Help with Secondary School Appeal Form

[Saffy38]

Hi all.

I am a newbie on this site looking for any help at all.

My Son (Yr 7) and Daughter (Yr 9) have had severe problems with bullying at their current school - My Daughter's has gone n for the whole 3 years that she has been there!! I was calling the school non-stop in Year 1 to see if there was anything they could do to help - but nothing. We have had to get her mobile number changed because of bullying and she has had counselling too - yet the school have done absolutely nothing. My Daughter is top in all but one class with 100% attendance (despite all this nonsense) - yet the school have done nothing to help us - until now!!! Last month, I honestly thought my Daughter was going to kill herself because of the nasty girls who have been bullying her for 3 years now. I had to take her to the Dr and he signed her off school for a week, where she stayed at home doing work that I had sent home with my Son....

My Son is another story - In October, my Son had his tie stolen and was threatened by some Year 8's that hey were going to beat him up the next day. I called the school as soon as he got home and reprted what had happened. They told me not to worry, that he wouldn't be beaten up at their school, and that if he stayed on the field in view of patollers - he'd be ok........well, the very next afternoon, they called me because of an "incident"!!! They obviously didn'ttell me how bad it was, so I had to wait until my Son got home. He had been sought out by a group of 10-15 Year 8 boys who had "haystacked" him to the ground and then just kicked him all over, stamped on his head, had a rock thrown at him etc!!! I called the school immediately and demanded that they sort these thugs out. My Son didn't know these boys, so couldn't name them, but we went straight up to the school so that he could recognise them using their photos on the computer!!!! We demanded that the school give my Son authorised absence until they had sorted it. He was off for 2 days and then it was the school half term. Meanwhile the Head of Year 7 and his assistant were contacting us, telling us that this was very serious and that the boys (who had admitted it in a statement) would get excluded for a time. They had to speak to the Head, who also agreed this, we would get a letter with the decision etc..........when they went back to school after half term - we found out that those boys had been given one day "isolation" as punishment - THE SAME PUNISHMENT THAT SOMEONE GETS IF THEY FORGET THEIR TIE!!!!! Many lies followed from the teachers, saying that they didn't say the things that I said they did etc. I write everything down as they are talking on the phone - so I know that as far as we were concerened - 3 people had agreed that the boys would be getting excluded!!!

We were treated very badly with no-one returning our calls and no-one letting us know if our Son was ok with those boys still there (as they'd promised to do!)!!! We were bashing our heads against a brick wall - with our Daughter too - no-one seemed to care about her being bullied daily. She was told off by one of the teachers when she went crying to them who said to het that the Bully was going through a rough patch at home - SO WHAT!!!! Does that then give her the right to bully my Daughter to the point of her killing herself!!!! I decided that enough was enough - I wrote a 6 page letter to the Head of the school and copied it to the Goverenors, OFSTED, and other Vice whatever's - the Head contacted us immediately - but we are still not happy. During this awful period, I applied for them both to change schools - but they were turned down and now I have to appeal - but I am terrified that I am not going to be able to get them in to another school and they'll have to endure this awful experience for their whole school life (that's if my Daughter don't end her life beforehand!).

Is there anyone out thete who can help me write an appeal letter or point me in the direction of a template somewhere - I'm desperate and only have until the 9th December to get it in.

Help. x

Firstly just to talk about the incident with your son. It is obviously totally unacceptable for this to have happened and there should have been a suitable punishment. One day in isolation to my belief is not appropriate if it occurred as you have posted. However the decision on what to do in terms of an exclusion is actually the head teachers to make, the teachers who spoke to you were completely out of order to be saying what they said to you. You would also not have been given any information about what actually happened to these boys - though I am sure that you would have heard via the pupil grapevine!
Having talked about the negative, lets talk about the positive. You have applied for places at another school and this has been turned down because they are full. This is completely to be expected, the admission rules do not allow schools to admit pupils above the PAN (published admission number ) of the school. It is for an appeal panel to do this, which is now why you are going to appeal.
Most appeal panel members will have heard cases where the parents say that their child has been bullied as the reason for wanting to move school, it is probably the most common reason that is made. So panels will be expecting evidence to back up the comments. It would appear that you have this in abundance. Your letter simply has to state that your daughter has been bullied for the past three years and your son is now getting the same treatment and that it has now gone well past what is acceptable. You need to enclose documentation on your daughters need for a week off under doctors orders and you need to enclose a copy of your six page letter, to show how much you have tried as a parent to resolve the situation.I would also include any written correspondence from the school that seems to suggest that the school are not taking this as seriously as they should
I can't guarantee that any panel will admit your children because it does depend on other things like how overcrowded a school is but with the written evidence that you seem to have I don't believe that you will have any problem convincing the panel that this is a serious situation and that something needs to happen.
I would definitely attend the appeal hearing so that you can answer questions and you need to decide what the answer to the obvious question will be. That question will be what will you do if we cannot give you places at the school appealed for. I would suggest that the answer needs to be that you your children are now in danger at this school and you have made a decision to withdraw them from the school and you will find a school somewhere for them to go to. The preference is the school you are appealing for because it is convenient etc, but they will not be staying at the current school.

Sorry should also have said please PM me if you want to run anything more private past me. It is completely unacceptable that this is happening to your children.

I think that as admission has said that you need to keep your letter stating the simple facts about what your dcs have had to endure at school.
Enclose copies of all relevent paperwork that you have already.It would also strengthen your case if the health professionals involved would write a supporting letter for the appeal panel which names the school that you are appealing for as being the most suitable for your dcs.
I would also make a written request to the Chair of Governors requesting copies of school records which should have a recorded log of all these incidents and also minutes of any meetings that you have had with the teaching staff.The school are legally obliged to provide these for you within a 15 school day time frame.
Don't necessarily feel worried that you won't have all these documents to hand by Dec 9th as you will be able to forward these to the Appeals Clerk prior to the appeal hearing.
Also if you haven't already contacted them then it's worth speaking to ACE or your local Parents in Partnership as I found their advice invaluable when I was in the same situation as you.
Please PM me as well if you need any further help, I can fully appreciate just how distressing this situation has become.

I can't really add anything to what Admission has said. You have plenty of evidence to support the fact that your children have been bullied so you need to get that in front of the panel. Remember to send everything relevant in with your appeal form or as soon after as possible. Send copies rather than the originals - you don't want your evidence to get lost in the post. And don't leave it until the day of the appeal to produce this evidence as that could result in the hearing being adjourned to a later date. You don't want that.

Given what has happened you need to get your children out of this school as soon as possible.

I am also happy for you to PM me if you want to run anything by me.

You should call the police, both your children are regularly being asaulted (verbal bullying is assault) and your son has been the victim of violence.

If you don't want the police to do anything then copy the letter you sent to them and ask for them to keep it on record.

If ANYTHING else happens then call the police again, two incidents legally constitute harrasement. It won't get your kids out of school but an order ccan be made so that if one of the bullies approaches or speaks to your child they ware in court for a fine - yes I know they are children but over the age of 10 they ccan be taken to court.

Sorry I can't help with the appeal letter.