School Appeal

[Gwen67]

I have been given a date for my school appeal.
My son was given a place by a school then this was retracted 5 days later. We have written letters to Surrey County Council, the Governors at the school we are trying to get in, local and government MP's. NO JOY. We are having to go to appeal.

Was wondering if anybody has any help as to what goes on in appeals and how to go about it.

I am determined that my son will get into this school, but it looks like we are going to have to put up a fight.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

There is loads of good advice on a similar sutiation here, to save repeating it all again.

Under the admission code there are only very limited circumstances where an offer of a place can be withdrawn. (para 1.50 - see here you can download admissions code on LHS (& appeals code)

The local government ombudsman has already ruled on a similar case where 3 days was deemed too long to withdraw an offer. (Details in linked thread)

You shouldn't have had to go to appeal over this, but a properly trained appeals panel should know all this anyway & if they say no at appeal (which they shouldn't) then you can refer the case to the LGO.

I'm sure prh47 and/or admission (the admissions gurus) will be along later with some more detailed advice.

good luck

I am disappointed that they are making you go to appeal. If you made a formal complaint to the Director of Childrens Services and they rejected it, I would have recommended referring the case to the LGO. However, provided the appeal panel has been properly trained, this should be straightforward.

The basis for your appeal is that they have withdrawn a place that was offered. They are only allowed to do this in very limited circumstances as set out in paragraph 1.50 of the School Admissions Code.

The clerk to the appeal will have a word with you before the appeal explaining what will happen. You will then go into the appeal and be introduced to the members of the panel and the LA's representative.

The LA's representative will present the LA's case. If you haven't already received their written submission you should receive it shortly. Their case should closely follow the written submission and shouldn't contain any significant new information. They shouldn't be trying to ambush you (although I don't see how they can in this case as it is so straightforward).

Once the LA's representative has finished presenting their case, you will be given a chance to ask questions. The panel should also ask some questions. You can use this to highlight any weaknesses in the LA's case.

You will then be asked to present your case, following which the LA's representative and the panel can ask you questions. That will then complete the hearing. In general you won't hear the panel's decision until a few days after the appeal.

If other appeals for this school are being held on the same day, there is a chance they will be treated as a grouped appeal. If that happens, all the parents will be present while the LA present their case and all will be able to question the LA's representative. The other parents will not be present when you present your case.

Yours is an open and shut case based on the information you have posted previously. Take copies of the offer letter and the letter withdrawing the place (if there was one) with you if you haven't submitted them as part of your case. There will be 3-5 people on the panel plus the clerk and the LA's representative. Make sure you have enough copies to go round.

Without knowing what Surrey have said in their submission to the appeal I can't really tell you what questions you should be asking them. In presenting your case, I would just lay out the facts - you were offered a place and 5 days later the offer was withdrawn. Mention paragraph 1.50 of the School Admissions Code which makes it clear that there are only very limited circumstances in which an offer can be withdrawn. Mention the LGO's decision in case 99C01876 - a head teacher offered places to 5 children incorrectly. The LA withdrew the offer 3 days later. The LGO decided that the offers could not be withdrawn after such a delay.

Personally I wouldn't bother with any other arguments about why this is the right school for your son. You want the panel to focus on the fact that an offer was made and withdrawn so keep it simple.

Provided the appeal panel has been properly trained, they will know that the LA is not allowed to withdraw offers once they are made. This should therefore be straightforward. However, I have come across some badly trained panels. If you lose, you should appeal to the LGO.

Good luck and feel free to contact me if I can help in any way.

There are two parts to the appeal as PRH has outlined. In the first the admission authority has to show the panel why the school cannot accept any more pupils, what is called having proved prejudice. The second part is where you put your own personal circumstances to the panel as to why you should be given a place.

Your problem is that your case crosses the boundary of part1 and part2.

I would expect that there will be more than just you appealing, so it will be a grouped appeal for part 1, where everybody is present whilst teh admission authority make their case for not admitting.

In part 1 one of the key questions for the panel to confirm is whether the admission authority have correctly carried out the admission process. From your previous posts this seems to be highly unlikely to be correct in your case. So I think that you have to highlight this issue in part 1. It may well be that the Chair of the panel will make a decision that you should not raise this in part 1, but my advice would be to start asking the questions and let the panel make the decision on this.

It obviously depends on what the admission authority say in their submission. Who the admission authority is will depend on whether they are an aided school or a controlled school (it was a CofE school wasn't it?). If it is an aided school then the school have to provide someone to make their case (usualy the headteacher), if it is a controlled school then it will be the LA.

I would ask the presenter to confirm how many places were first allocated and then ask them how many changes have there been since this initial allocation. They will then have to admit the error being made, which will immediately make the panel wonder whether any other mistakes have been made. Ask about the measuring of the distance from school to home, push them as to the accuracy of their measurements and how they can justify the accuracy, followed by the obvious question "well if it is so accurate how did the mistake happen".

Then I would ask them for their justification for removing the place. I am sure the Chair (well I certainly would) will have intervened by now and said come back and make your case in part 2.

To me you part 2 submission is a simple recap that they made a mistake, the place was offered in writing, they then took 5 days to realise a mistake had been made, which there is legal precedence for being too long for removing the place. If it is ICS Regs case, then I would simply finish by saying that your child should be admitted as an excepted pupil. You need to show that you appear to know what you are talking about to at least the same level as the presenting officer.

I think the mistake here was getting names mixed up rather than the measurements wrong, wasn't it?

I agree with Admission that, if it is a grouped appeal, you want to force the error into the open in part 1. In a grouped appeal the chairman of the panel can stop you from raising points in part 2 that they think should have been raised in part 1.

If they don't do it as a grouped appeal they will be less rigid about what you do in part 1 and what you do in part 2.

Read "How to win your school appeal".

Also a headmaster I know recommends tears (but that could just be him....and why the junior school is so over full). Surrey is bursting at the seams in some areas, and its spreading.

Good luck!

I actually would counsel against tears. The panel may feel they are being blackmailed. For similar reasons don't take a photo of your son to show the panel.

Tears will never ever get you a place. Sympathy and a paper tissue yes but not a place, most panel members will have been in a similar situation many times before.