Anyone got any successful secondary school appeal stories?

[ytp747]

That's it really. Have one this week and am looking for encouragement.

Good luck! We won an appeal 4 years ago. It was very stressful but I found it helpful to consider it our chance to have our say and put things right. The panel made it clear to us that this was our opportunity to explain our circumstances and that they were not there to try to catch us out. We prepared very thoroughly and this was helpful because the experience itself was rather daunting and it would have been easy to have been lost for words. We made lists of things like "3 reasons why this is the right school for DD". It seems a bit strange now but I was glad that we had all the information we needed at our fingertips.

Try to keep calm. We were reassured by the box of tissues on our side of the desk. In the event we got through it without tears but DH sobbed on the headteacher's shoulder once we left the room!

I've got my ds appeal on the 12th, am petrified now, would love to hear some positive stories too:)
Ds friend is the only other person I know who appealed ( different appeal school to us ) and he won.
Good luck to you op.

My friend won hers Saturday!!!! Well got the result the actual appeal was on Tues. I helped her write the submission statement- when she phoned on Sat I cried- couldn't have been more pleased if it had been my own child.

I am proud of her as she found it very difficult.

What are your circs (ours were oversubscribed out of area, strong talent for school specialism (with clear evidence) and allocated school unsuitable.

Tmm, that's very encouraging! And lovely to hear. I've lived and breathed this appeal since March and I'm very ready now.
Our circs are- ds has aspergers, he's in a mixed sex catholic primary school, local. Allocated school( 2nd choice but big regret ) is mixed sex no religion and is 2 buses away ( we considered moving near but it's not nice ) and what I thought was a good idea, asc specialist unit recommended by current senco is for statemented children, my ds is not. My ds is not capable of travelling alone to this school I don't drive and his social skills are lacking, he also suffers from terrible anxiety.
Appeal school mixed sex catholic, near my dd preschool, excellent reputation for pastoral care/ counselling ( loss/issues with his dad re:rejection) and above all its keeping pretty much everything the same ie consistency in education/ continuity and stability which are essential to a child with asc and anxiety issues. Just to skim the surface.
Got supporting letters from ed psych, asc specialist doctor and senco.
Stupidly/naively I didn't get supporting letters for original application:(
Looking after a terminally ill family member and everything got on top of me, can you imagine the guilt I'm feeling, I've let my ds down so feel like I've got to fight next Thursday.
So sorry for such a long post, let's hope there are some more success stories to come:)

Your case sounds extremely valid. Why were you not allocated no 1 - are you a non catholic? And was it oversubscribed? I take it all his pals will be going there? (So would be preferable?).

Why don't you have a statement - I think that would have shot you to the top (ish) of your first schools application? I don't think letters of support at tbst point would have cut ice anyway as it goes on criteria, so don't beat yourself up about that.

All is not lost however. I feel your case is strong. How is the preferred school with SEN- do you know if they have supported in the past?

Strongly recommend you read the elevenplusexams.co.uk website - go to the appeals section, lots of pointers on there.

Good luck and happy to give any pointers but there are a few experts on herd tiggytape/ and another I can't remember- I am in in way an expert.

Hi, we are Catholics( criteria 6 ) but he was considered for social/medical, 5 places ( criteria 2 ) and without professional doc evidence he had no chance so went into random allocation for faith category, nearly 400 places over subscribed.
Majority of places went to siblings (criteria 5 )
School have maintained that ds doesn't need a statement so I took their word for it as academically he is quite bright, struggles with social side of things more, making friends etc. Allocated school has a fantastic sen dept with statemented dc and not.
1 child from his school is going there, very small class and most boys are going to the all boys catholic high school. School and myself agreed that mixed sex wouldn't be best for ds as his closest friends in primary were mainly girls and he isn't particularly sporty which is the main draw of the boys school.
He however knows a few dc at appeal school and literally nobody at allocated not 1 child, it's quite a way away, not bad by car 15 mins but BUS wise its 2 each way and on the busiest road in the city.
He has little awareness of danger/strangers and imo is easily led as he wants to make friends. He's vulnerable and not ready for this level of independence yet. We've had a couple of trial runs over half term and he went to pieces:( I would be sick with worry if he had to go there.
So that's a better picture, thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement x

We lost out with random allocation too.

Not sure how you approach an appeal against being basically being picked out of a hat?

25 out of over 600 applicants got lucky. We live a five minute walk away but distance was not a criteria.

Hi ytp, random allocation is a joke!
There's no distance criteria at this school either.
What are you going in with? Grounds wise?
Has the school taken before on appeal? If yes then this helps you.
Do u know how many parents are appealing? Ours is 75:(
10 days and counting for us.... it would be good to keep this going for advice, I've read Ben Rooneys book inside out upside down and am considering a new career as an education lawyer lol x

Just tried to get through to school but no reply so don't know how many appeals. I heard that 2 got in on a technicality last year.

