HELP.... Appeal Hearing coming up

[yeliabssim]

Hi all,

I have the date and statement from the school for my sons year 7 place appeal which is coming up soon. one of the reasons why the school will not exceed their limit is " addmition of additional students has financial implications and prejudices efficient educationof existing students in this year group, which as 10 statemented children" What does this mean?? my son is sen but not statemented. I just dont understand why they have specically mentioned an amount of pupils with SEN in their statment against offering a place to my son.

also it is well documents for the LA and the department of education that the net capacity that school give is in fact higher, should i question this at the appeal, or contact before hand?

thanking in advance

Yeliabssim,
The first part of the statement is pure drivel. Admission of additional students has the same financial implications as the admission of every other student who has been given a place. The school will be funded from next April 2012 based on the number of pupils in year 7 on a specified date in January 2012. The only financial implication is positive unless they admit so many extra pupils that they need extra teachers. OK the school has to bear the cost from time of entry till next April, but by the same token the school is not docked the funding for a pupil that leaves.
The second part of the statement "prejudices efficient education of existing students in this year group" will be in every school statement of every admission appeal. It is the basis of every case and the school needs to prove that the introduction of one further pupil will cause problems and what those problems will be.
In most appeals the level of special needs statemented children is a consideration for the panel. If in your case there were 10 statemented pupils in a class of 30 then if some of those had mobility issues this would cause considerable congestion and movement problems in the classroom. However you are talking about 10 statemented pupils across year 7, so the question is 10 out of how many children? They are not picking out your son here it is a normal question that a panel will ask.
I would try to address any question over the net capacity of the school before the appeal hearing. If you take it up at the appeal, it could just become a problem that will result in an adjournment if it cannot be resolved quickly.

I agree with Admission. Just to add that I'm not entirely clear what you are saying about the capacity of the school. Are you saying that the LA and the school disagree about the capacity? If so, what numbers do they give?