the school if the child is admitted. All schools lose appeals occasionally. It is likely that the years with 62 children at your school got there as a result of successful appeals. Whilst there are no guarantees, I think it would be pretty silly of any head teacher to hold a successful appeal against you.

Both my sons were admitted to primary on appeal and I ended up working in their school , so it can't have been held against me too much!

My dd already attended the school that we wanted ds to go to (but had only been there for a few weeks), so I guess the headteacher could see why we wanted ds to go there too. If this is the school nearest to your home, it seems reasonable for you to want your children to go there. I agree it is a stressful process, but it is worth it if your DD is happy in the end.