Unfortunately, I've not got any hard evidence to go in with eg medical certficate/SEN.

DD is very quiet/shy and this is a smaller school with an excellent pastoral care system than the allocated large community school.

Hi have you been through the admissions code/appeals code? May have been an error somewhere in the admissions process tho highly unlikely.
You need to then concentrate on how your daughter will suffer if she doesn't go to this school and also try and prove that the school isn't full.
Think of every reason you can as that may help your case.
Obviously I'm no expert but have been immersed in appeals books for the last few months!

Thank you for the advice.
How would you find out if there was an error in the admissions process? Have been wondering that. Just were sent a letter saying out of 95 in the band, 6 were siblings. Then they chose 5 more from the rest (although they did put down 5 out of 95 which is struck me as slightly odd as it should have been 5 out of 89 by then if they'd already taken out the siblings off?).
Wish I'd read that book now.

Hi mrscardigan, when is your appeal date?
Does the paperwork explain how the 5 dc were chosen? That should be made clear.
I agree the figures don't add up. This needs to be questioned.
What grounds are you appealing on?
3 months tmw we found out the schools, where has that gone? No movement whatsoever in our appeal school, everyone who was offered a place accepted it so appeal is our only hope.
I've got my book here if you have any questions at all I will look it up for you :)

I know it's an awful situation. So stressful. Appeal this week. Apparently each applicant was given a number and random numbers were generated by a computer programme it seems (after the siblings were taken out I imagine). Just doesn't seem fair that any child's future school should be decided in that way.
Will ask about those numbers though. I thought it odd, but thought it must just be me not understanding something.

Same here, we were told the random allocation process was with a suitable computer programme, independent adjudicator etc but who can question this? ,I can't help thinking it's flawed in some way.
It's a cruel way of deciding childrens futures and gives the parent no chance of determining if the child has a reasonable chance of gaining a place ( our LA booklet advised we should do this ) but how can you with random allocation, seriously.
What are your main arguments if any?
Do you have a decent back up school? We don't.

Just got back from appeal. Panel were nice enough (chair was very cold) and did ask questions of the head about size and numbers, but given that the head has got 50 appeals to listen to (all individual) they must be asking him the same questions over and over again. Likewise he is giving them the same answers over and over again. Dialogue therefore did not feel very genuine. Felt scripted.
I was allowed time to give my case, ask questions and that was it. I know we won't be successful. I felt they were just giving me this opportunity to make me feel I had a right to reply.
Anyway, I wasn't going to go but sort of glad that I decided to. Makes me realise even more how unfair random allocation is and, without overwhelming supporting evidence, there is really nothing you can do about it.
Good luck to everyone else!

We just heard we have been unsuccessful. It just feels like they took the schools case as read. Feel we wasted time and money needlessly. Going to concentrate on our allocated school now.

HouseofEliot I'm really sorry to hear that:( you must be gutted. Did you have a gut instinct after the hearing?
Ytp- stay positive! You've done all you can now, that's what I'm thinking.
I've just spoke to the clerk about sending an additional doctors report and asked how many appeals as was told it was 75 and its actually 64 so less than I thought but still quite a lot. Let me know how you Get on please:)

I felt quite positive coming out. Just found out only 1 out of 73 were upheld. Just annoyed that we followed the rules and didn't get in. I know of at least 5 who got their church form signed for full attendance but never go. I brought this up at our appeal but it was brushed under the carpet. With postage, gp letters, husband having 2 days off work, car parking, printer ink it has cost us over £200 for nothing.

I felt quite positive coming out. Just found out only 1 out of 73 were upheld. Just annoyed that we followed the rules and didn't get in. I know of at least 5 who got their church form signed for full attendance but never go. I brought this up at our appeal but it was brushed under the carpet. With postage, gp letters, husband having 2 days off work, car parking, printer ink it has cost us over £200 for nothing.

1 Out of 73 is awful I really feel for you.
Do you know their reasons for not allowing your appeal?
There are so many stories of dodgy goings on, makes you wonder how it's allowed, best of luck to your dc in allocated school x

Thanks. It just says the school is overcrowded and the prejudice for the school would be worse than for my DC.

HouseofEliot - I know how you feel. Felt like today they were just humouring me. Head didn't even ask me any questions. I brought something up that was brushed under the carpet too.
I'm glad I haven't spent weeks preparing. Only decided to go at the weekend - in my heart I guess I knew it would be a pointless exercise.

How did everyone get on??? I'm just awaiting a decision and its consuming my life now!