Help! How do I appeal?

[tp81]

My son currently attends a school under the Worcestershire education authority. The School has got a foundation unit where nursery and reception children are in 3 mixed classes but are taught numeracy and literacy separately. The school is form and a half entry. We found out this morning he has not got a place for this September.

We also had to apply for Birmingham schools, because we live in birmingham and are out of catchment for the school he attends.
We had the news that he did not get into any of his birmingham choices and have been offered a school that is completely unaceptable, it is further away than the worcs school and is under special measures! I have declined this offer and registered for appeal.

We have not been offered another school under worcs.

We have rung Worcs authority and made them aware of our intention to appeal and we have to put this in a formal e-mail to them.

I had spoken to my Sons teachers and they have said they will help where they are allowed with the appeal, basing this on the facts that firstly it took him a long time to settle and form bonds with other children and that now he has he shouldn't have to leave to go to a new school. Also that he is doing extremely well with his literacy. He has been put into the reception group and is already reading. They have said it would be in his best interest to stay and come Septmeber they would be aware of what work he has already done and would be able to progress from there.

The school intake for september is 45 places, they were oversubscribed by 3.
The year six group that left last summer was oversubscribed by 12 children, 12 appealed and they all won.

As far as I am aware these are all the facts. I am desperate for him to continue going to the school he is at. Can anybody advise me how I go about forming my appeal or give me any other advise please.

Thanks in advance x

[tp81]

Thanks this is very helpfull.

Can you tell me anymore about how the appeal works. Do I write a report and then read it out? I'm really unsure how it works?

Re the class sizes, I am pretty sure thats how it works but I will confirm this.

[admission]

TP,
Before the appeal you have to submit your reasons for appealing and you will get this and a copy of the Local Authorities case for not admitting 7 days before the hearing.

The appeal is in two parts the first is where the Local Authority will argue that they have filled the places to the admission number and the school is not capable of taking any more pupils. They should also give information about how the places were allocated. Normally if there is more than one appealant, the process will be that all appealants hear the LA's case and then ask questions of it. The appeal panel will also ask questions. At the end of the first stage the panel decide firstly whether the admission process has been carried correctly and secondly whether the school is actually full or not.

The second part of the appeal is all about your personal reasons why you child should be admitted to the school. At this point you will be in the room with the panel and LA representative on your own, the parents take turns to come in and give their reasons.

As your appeal is an infant class size regs case, the admission authority can only admit upto 30 in any one class of infants (or nursery) with one school teacher by law. This complicates the situation because in reality the panel can only admit if they can show that the admission authority has made a mistake and that your child should have been admitted. This does happen but only rarely and practically not from a part 2 reason.

You will have submitted a written report and most parents tend just to pick up bits of this to emphasise to the panel, but you can do anything you want within reason. Some times something comes up during the hearing that does alter your thoughts and there is nothing to stop you introducing new evidence at the appeal hearing other than the fact that if it is really new, then the panel may feel obliged to adjourn the hearing to allow all parties to know about the new evidence.

Whilst the panel will try to make it as informal as posible there does have to be a structure to it - trying to control 40 parents all wanting to ask questions at the same time can be quite tricky!

[prh47bridge]

Just to add to Admission's comments...

It helps to go in to the appeal with a clear idea of what questions you want to ask the LA's representative in part 1. My personal preference is to only ask questions if I know the answer - that way you can avoid asking questions that will damage your case. I would therefore get as much information from the LA as possible before the hearing. They will answer your questions even if the answers don't help their case.

Admission has described a grouped appeal with all the appellants in for part 1. If that happens, anything you want to bring up about mistakes the LA may have made, issues with the admission process, etc. must be brought up in part 1. You won't be allowed to bring this up in part 2. Part 2 should be all about your son and why he needs to go to this school. If you are unclear about whether something belongs in part 1 or part 2, bring it up in part 1. The chair of the appeal panel will tell you if they want you to wait until part 2.

If it is not a grouped appeal the divide between part 1 and part 2 is usually less clear. The panel may wait until the end of part 2 before deciding whether or not the admissions process has been carried out correctly and whether or not the school is full. That means they can be more flexible in allowing you to bring up stuff in part 2 that you ought to have mentioned in part 1.

Good luck.

[tp81]

In the past when they have been oversubscribed all the parents that appealed got in. I hope it will be the same this time.

