Can anyone talk to me about School Appeals and SEN?

[bunny3]

Ds has SN in a few areas, he is in Y5 and on School Action Plus. Some of his Special Needs are physical ones (hypermobility, coordination problems) and consequently he finds sports very hard and hates PE. His catchment school has Sports Academy status and I dont want him to go there. There is another school, over-subscribed and out of catchment, which will cater for his SN (he has learning difficulties too). Appeals for a place at this school arent often successful. Will ds' SN help us win an appeal?

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It is far too early to be thinking about appeals. He won't be allocated a place at a secondary school until next year. You can't appeal until then.

The first thing is to apply for this school and see if he gets allocated a place. Check the admission criteria for the school you want. Many give priority to children with special medical needs. If this school does, make sure you submit plenty of evidence when you submit your application.

I would also take a good look at his catchment school. It may be a Sports Academy but that doesn't mean he will be forced to do sports. Ask them how they would cater for your son if he goes there.

If your son gets a statement of SEN that will name the secondary school he will attend. You can choose which school is named and, in most circumstances, the council have to accept your choice. Once you have a statement of SEN naming your preferred school he will be admitted without any need for an appeal and regardless of catchment areas or anything else in the admission criteria. However, he will only get a statement if School Action Plus is not enough to meet his needs.

Hi and thank for your reply.

The sports academy is an all boys school and it has a poor reputation locally. It's quite rough and the Ofsted is not good. The school I want ds to go to has excellent Special Needs provision and is a mixed school too which I think would suit ds more than single sex. I have no experience of appeals and wonder what sort of evidence / support tends to win them.

Ds doesnt have a statement btw.

Can you apply for a statement yourself?

Speaking as someone who got dd into out of catchment school on physical needs (including hypermobility), this is what I would say:

get all the available material together for the initial application- appeals are very stressful and you're much better off never having to do one

everything you say about either school has to be substantiated: have you checked that they would force him to do PE/there would be no alternative provision? have you checked that he would be able to cope physically (e.g. are there stairs)- visit both schools, speak to both heads/head of years, explain your ds' needs and ask how they would meet them

be prepared for the LEA not actually knowing if a school has disabled access: you have to be able to say "yes, I have visited and they have/do not have X"

be prepared for the LEA not being able to think out of their box- our application to wheelchair accessible school for wheelchair using dd was turned down because the school was not on their register of disability accessible schools- apparently, their provision for the visually impaired was not good enough- totally irrelevant for dd

so be prepared to go into detail: this is what my ds needs, this is what X school cannot offer and Y school can

anything you say about your ds has to be substantiated (letters from GP, paediatrician etc)- they won't just take your word

what is the special provision your preferred school could offer for learning difficulties- be very detailed

And yes, you can apply for a statement yourself. I would do that.

You've been given really good advice so far the one thing I would add is whatever you do, do not cite:

"The sports academy is .. has a poor reputation locally. It's quite rough and the Ofsted is not good."

as your reasons for him not going there.

You have to state reasons why the school you want best meets his needs, however you may find that the LEA could allocate another school that fits the criteria so you need to word it very carefully

Lima makes essential point- do not under any circumstances mention this! The LEA will want to hear what makes your son's needs different from other children's; after all, there can't be a parent in the universe who wants their child to attend a school with a poor reputation. At the same time, some children will have to. So this argument is unuseable.

Before you get to the appeal stage, check the admission criteria. Is there on that a criteria which states medical and social needs? If there is then there is an opportunity to submit an application for the school under that criteria. But you must submit medical evidence of his special needs. Different LAs have different views on this admission criteria. In my LA you would definitely not get any priority from what you describe but in my neigbouring LA, where I also do admission appeals, you probably would get a level of priority which would get you a place at the school.

"In my LA you would definitely not get any priority from what you describe but in my neigbouring LA, where I also do admission appeals, you probably would get a level of priority which would get you a place at the school."

Doesn't that depend on the severity of the hypermobility, admission? which is something the OP hasn't described. If it is severe enough to e.g. need occasional wheelchair use (as is not rare), then the authority could be at risk of breaking the Disability Act if they did not make the reasonable adjustment needed to assign him to an accessible school. So then it's no longer just about their admissions rules.

(In dd's case hypermobility meant things like not being safe to walk down stairs or being near staircases (as she would suddenly just pitch down them), it meant suddenly collapsing, sometimes needing a wheelchair and sometimes needing to walk etc.)