Didn't get preferred school

[sugarbabe73]

hi i live in Essex my son's first choice was sandon school chelmsford but he has been allocated william de ferrers, South woodham ferrers> he is very upset and we want to appeal as all his friends are going to Sandon. Any tips on how to appeal and what to give as my reasons

panel member

Thank you very much for your advise,one more question can i keep him on the waiting list for the whole year even he got a place in another school? can He change school duing the year if a place become available? In islington you can put up to 6 schools in your waiting list can I put diferent ones that in my application? I just been getting my self feed with infomation to go well arm!!! so the more i learn about better I know it may be a bit late but finger cross!!

pixelchick10 thank you for the reasurance I will do that and find as many positives for him to go there.

thanks

Hello again.

You can go on as many waiting lists as you like. It does not matter if you did not apply for these schools when you made the original application. The LEA (Islington) may limit the number of schools you name on the application form, but if they are limiting the number of waiting lists you join that is wrong.

The School Admissions Code (available here) says (page 16) that LEAS must publicise how long after the end of the autumn term in the admission year they will keep the waiting list, so you need to check what the practice is in Islington. Even if your son has a school place, he can stay on other schools' waiting lists (although, as I just said, you need to check how long that waiting list will be kept).

It is probably a good idea to talk about some of the basics that parents should do if they did not get the preference that they wanted.
The first bit of advice I would give, is always accept the offer that you get no matter how dire you think it is. Firtsly because it at least gives you a school for September. If you reject the offer you will get another offer and it is likely to be even further away and potentially even worse as a school. If you go to appeal and say it is a rubbish school, over my dead body etc, it is actually of no help and probably a hinderance.
The second thing is to look carefully at the letter that you get and just check that there is nothing glaringly obviously wrong in it - the LAs are handling many many thousands of applicants and with the best will in the world sometimes mistakes are made and sometimes what parents put on forms are not always clear!
Next formally ask the admission authority to go on the waiting list for all the schools that you will accept. Don't just go for the one that you really want but all those that are acceptable to you. You will be surprised how much movement there is in some schools and sometimes in schools you would not expect much movement. You can always turn down an offer of a place and you should not feel that you are being a nuisance to people, this is your legal right to appeal.
Then appeal for the schools that you wish to. When you fill the form in to start with, you do not have to go into massive detail on the reasons for the appeal, just a brief summary, the detailed submission can be done latter when you have much more information.
Do not be put off by the admission authority being negative or not being very helpful.
By all means utilise anybody that you feel will help you but lawyers and anybody else who will help for a fee, tends to nit-pick at appeals because they feel they need to be seen by the parents to be earning their fee by scoring minor points against the admission authority case. Frankly scoring minor points is not going to get you a place if you do not have a good case to start with. Also do not believe a lot of what is said in their publicity blurb. They are not party to the decisions made and they certainly have not won every case! One reason you might what to consider somebody else acting for you at an appeal is that they can be more dispassionate and ensure that they get over the best possible case. If you tend to get flustered or you suspect you will lose your composure then as an absolute mimimum make sure you write down before hand all the points you wish to raise.

Panel members are human, they do bleed and they do genuinely feel for many cases that are put in front of them but they have to abide by the regs and they have to make some very hard decisions, that actually are not going to give everybody what they want.

great advice admission. Luckily we got our first choice but I have many friends who weren't even offered any of their 3 choices. I'll make sure they read your post

hi friends,
i have been offered a place for my son which was my fifth preference,but my 2nd and 3rd preference schools are much nearer to the fifth i have been offered , and i know the fact in the other school i am on waiting list,would it be sensible to refuse the offer and send a supporting letter stating my posiition ,please advice if this increases my possibility in getting a place in my other choices . pls advice....

Virgo,
your proposed course of action I would say is the wrong course of action. Firstly it has absolutely no bearing on increasing the possibility of getting a place at one of your preferences that you want. In fact if anything at an appeal it could easily be seen as you trying to blackmail the panel into giving you a place.
The second reason is that there is a realistic chance that you will not get the place you want at appeal - approximately a thrid of appeals are successful at a national level. The LA will still have to offer you a place and that place is likely to be at another school that could be even worse than your 5th preference and further away.
I would work on the principle of accepting the 5th preference school and then getting on the waiting list and appeal for the schools you really want. Accepting the 5th preference does not in any way prejudice your opportunties at appeal.

Agree with Admission. A lot of parents seem to think that refusing the allocated school will improve their chances at appeal. It won't. At best it will make no difference. At worst it will damage your case.

There are even some parents who think that by refusing the allocated school they can force the LA to offer them one of their preferred schools. That also doesn't work. You will only get into one of your higher preferences if a place becomes available and you are at the head of the waiting list. The waiting list is ordered using the same criteria as are used for admissions. Rejecting a place elsewhere will make no difference to your place on the waiting list.

OK I found out why my son didt got in to the 3 first choices they all say distance but they all are closer than the one he got in can I still appeal? on the grounds of his needs ....

You can always appeal on any grounds you want. Whether you will succeed depends on how strong your case is and the strength of the case to refuse entry. As Panelmember said, it will help your case if your son's therapist (or another health care professional) will provide a letter saying that in his opinion your son is vulnerable and your preferred school will best meet his needs. You need the letter to say "In my opinion" or something like that. If it says "Mexicanmum tells me" it will be of little use as that means the therapist is simply repeating your views.