[tp81]

Thank you prh47bridge,admission

Is there any reports from other appeals I can see to give me more of an idea of the structure and content?

[prh47bridge]

No, appeals don't result in any kind of formal report. However, the appeal code at the link BetsyBoop is pretty clear and explains the process. You will also find a guide to admissions and appeals for parents at that link.

[admission]

tp,
If you know that many previous appealants got in, it must have been for a specific reason. You have to understand that a panel is not told of previous appeals and the outcomes. They will obviously spot where there have been admissions on appeal from the school numbers, but they can't ask the local authority representative why they were admitted. Sometimes the LA Rep will tell the panel if there was specific mistake made, just so they are clear it was a one off situation. But there is nothing stopping a parent asking - might not get the answer you were looking for though!

So anything you can discover about why they got a place in previous years has got to be to your advantage to know and possibly make sure is raised at the appeal.

What seems somewhat strange is that this should clearly be an infant class size case, so what is the admission authority doing wrong and presumably on more than on one occaison or are we missing a vital bit of information? I just wonder whether it is something to do wth the mixed foundation classes.

[tp81]

Possibly, because if they were taking a standard 2 class entry then there would be an allowance of 60 puils, whereas because its only form and a half entry they only take 45. If previously 12 children got in on appeal it may be that they "can" accept another 15 up to 60. Who knows? I must say I am totally confused!

[admission]

TP,
A panel would not normally admit another 12 over a PAN of 45, so there has to be a specific reason if that happened.

For the current year 6 when they were admitted at reception the school may have had a PAN of 60 and it has subsequently been reduced to 45. This would make a lot more sense than an appeal panel allowing 12 in over a PAN of 45.

[luvfamily]

I know exactly how you feel tp81. We're in the same situation with our DD. We didn't get any of our three choices and the school we've been offered has just received a really bad Ofsted report. Let's be honest, the government's policy is not to extend the better schools, but to fill places in the poor performing ones. Like you, I would rather home school my kids than send them to a school where they'll tread water for six years. As tax payers we are (according to the government's directgov website) entitled to 'choice and diversity' when it comes to choosing a school for our children. For many of us we simply don't have a choice and when I go to my appeal I will be saying exactly that. We have been told not to say anything negative about the school we've been offered. Why ever not? The fact that the school's attainment level has just been judged by Ofsted to be unsatisfactory is reason enough in my eyes?! Apologies for the rant but I've just about had enough of the stress and uncertainty we're experiencing. I can't speak for where you live but where we are, the shortage of school places is mainly down to very poor planning and it's only going to get worse. There are new estates going up all around us and yet there are no plans for primary schools on those estates - madness!

We're going through our finances to work out if we can afford private schooling, which is not what we really envisaged for our kids. Whatsmore, we'll not only have to pay obscene fees for private schooling, but through our taxes will still have to pay for the schools we couldn't bloomin' get into!

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck in your appeal.

[prh47bridge]

Luvfamily - I understand why you want to say negative things about the school you've been offered at the appeal but it won't help you. The panel aren't allowed to take that into account. I know some panel members who are less likely to allow an appeal when the parents say negative things about the school that has been offered. They are wrong to react that way but...

You are most likely to get a result if you concentrate on your DD and the needs she has which will only be met by your preferred school. However, if it is an infant class size case you really need to show that the LA has made a mistake.

[admission]

Luvfamily,
If you have sizable new estates going up and no new schools then I would ask the Council why they have failed to ensure that such issues were addressed in the planning stage. Can't remember what it is called but developers are supposed to make a financial contribution to setting up facilities, such as schools in any substantial new estates. My local council had a new estate of 1000+ houses and insisted that the first thing that the developers built did was hand over cash and land for a new primary school, so that a new school was up and operational when the first tranche of houses had been built.

[Panelmember]

Just to reiterate that going to an appeal to disparage the school you've been offered is a waste of time. The panel want to hear why the school you're appealing for is the best one for your child, not why you consider the other one to be unsuitable. And, if it is an infant class size appeal, you need to demonstrate that there has been some sort of serious error which has deprived your child of a place. That has to be your focus.

[luvfamily]

Admission - thanks for your reply. We have a primary school on our estate but it's a Catholic school . I also found out yesterday that the new estate they're building across the road from us has no plans for a primary school either. I have just drafted a letter to our council to complain. Next step will be the local paper. It's just not good enough .