Appeals question

[LucasNorthCanSpookMeAnytime]

If I deregister my DD from her current primary school, would the panel find out? Not that I would lie about it if asked, of course, just that I'd rather not mention it if it doesn't come up anyway :)

I agree with what prh47bridge and lougle have said.

There are things about your case that I think will help you. But there are other things that I think will be far less help. In particular, it concerns me that your daughter cannot explain (and so you can't explain to the panel) why she won't attend primary school or why the presence of her friends will encourage to go to secondary school when it clearly hasn't encouraged her to continue at primary school. I really don't know what a panel would make of that. As prh47bridge says, much depends on the strength of the school's against admission.

To a large extent, I think deregistering/not deregistering is a red herring. The point at issue is that your daughter isn't attending school. I imagine that the moment you mention she is a school refuser, you will be asked whether she is currently attending and that then perhaps opens up the questions mentioned above.

You asked how much your daughter's preference would count. The school application process gives all parents the opportunity to express a preference, on their behalf and/or on behalf of their child. But appeals can't be won simply on the basis that this is the school the parents and their child really, really want - of course it is, but the oversubscription criteria are there to decide objectively who gets the places and the appeal has to weigh up the relative disadvantage ('prejudice') to the child and to the school. This is why (I think) it is so important for you to have clear evidence and strong arguments about the school refusal and separation anxiety, because you need to distinguish your case from (say) those parents who put only one school on their application form because they think that will force the LEA's hand into giving them a place.

Despite that long post, an afterthought.

You say your daughter is still trying to go back to school to be with her friends. What has she done? Have you got documentary evidence of that for the panel to see?

Maybe I am too long in the tooth and have done too many admission appeals but my immediate reaction if I was a panel member would be that I would want any pupil who is a school refuser in a school if at all possible. However the cynic in me says prove it and I am going to take quite a lot of convincing that daughter will attend given what you have said.
You have to have some convincing evidence that daughter is trying to get back into school and that progress is being made, rather than just not attending. It absolutely needs to convince that she will only succeed in becoming a school attender if she has the support of her peer group at the primary school.
As for de-registering, absolutely do not do this, it can only look negative. Accept that the danger is that you will get a visit from EWO etc and could be taken to court but if you have the medical evidence then I would not expect the LA to start getting tough with you.

Yes, my starting point too would be that I would not to facilitate the return of a school refuser into the school system wherever that was the reasonable and appropriate thing to do. But I do think that many panels may be (initially at least) sceptical about why one school would be so much better than another for this and that is why the quality and credibility of the supporting evidence is crucial. And hence my last question about the evidence of recent attempts to get back to school.

... Would want to ...