Infant School Appeal

[beth13]

Hi all,
I know there are several threads on this subject already, which I have read with interest.
Just a quick question or two and I wonder i anyone can help, please ?
My daughter has not been offered any of our three choices and has been offered a place at our catchment school, which is not great. However, I need to ascertain whether we actually have any grounds for appeal. Our second choice school has put 'n/a' under the 'infant class size refusal' part of the form, so I am guessing that she wasn't rejected because the class was full ? Does anyone know what this might mean ? Also, I want to find out where she is on waiting lists for the schools we applied for - do I ring the school or the LEA ?
Thank you for reading !
Beth x

ditto what prh47 said

Also find out the distance (assuming distance is the tie breaker, it usually is) from school of the last child to be admitted outside catchment & check your distance has been calculated correctly & is greater than this. Different LEAs use different methods for distance, crow flies, shortest safe walking route, mapping software, etc - so you need to check what method your LEA use.

good luck

Beth,
You are not in Wales are you?

I ask this because 58 is a silly admission number but Wales have a slightly different way of working out the number, which may account for it.

If it is England then I would suggest that this is an admission number that was set many years ago and has not been altered. It was set at 58 to effectively reserve 2 places for pupils joining the school mid-year. This has been illegal for a number of years, but in some schools the PAN has not changed.

I would also bet that there are appeals every year for this school, all revolving around the fact that the school can take an extra 2 pupils to give 2 classes of 30. Ask for the figures in year 1 and 2, I suspect if they are full that it will be 60 in each and 2 were admitted on appeal to each year group. As a panel member there is no way I would not admit to 30 per class assuming the classroom sizes were of reasonable proportions.

You need to establish the size of the classrooms to confirm that 30 is a realistic number of pupils. The original size for a classroom for 30 pupils was 46 sq metres but this has now increased to a minimum of 52 sq metres to allow for computers etc. Don't worry if it is below 52sq metres many primary school classes are below this figure, just hope that is above 46. I would not raise this at appeal unless the admission authority raise it in their case. Then you will have to show that there is no reason to not admit to 30 per class.

As PRH and others have said you need to give solid reasons why this school is the right school for your child, without it being blatantly about the quality of the school. It will be the two appealants that give the best reasons for a place that will get the places, not those at the top of the waiting list. So it is imperative that you look for every possible way of having good reasons, but do not do a 100 different reasons as the panel will see it for what it is, a shot-gun approach to hopefully winning the appeal. You need to give 3 or 4 good strong reasons as the basis for your appeal.

With such an odd admission number, there is an interesting possibility...

If:

• you are first or second on the waiting list
• you find that Y1 and Y2 each have 60 pupils

and you lose your appeal, I would refer it to the Local Government Ombudsman. I would argue that the LA is effectively operating the school with an admission number of 60, with 58 places allocated according to the admission criteria and two places held back for allocation on appeal. They aren't allowed to do that. I would argue that your daughter would have been admitted if they had been operating correctly with an admission number of 60 (which is why this only works if you are first or second on the waiting list).

I don't know what the LGO would make of it but it would certainly be worth a try.

PRH - I cannot tell you how much your advice has helped - am very grateful.
one small question tho - it was my understanding that we had 21 days from the date of offer pack (01/01/2010) to appeal, however, we have been told that our appeal must be in by 15/04/2010. This makes it all rather difficult as its the middle of the easter holidays and I cannot even speak with anyone from the School !

beth - I've had a look in the appeals codes and it says

"2.8 Admission authorities must allow appellants at least ten school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful, to prepare and submit their written appeal to the admission authority."

so they are not right on that one, if the some of the 10 days is over the school holidays.

It also gives you a very good reason if you want to introduce new evidence to support your appeal at the hearing, because you couldn't get the information in time, due to the school holidays...

You are welcome. Always happy to help in any way I can.

You are in Essex aren't you?

Checking the Essex website, the deadline they have set for appeals is 22nd April. They still have to accept your appeal if you miss that deadline. However, the deadline is so that they can try to ensure that all appeals for a particular school are heard on the same day. If you miss 22nd April there is a risk that your appeal will be heard on a later date than other appeals for that school. That could be a disadvantage - if the initial round of appeals admits two children to this school your case will become an infant class size appeal which you are unlikely to win.

