School appeal result back advice please.

[madmum22]

Hi,

Just got letter we did not win appeal. Was not a infnt class appeal and two out of five were upheld. My question is while I know appeal panel members can ask questions about your child etc to get a idea about them is there a limit to what they can ask. Reason is during appeal while talking about sch we wanted one member of panel said I am not sure so and so school is the right school for your child. Is that ok to say?

Thanks

You obviously failed to convince the panel member concerned that your child's education would suffer if he/she didn't go to this school.

Panel members are supposed to avoid expressing personal opinions during the course of a hearing or making the case for either party (School Admissions Appeals Code paragraph 1.16). I am not convinced that the comment you report crosses this line and I very much doubt that this comment on its own is enough to justify a new appeal.

If you want to try your next step would be to refer the case to the Local Government Ombudsman. They will either uphold the panel's decision or order a new appeal with a different panel.

Thanks.

More to add but don't want to put all details on a open forum but during hearing I said something to do with my child and then said do you want to look at this growth chart and panel member said no. I thought they were meant to at least look at this it was a chart so not a long letter I was asking her to look at. Even if she had made her mind up i was not going to win surly she should have looked still.

You can contact me direct if you want. I will obviously be better able to advise if I know all the details.

My immediate reaction is that I'm not sure how a growth chart is relevant but I obviously don't know the details of your case. If it was relevant to the question of whether or not your child's education would suffer by not going to this school they should have looked at it. However, I presume you hadn't submitted the chart beforehand so, if they felt it was significant, the panel would have been within their rights to adjourn the hearing to give themselves and the LA a chance to digest the new information.

The chair of the panel has to manage time and make sure the appeal doesn't take forever or become repetitive, but should also make sure that you are able to raise all the issues you want.

If you were not allowed to raise signifcant issues that were relevant to the appeal that would be good grounds to refer the case to the LGO.

Could you explain in what context the panel member stated I am not sure school was appropriate for your child. Is this a faith school by any chance?

In the right context and with other evidence this statement could be the basis of a further appeal to the LGO, as at least one member of the panel has prejudged the decision to be made. However on its own I suspect that it will not be sufficient to warrant any new appeal. I would say your case would also be weakeneed by the fact that 2 out of 5 appeals were successful. If you are aware of 2 of the 5 appeals being successful (not sure how) do you know on what basis they were successful? Does this cats any light on why you were unsuccessful and others were successful?

Were you asked at the end of the appeal hearing whether you have had the chance to say everything you want to say? If they did and you replied yes that will have been noted and any question over the right to introduce the growth chart will be nullified by your statement. I am not sure in what context a growth chart is of any significance in an admission appeal and I suspect that is what the panel thought also, but maybe there was a good reason!

Hi,

Thanks for replys. I know that 2 appeals were upheld because I know the other parents. Was four families all from same infant school going to appeal for same Junior school. Do not know the other family. 5 appeals in total.First some info was not sent for appeal till monday via email to the head of appeals as last week I was stuck abroad. I myself did not see admissions case till 3 days before appeal as came when away. While away I contacted head of appeals and was told appeal panel should be ok with late info. Appeal was on Tuesday. My child is very small for his age and has issues with this what I wanted to do was show where he was on the growth chart. Not a faith school. I do feel like appeal panel did not take my concerns in what info I had sent in late fairly. Cannot remember if I was asked if I has anything to add. Hope clerk will know.

Madmum,
As it was an infant to junior school move did the admission criteria for the junior school give any priority to being in the infant school?
How does the size of the admission number for the infant school match the junior school admission?
It is somewhat surprising to me that so many infant school pupils did not get a place at the partner junior school.
However these questions really are not really relevant. On the information you have given I don't see any glaring issues that the LGO would be prepared to act on. The best you can hope for is that you go on the waiting list and that a place becomes available.

Sorry should have made it clear the junior school is not a feeder school from the infant school.

Will know more when I get detailed letter from appeals.

Anyway my son has had hearing probs. What panel member was saying was I don't think this school is suitable because it is a open plan school when in fact it is not open plan at all. The school he has been allocated is open plan. I was not the one that said anything about open plan schools but think what panel member was getting at was open plan schools are not the best when there are hearing problems

There has obviously been a misunderstanding about the "openess" of this school. I am not sure that it is a sufficient reason to refer it to the LGO, but only you can make that decision. However it would be wise to wait and see what detail there is in the letter before coming to any conclusion.

If the panel misunderstood the evidence that may be grounds for a referral to the LGO. However, I don't think this one statement on its own will be enough to justify that conclusion.

Why is being small for his age reason for an appeal? I only ask because my DS is too (by about 3 years - under the 2nd centile) and it never crossed my mind that we might have been able to cite it as a reason for a particular school.

I will wait till full letter with details come and then decide what to do. I do feel that panel member should have not said my choice of school was open planned when it is not. She got her facts wrong so who knows result may still have been same but now I won't know for sure. We are 6th or 7th on waiting list so still hope yet.