How to Dig Up Informationf for an Appeal

[Spalva]

I've got an appointment on 16th Oct. for an appeal to our 1st choice secondary school, who refused on the grounds of having no places. Dd meets their 4th criterion after looked-after children, catchment, siblings.

Could someone help me figure out how to find the information I need to make a good appeal?

I need to find information on how many children they have in dd's year, how other years with a similar number of children did on their exams, etc.

Dd's friend, our downstairs neighbor, claimed that they have spaces in her year but are not giving them. How could I verify that?

Thank you for all your help!

Ask them! Or the Local Education Authority (council). They have to supply you with any information you ask for, and to give it you in good time (at least a week) for your appeal.

Oh and which criteria she comes under is irrelevant at appeal. You are arguing that this school and only this school is best for your dd, and the benefit to her outweighs the schools' arguments against (which is why yoou need demonstrate they can take one more pupil without detriment - it weakens their argument thereby strengthening yours).

Okay! Thank you!

We got a place on appeal; the thing that helped us was their specialism maths and IT and DSs school reports from Y1 which showed that he had expectational effort and attainment in both these areas. So you need to prove that only this school will be able to meet you DCs needs; so look at their specialism and your child's. Things like distance, how it suits your life i.e. near your work etc are irrelevant.

You can ring the school and the LEA and ask them about numbers in each class and in other years which also might help your case.

hth

As Titchy says, the LA and school have to give you whatever information you request within reason to help prepare your appeal.

The fact there are spaces in other years isn't directly relevant. If someone applies for those spaces they have to offer them. So if there is a space in Y8 and a Y8 child applies they must offer the space. The appeal panel should therefore assume that these places can be filled at any time.

If they have been over the admission number previously you can argue that they can clearly cope with additional pupils.

The main thing you need to do is to show that this is the right school for your daughter. You therefore need to find things this school has which the offered school does not and which are particularly relevant to your daughter.

Okay, thank you! This is very encouraging. It is fairly obvious to the average person that only this school in our borough/county can meet my child's needs, so perhaps we have a chance.

We had a successful appeal last year, like others have said you need to highlight what the schools strengths are that will suit your daughter and not focus on why the other schools are unsuitable. Use the schools prospectus to gain information on what they offer, is your child doing well at sport etc? gain as much supporting information from any other outside people, I got supporting evidence from current school, sports coaches etc.

When we went to appeal I asked about exam results in relation to year sizes further up the school and found that the school was in fact top heavy (yrs 9&10 onwards) and academic levels were still rising. Also get in touch with the local LEA and ask them how many people had been let in on appeal in previous years compared to the official intake numbers, bascially you need to prove that by admitting more pupils there will be no detriment to the education of others.