Secondary School Admission Appeal

[bluecatrules]

Am in total shock over the admission process. I have been through allocation day and have been allocated a school that is the 10th closest (the community school) to our house. Our 1st and 2nd closest schools are "out of borough" so we were extremely limited in the choices we could make. To make things worse we live in a rural area so are totally disadvantaged by reason of where we live. Everyone else is closer to schools. Private education is possible but no places are available. Simply, feel so trapped and have a lack of options. Can anyone help ?

Yes, several of us can help if you can provide more information.

Why did you not get a place in your preferred school (the letter from the LEA should tell you this)?

As far as you can tell, has the LEA made the right decision (even if you don't like it) eg placed your child in the right admissions category, measured the home/school distance correctly?

How far is the school you have been offered?

Have you accepted the place ? If not, what are you doing to find your child a school place elsewhere?

Not sure why you thought you couldn't apply to the "out of borough" schools. To add to PanelMember's questions, is it possible that one or other of those schools has places available?

The school allocated was the nearest community school at a distance of 7.5 km.
The LEA appears to have made the correct decision. The reason is that most of the schools nearby are opted out and have their own admission requirements.

We could apply now to one of the out of borough schools but these do not have places and we would again need to go on the continuing interest list.

We have not accepted the place at the school in question. It has an entry of over 200 and approximately 75% of places were allocated to parents who didn't choose the school !

So, did you not apply to the "opted-out" schools either?

And, to repeat my earlier question, what are you doing to find your child a school place? Or are you planning to home-educate? It would be very rash to pin all your hopes on an appeal.

I still do not understand why you did not apply to the "out of borough" schools. Did you not apply to the "opted out" schools? If you applied to them but didn't get a place did they get that right?

If there was no mistake you can still appeal on the grounds that the damage to your child's education through not attending the school outweighs the problems the school will face if they have to cope with an additional pupil, but you haven't yet said anything that indicates you have grounds.

By the way, as the allocated school is 7.5km away your child should be entitled to free transport to and from the school.

We applied to three "opted-out" schools. We are currently looking at private schools further away with the option of moving.

We did not apply to the "out of borough" schools as we put what we thought were reasonable choices within "borough" and these schools were the ones where all of our child's peers would have been going.

Your advice on what to do would be appreciated ?

In your situation I would accept the offered place, enquire about free transport to the allocated school, make sure your child is on the waiting list for your preferred schools, consider appealing for your preferred schools and find out if any other schools have places available. I would also enquire about the two "out of borough" schools. If they have places available you can apply for them through your LA and they have to give them to you. Even if they don't have places it may be worth getting on the waiting lists for these schools.

What would happen if we refused the place offerred ? if the school allocated is unnacceptable, I can't see why we would accept the place.

If you decline hte place then I don't think they have to offer you another. If they do later ona gree to offer you another it could be worse/further away.

You do, of course, have the option of declining the place and home educating. But, as VivaLeBeaver says, if you decline the place the LA does not have to come up with another offer and any offer they do come up with is likely to be at an unpopular school that is even further away.

A further issue is that declining the place could damage your chances at appeal. The panel will be told about the offer. If you have declined it on the grounds that it is unacceptable they may feel you are trying to bully them into giving your child a place. That will make them less inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt.