chippyminton i just hope this is okay!
Sunday Times article
As 10 and 11-year-olds nationwide waited anxiously last Friday to hear whether they?d be starting at the secondary school of their choice in September, their mothers gathered online.
?Feeling a bit queasy now ? anyone else want to sit and sweat it out with me?? one anxious mother posted on the online parenting forum Mumsnet as the hours ticked down to National Offer Day, when local authorities announce the secondary school places.
Slowly news of the winners and losers trickled through. Some parents could check their emails as the clocked ticked past midnight on Thursday but others had to wait until 7.30pm on Friday. ?That?s just evil,? posted another mum.
With the waiting finally over, those left without a place at their preferred school this weekend must now decide whether to appeal against the decision. Parents have a right of appeal to an independent panel, made up of between three and five members of the public.
According to Matt Richards of the education consultancy schoolappeals.com, parents should always consider challenging a school or local council?s decision, in spite of the lengthy quasi-legal battle they face.
Richards is part of a booming industry of experts and websites charging parents for advice and encouraging them to believe that they can take on their council and win. Such services include tips on how to contest the decision as well as access to advisers who will research the case, write a statement and even accompany parents to hearings, at a cost of anything from £50 to £2,000.
Richards, who expects to work with about 600 families this year (at £90 for the first hour), says that one in three appeals is successful nationwide and that with expert advice the rate can be improved.
His advice to disappointed families this weekend is to ?think of your appeal like your GCSE maths or driving test: you need to do hours and hours of preparation?.
The key to success, he says, is to assemble a solid case as to why that school, and only that school, is the right one for your child.
?I have one child on my books who is passionate about engineering. He is 11 but he wants to be an engineer like his dad. The school he wants has an engineering club and excellent science facilities, which he wants to be part of. That is a reason for appealing,? says Richards.
?If your child is good at languages and you want to get them into a languages specialist school, that?s a reason for appealing. But just saying my child is bright and so she needs a great school is not enough. ?
The second line of attack is to show that the ?the problems caused to the child by not being admitted would be greater than the problem caused to the school if it admitted an extra pupil?.
Paul Courtman-Stock, a business consultant, remembers feeling ?worried? this time last year when his daughter Rebecca?s application to Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Bishop?s Stortford was turned down. Instead she was offered a place at a school further away. The family enlisted the help of William Allen, of my-herts-school-place.com, challenged the decision and won. Rebecca is now in her first year at Hertfordshire and Essex.
?Rebecca?s friends from the small primary school they had all attended had won places at Herts and Essex high school,? explains Courtman-Stock. ?At the other school she would not have had friends in her first year, which would have been stressful for her. Also she is a bright child and we had chosen a school to optimise her learning potential.? Using an adviser helped the family ?take the emotion out of our argument?, he says.
Sometimes, however, the process can be much longer and more contentious. Louise Flower and her husband, of Wilmington, East Sussex, spent several months and thousands of pounds fighting for a place for their youngest daughter, Indira, 5, at Alfriston School. They initially consulted a solicitor before turning to John Chard, of schoolappeals.org.uk, for advice.
Indira?s sister, Lorrie, had recently transferred to the school from another primary, where she had been unhappy, but Indira?s application for a place at Alfriston to start last September was unsuccessful. Primary class sizes are capped at 30 pupils, which can make appealing against rejection harder than at secondary-school level. Nonetheless, the family persisted.