Infant appeals procedure is a waste of time

[Kismet2010]

First of 2 school appeals yesterday in front of 2 60+ women and a Vicar. Emotional wreck due to the weeks of anxiety and sleepless nights, but had written loads down which hubby read out, but they did say what lovely name my daughter had!!. Each point they shook their heads at and the Council rep said as we were only out by 0.05 on distance 'she will keep her fingers crossed'. We were told to ring today at 10 for their decision. Tried ringing numerous times, but were told they are all busy with appeals and 'did we know there was an election on and they were very busy'. It is so unfair that they can put a family through this.

I have read all the posts about infant school appeals and knew from them that we had a poor chance, BUT the appeals are a farce and my advice to all parents wanting to get their four year old into a decent school is to MOVE NEXT DOOR TO THE SCHOOL YOU WANT ....... its the only way.

Rohana - In the absence of any information about your case it is difficult to comment. It is possible to win infant class size appeals. I've done it. However, parents should be realistic about their chances in such an appeal. The LA is required to make it clear that there are limited grounds on which such an appeal can succeed. Unless you can show that the LA has made a mistake, your chances of success are small.

Rohana, you have posted a couple of times about your situation and if I remember correctly you changed your mind about the school which you wanted your child to attend and there was then no space left at the original school. I do remember people advising that based on the limited information you gave, your chances of success were poor. As prh said it is possible but maybe not easy to win infant appeals but you do need to start from a point of actually having valid grounds for appeal.

Rohana if I remember your case correctly, you were offered a place at school A, then rejected it in favour or a place at school B & then decided that school A was your preferred choice after all. However school A no longer has any spaces available.

As I posted at the time, you had virtually no chance of success as (for infant class size appeals) you generally have to show that a mistake was made by the admissions authority, which would be very difficult in your case, given that they had originally offered you a place that you subsequently rejected...

Those that have genuine grounds for appeal are usually successful.