PAN appeal again -sorry!

[coolma]

So we're going to this waste of time appeal on wednesday with thousands of other parents and are using the clause about 'they should have reasoanably given dd a place'. Now what do I need? I have the fact that her brother is at the school, that she has a visible hearing disability, and she is at risk of being bullied in a strange school with no sibling support, that she would not thrive in the shitty alternative they gave us and a letter of support from her current day nursery. Any other tips?

Thanks!

[prh47bridge]

Thousands of parents - that must be a popular school!

Is it an infant class size appeal? That significantly affects your chances of success. If it is, the bar to showing that the LA has acted unreasonably is very high - you have to show they have acted irrationally. The alternative is to show that they have made a mistake.

It is always worth going through with the appeal even if your chances of winning are slim. You may get a sympathetic panel. Make the best possible case you can with the points you've got.

I presume this school doesn't give priority to siblings. Does it have an admission category for special medical needs? If so, you could try to argue that your daughter should have been placed in this category.

Don't run down the allocated school. Definitely don't describe it as "shitty"! It won't help you and may alienate the panel.

Good luck.

[coolma]

Well I may have exaggerated but there are enough parents for there to be two stages . It is class size which I why I'm pretty sure it'll be waste of time. We come under 'siblings out of catchment'. Of course I won't run down the other school, but am furious about the whole situation. Not sure if medical grounds will be considered as we did big this up on the original application . grr

Thanks

[prh47bridge]

So you are having stage one together with the other parents. That's interesting.

If I were you I would stick with the special medical needs. I don't know exactly what the admission criteria for this school say about this so it is difficult to judge whether the LA was wrong, but I would try to argue that the LA was mistaken in failing to put your child into the special medical needs category. The fact that you bigged this up on the original application will help in that you are able to say that you gave the LA all the information they needed but they still got it wrong. That's actually much better than giving very little in the original application then coming up with a whole pile of new evidence for the appeal.

It is still a long shot but a sympathetic panel might see that as reason to admit.

By the way, you need to bring this up in stage one. Ask the LA's representative why your child wasn't placed in the special medical needs category. The chair of the panel may ask you to bring it up in stage two but that is their decision.