Appeal Hearing argument.

[Rosemary5372]

Hi i've just received my appeal date of the 19th of May and i have begun putting together my argument. I was just wondering whether my argument was strong enough and any other general advice.
The school's main argument is that they cannot increase student numbers, i plan to argue that they do have space for an extra student as their 2015/2016 policy states when a multiple or twin is allocated a place the other twin/multiple will also be allocated a place. My dd is a twin. It's unreasonable to not accept him simply because he was born a year too early. The need for twins to be kept together is clearly one that is recognised by the school as they have amended their admissions criteria. I Also plan to argue that the local authority brochure is unclear and therefore rejection is unreasonable as it states in the case of twins/multiples the school will be asked to admit the other student. However when asked about this the day after receiving the school placement, they stated they would not do this as my dd was not in the same band as his twin. This is practise is stated nowhere on the school website or the authority brochure. I also plan to argue that several appeals are successful each year suggesting there is space as well as attaching a letter from the head teacher of my dd's primary school. The twins have been split up previously and their academics suffered causing them to be placed together once again and her letter will support this. The school was initially preferred due to location (one straight bus there) and proximity to mine and their sister's workplace. As a single mum i simply cannot manage two students at two different schools and over time, especially when GCSE's come around, the cost will accumulate. Students with siblings are given high priority and i think it's only fair that twins are given this priority too seeing as they are siblings. With all this considered do you think my appeal will successful. The school has a sport academy attached to it but the twin with evidence of sporting ability has been accepted. I'm not sure what else i can say to support the case

Thanks for you're time.

*your, oops

It would be better if you can refer to the 2014/15 policy rather than the 2015/16 policy. The 2014/15 policy is the one that applies to admissions this year so what that says about multiple births will determine whether or not a mistake has been made.

If they have departed from their published admission arrangements and that your daughter has been deprived of a place as a result you would generally expect to win your appeal. The only situation where you wouldn't is if there have been a lot of applicants affected by mistakes in which case the appeal panel may have to decide which cases are most deserving.

The fact they have been over PAN previously also suggests they can cope with more pupils. You can make the arguments about transport arrangements if you want but the chances are the appeal panel will ignore them. You should certainly include evidence of sporting ability and show that the school has more sporting activities than the allocated school.

No-one can tell you whether or not your argument is strong enough to win. That depends on the strength of the school's case to refuse admission and possibly also on the strength of the other appeal cases. You have a reasonable case.

I think that you need as PRH says to look very closely at the admission criteria for this year 2014-15 and see exactly what it says about twins. I have assumed that there is nothing in the 2014-15 criteria about twins which is why you are talking about what is in the 2015-16 criteria.

From your post it is clear that this school has an admission criteria which is based on some kind of banding system, presumably based on a test carried out. It is the detail about this that is all important in these kind of appeals.

If you PM me with the name of the school and the LA I will look at the information and see what I can discover.

However I do need to point out that the issue around twins is not a blanket admission. The 2012 admission code changes in effect were around the infant class size regs. In other words if the twins were 30 and 31st in the admission criteria list then they would admit both and the 31st would be considered an excepted pupil. There is no such legislation for twins at secondary school who are the last in the list admitted and the first not admitted.

Morally I agree with you 100% and I suspect so will most appeal panel members but that is not what the law says.