infant appeal

[diggydad]

Hi
we did not get our first choice school for our daughter, our appeal is on monday.
The reason we did not get the school was on class size.
I know that someone lied on there application and they got a place.We have informed the lea who have said they are investigating.
Now is it possible to appeal on the grounds that the lea have not followed guidlines, because they failed to spot a false application.

Any help would be great thanks in advance......

You'll get some good advice here, I am sure. From your thread as long as your LEA is now investigating, then it is following its guidelines. How would it have been possible for it to have spotted a fraudulent application?

Failure to spot a fraudulent application is not in itself a failure to follow guidelines. Whilst they should make efforts to identify fraudulent applications they cannot be expected to find all of them.

Even if you are right and can prove that this application was fraudulent, it only helps you if your daughter would have got a place but for the fraudulent application.

As the LA is investigating, they are doing the right thing. If their investigations confirm that the application was fraudulent they should remove the place from that child and award it to the child who should have got it in the first place.

I'm afraid it is unlikely that you will win your appeal based on the fraudulent application. If the LA is investigating I doubt an appeal panel will want to pre-empt the outcome of that investigation. It isn't really the role of the panel to investigate fraudulent applications. That is for the LA. In an infant class size case the appeal panel is there to correct any mistakes made by the LA. Failing to spot that someone has lied on their application form doesn't really count as a mistake.

I'd echo everything that prh47bridge has said.

Some people perpetrate quite elaborate frauds to gain school places and as long as the LEA has some checks they can't be blamed if some frauds go undetected. What does your admissions booklet say? Do you have to provide proof of address, utility bill, electoral roll check etc?

You might have valid grounds for complaint if your LEA makes no checks whatsoever, but even then this really becomes relevant to you only if (1) you can prove that the application was fraudulent (which you can't as you haven't seen the documents) and (2) if your child was the first child not to get a place and so would have gained one if the fraudulent application had been weeded out.

You need to identify compelling reasons for your child to be admitted, focusing on things the LEA have missed or neglected when considering the application. Most usual ones are wrong calculation of distance to school or overlooking medical, social or special educational needs.

Hi again, thanks for the replies.

We also have other factors being, 31 children are already in reception, and the school is not up to net capacity of 210 it stands at 203.
We also received a letter from the council re:consultation on increasing places from 30 to 60 and reads as if it will go ahead this year but we found this to be inaccurate its probably next year.
Our daughter is first on waiting list however in the paperwork from the LEA they advise 2 withdrawals and 2 additions since the 19 april, but speaking to the admissions we have had conflicting info , one person said 0 admissions or withdrawals and another said one withdrawal, no additions so we are really confused whether daughter would have got a place if no false application submitted.
There are also childcare issues and that daughter is very very shy and has attended Nursery at the school for nearly two full school years.
It does not state in the Admissions booklet that proof of address has to be provided or that checks will be done.
Any further advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Do you mean there are 31 in the current Reception? If so, I'm afraid that doesn't help you. It almost certainly means that one child was admitted as the result of an appeal and is therefore an "excepted child" who doesn't count towards the infant class size limit until September.

The fact that the school is under capacity also won't help you. If this was an ordinary appeal it would be useful but it is not relevant in an infant class size case.

The school has an admission number of 30. This will therefore be an infant class size case. That means the only way you can win is to show that the LA has made a mistake.

The childcare issues and the fact your daughter is shy won't help, I'm afraid. Even if it wasn't an infant class size appeal they wouldn't make a strong case.

The fact that the school may increase its admission number to 60 is interesting but probably depends on more classrooms being built to increase the school's capacity. Again, I don't think this will help you.

It may not say anything in the admissions booklet about checks but that doesn't mean there aren't any. You may want to write to the admissions team asking them what checks are carried out to detect fraudulent applications. They may, of course, not want to answer in detail.

The confusion over the waiting list is interesting. They really should be able to tell you how many children have been admitted from the waiting list and why your daughter wasn't admitted when there was a vacancy. This raises the possibility that a mistake was made and your daughter should have been admitted, but it falls short of the proof you would need for an appeal. Write to the admissions team asking for confirmation of how many children have been admitted since 19th April and why your daughter was not admitted in each case.