Secondary appeal – should I?

[Ruthy1971]

Sorry for the long first post but I am in need of some advice on whether I have grounds to appeal for a place at DD?s chosen school.

Background is that DD has always been in private education and has therefore been fairly shielded in her upbringing. She didn?t pass the initial exam for entry into the private secondary (where her brother is) and refused point blank to try again. TBH I don?t blame her ? she is not academic at all & it?s no fun always being at the bottom of the class. She has had a Psych Ed report done & we were told that she is not dyslexic. She scored highly on the interpersonal skills, but is just not academically gifted.

Anyway, we filled in the school choices back in October, not really realising that she didn?t want to stay in private education & just put down our local school.

Fast forward to now & we have been allocated our local school. It?s a small, improving school with a very bad reputation, mainly due to the catchment area it used to have. However, the council have recently changed the catchment to incorporate a better mix of intake and the head is really good. The bad reputation is historic and doesn?t really reflect how the school is now, but the focus is more on vocational subjects rather than academic ones.

My problems started when a few of DD?s friends have been allocated a school over the other side of town. It?s much bigger and as a consequence has a much wider choice of subjects. DD tells me she would much prefer to go there

We changed our preferences & are on the waiting list. We were 2nd on the list, but were dropped to 3rd last week. I?m not sure where we are now & the list closed on Friday. Re-offers start today, but it?s a really popular school & I?m not really very hopeful. The admissions service said that we should appeal, it was implied that it was sort of expected, but no specific advice was given.

I feel really cheeky appealing, especially as we didn?t put this school down on our form back in October. I just want to make the transition for my DD as painless as possible ? its going to be a culture shock for her and this will be made easier with friends around her. The allocated school also do a half day every other Friday & I have no childcare for DD as I work full time. Also, she has not found her forte yet so I want to give her the opportunity of a wide variety of subjects as possible.

Do you think we would have any hope in an appeal?

You are entitled to appeal for any school if you have applied and are refused admission. However, there is nothing in your post that really gives grounds for a successful appeal. Wanting to be with friends is not a strong case unless there is expert evidence showing that this is particularly important for your daughter. The childcare issues also won't help. If you want to appeal you really need to find some aspects of the preferred school that are of particular benefit to your daughter and which are missing from the allocated school. Look, for example, at after school clubs to see if they have anything which matches your daughter's interests/abilities.

Why are you not hopeful of getting a place at no. 3 on the waiting list? Where I live the first 40 to 50 on a waiting list usually get a place.

I would agree with the LA that it is always worth appealing and no you should not in any way feel awkward or cheeky in appealing, it is your right to change your mind. As third on the waiting list you have a reasonable chance of getting an offer of a place between now and September.
I would have to say that the reasons for the appeal are not that strong especially if you just talk about wanting daughter to be with her friends. So you do need to talk about the culture shock of going to another school and you do need to talk about the fact that she has absolutely no idea what she wants to do and the preferred school has much wider range of options. I would say that you have realised that it was a mistake in putting down the local school as a preference. You do need to mention that she will have friends going to the school but not as the primary reason. The issue over childcare is a non-issue as far as any panel is concerned, they should not be taking anything like that into consideration.

Many thanks for your advice so far. I will wait until the end of the week to see if we have any luck with the waiting list and then talk to DD & DH.

Its so stressful :(

Hi,

Just to update that DD was offered a place at her preferred school from the waiting list :) and we have accepted.

Thanks for all your help and advice

Congratulations! If you are anywhere near me, apparently it was a low birth rate year, so catchments expanded this year.