There will still be some time to go before the appeal hearing, probably several weeks, so you've got plenty of time to ask the LA and school questions. You can submit new/additional evidence until a few days before the hearing. The only thing you must avoid is turning up at the hearing with significant documents that the LA and panel haven't already seen as that may lead to your case being adjourned.

By the way, I would regard the LGO thing in my last post as a long shot. I've no idea if it would work so concentrate on putting together the best possible case for the appeal.

Good luck.

There is in reality no cut off date. As PRH says it is a date that the LA use so that they can organise the appeal hearings. In a big LA there will potentially be a lot of appeals - one of the LAs I have sat on appeal panels for has at times three appeal hearings a day going on ! So it can get quite complicated to organise.

I would suggest that you simply fill in the form, say you want to appeal and that you will furnish your detailed reasons for the appeal as soon as possible. The papers are all sent out to everybody so that they with you 7 days before the appeal date, so they need to be in well before this. This does not stop you from providing more evidence even during the appeal, but this does run the risk of the panel having to adjourn the hearing so everybody can consider the papers!

Rouso - I'm afraid that your chances at an infant class size appeal are poor. To succeed you have to show that the LA has made a mistake and should have admitted your son or that they have acted unreasonably in refusing to admit your son. It is very difficult to show they have been unreasonable as you have to show they have acted irrationally.

I'm not quite clear what you are saying about class sizes. The law limiting classes to 30 pupils only applies to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. What happens in Year 3 and later is irrelevant. If this school has been operating with classes of 35 in YR, Y1 and Y2 recently it has been breaking the law unless the extra children were admitted on appeal, presumably as a result of the LA making mistakes, or were excepted children for some other reason. I'm afraid the availability of extra space in the class for 35 doesn't help you.

You may be lucky and get a sympathetic panel who will admit even though they shouldn't but that is a long shot. If it were me I would probably give it a go but in the knowledge that I would probably fail.

You should ask the LA why your son was refused admission to your choices. That may show that the LA has placed him in the wrong admission category for one or more of these schools or that they have measured the distance incorrectly (assuming they use distance as a tie breaker). That would be grounds for an appeal.

Rouso, the problem is that the same conditions may apply to almost any other child who is appealing; so many children have working parents these days that a school with after school clubs would have a long queue of parents who all claimed they needed this. The LEA can't let them all in without causing serious disruption the the school, so they would need to know why your ds was a special case.

In fact, what they will almost certainly ask is why you can't do what other parents do and pay a childminder. At ds's school about half the children are taken there and picked up by childminders, obviously because the parents are working and can't be there at pick-up time.

If you explain that your son is sensitive, they will need to see some outside evidence that your son is more sensitive than the sons of the other applicants who are also using this argument, seeing that they can't let them all in. (something like a letter from a children's mental health unit that he has been having treatment for his problems)

The LEA are interested in meeting your ds's needs. They are not interested in your convenience re childminders and working arrangements; that is your responsibility.

Do what prh47 suggests, but don't get your hopes up too high.

And, sorry to say this, but your childcare arrangements and your DS not knowing anyone at the allocated school are irrelevant and not grounds for appeal. After all, they apply to many people.
The class limit is set for a reason, and the LEA will not break it to suit people's working hours.

Oops. X-posted with cory.

Rouso - As others have said, your chances are slim. You're saying (I think) that the school used to employ extra teachers to enable it to have 35 in its reception and other classes. It doesn't now, presumably. The infant class size limit is laid down in legislation and (as has been mentioned) your only realistic chance of winning an appeal is if you can demonstrate that there has been a serious error which has deprived your son of a place.

Of course you are proud of your son but arguing that he is too bright to go to the allocated school will not help you win your appeal. The panel may feel that if he is good at maths he will do well at the allocated school - maybe the poor results are because the other pupils have less aptitude for maths, not because of the quality of the teaching? Besides, this is irrelevant to an infant class size appeal. If you obtain a letter from a GP, it would need to explain why your son has such exceptional social difficulties that only this one school is suitable for him. Otherwise, the panel will probably take the view that many children feel shy when starting school and all schools know how to help children settle in. And, again, this isn't really relevant to an infant class size appeal anyway.

So, um, you don't want him to go to the allocated school because the classrooms are overcrowded, but would be happy to send him to the school you prefer, take the numbers over the recommended (legal) limit and create overcrowding there instead?

I think your reasons (aptitude for maths at 4? Not really compelling evidence, and I wonder how many children the nursery teacher said that about) sound a bit desperate, actually. "Being sensitive" would have to be off the Richter scale in seriousness in order to get away with.

Sorry, but as Panelmember said, I'm afraid your chances are slim.

I wouldn't say being sensitive would have to be off the Richter scale, but to have any chance of swaying an appeals panel it would probably have to be severe enough for him already to be under treatment by the Children's Mental Health Service. It would have to be the kind of sensitivity that is a mental health problem; ordinary 4yo sensitivity is something schools should be able to deal with.

Also, you would need to show why this school is the only one able to deal with it- e.g. do they offer specialist counselling of a type that the doctor says your ds needs.

Rouso - The law stipulates that infant schools are only allowed 30 children in each class unless they employ additional teachers. That is why 31 is a problem. Even if they fit in the classroom, the school has to employ an extra teacher. If the class remains over size throughout the infant years, that could cost them something approaching £100k - a lot more than the funding they would get from the extra child.

If the school has been operating with 35 in reception and only one teacher in recent years they have been breaking the law. They should have had 2 teachers or 2 classes. Teaching assistants don't count - it has to be qualified teachers. The fact they may have broken the law in the past doesn't help you. You will not be able to persuade a panel that the school should break the law again.

Is the "reception outdoor space" in the building or just a covered area outside? If it is the latter, using it to boost the school's capacity is dubious to say the least. Of course, the council may have simply set an admission number which is higher than that indicated by the school's capacity. They are allowed to do that provided they follow the proper process.

The council should not be offering places on the basis that there will be movement and numbers will drop. Total numbers will only drop if more people move out of the area than move in or if parents put their children into private education.

I'm afraid your arguments about spending money on a poor school won't get you anywhere. Many would argue that a poor school needs to have more money in order to improve. I'm not saying I agree but it is a common point of view.

I'm afraid I don't think any of this helps you at appeal. This would be an infant class size appeal so the panel can only admit if the council made a mistake and your son should have been admitted or if the council has acted unreasonably (which is interpreted as "irrationally") in refusing to admit your son. You can certainly put all this to the panel to see what they make of it (although I would avoid the stuff about the allotted school's KS2 results and Ofsted report). You might strike it lucky and get a sympathetic panel. However, your chances of success are low.

Without having seen it for myself it certainly sounds unreasonable. Unfortunately that doesn't mean it will help you at the appeal.

Just to clarify a comment in my last post, every school has an official capacity which is calculated using a standard formula laid down by the government based on the number and size of classrooms and some other factors. The admission number is then set using the capacity as a guide. For most primary schools the admission number is the capacity divided by 7 (as there are 7 years in a primary school). However, the council can set a higher or lower admission number than that indicated by the capacity provided they follow the correct process.

If the council has calculated the capacity incorrectly that is a problem. Equally, if they have set a higher admission number than that indicated by the capacity without following the correct process that is a problem. However, the best an appeal panel can conclude from this is that your son shouldn't have been admitted to this school. That doesn't mean that he should be admitted to your preferred school.

You can find details of how capacity is calculated here. You need to know the number and size of classrooms plus details of non-teaching areas. Open-sided covered areas do not count towards the capacity of the school. You should be able to get the LA to give you the completed calculations for this school showing what was and wasn't included as a Freedom of Information request.

Infant class size regulations say that you can't have more than 30 children in a class with a single teacher. If there are two teachers, you can have up to 60 children in the class. And the regulations don't specify anything about classes being in separate rooms.

Having a mobile phone mast on the roof of a school is not banned but there are certain guidelines which should be followed.

I must again emphasise that none of this gives the appeal panel any reason to admit your child to your preferred school. If you focus on the allocated school in this way at the appeal it is likely that you will lose.

You asked if there was another school nearby with a place for your child and the LA said no. When you insisted they told you where the next nearest school with a place is and it isn't nearby. Their answer to your question was, therefore, correct by your own admission. I am unclear as to how they were rude.

I'm afraid the LA has fulfilled its responsibilities by offering you a place at this school. Now that you have rejected the place it is up to you to find a school for your child. The LA is under no obligation to offer you anything.