Appeals - if you win, will the school begrudge the child?!

[LucasNorthCanSpookMeAnytime]

Had our appeal recently and are waiting to hear. Am not overly hopeful but I'm now worrying that if DD does somehow manage to get in, will they begrudge her and see her as the child that 'spoils' things? The school reps were SO rude and hostile and I'm almost wary of sending her there if she is lucky enough to win! They were really belittling DD's (very real and significant) problems and I'm torn between assuming this was because they thought we were talking rubbish and because they were just trying to win their case, regardless of the validity of their opponent's case.

Good grief no - don't worry about that!

As a secondary teacher, I would have absolutely no idea which precise kid took us over numbers.

Her ethnicity, SEN & FSM6 status, her KS2 results & what she had for breakfast, yes.

But no, I wouldn't be told if a child had got in as a result of an appeal & nor would I care tbh.

Good luck with finding the right place for your child.

Thanks, Raven, that's a relief :) She probably won't even get in so it will be a moot point but I was worried anyway!

There is always a balance to be reached for the representatives when a school is presenting their case not to admit and then when it comes to the parent's case for admission.
They have to oppose the admission of further pupils so that the school does win the argument at stage 1 that there would be prejudice to the school. However when it comes to stage 2 it is about the strength of the argument that the parent can mount that either leads to a place being offered or not. It is appropriate that the school do question anything that seems to be OTT in the parent's case but to be overstepping the mark and being rude, belittle and question DD's issues is in my opinion not acceptable. As a chair of a panel I would be very quickly stamping on any such behaviour - there is no need for it, it is not adversarial it is attempting to establish the facts and see what the strength of the case is.
I do understand where you are coming from in the sense that if the school is so argumentative and rude then you do question whether the school is appropriate. Hopefully the school representatives were just going to far with regard to the appeal and that the school is not all like that.

Do you really think your DCs form teacher is teh person who handles school admissions??
Use a bit of common sense!

Thanks, admission; that makes me feel better. The school rep was unbelievably rude to my husband. I expected to be challenged but I didn't expect to be interrupted and snapped at, Jeremy-Paxman style! I had a negative point to bring up about how the school had failed in one of their duties regarding the appeal and I felt so awkward and embarrassed to point it out at the hearing, full of apologies for having to mention it and so on - had I know what they've be like when it was their turn I'd have put it a lot more strongly! We also felt very patronised by the HT who kept bringing up the allocated school when it was to her advantage but then brushing it aside and saying "oh, well I can't comment on the allocated school..." when it was to my advantage

As you can see, I'm not doing too well with letting it all go :o

Oooh, niiiiiiice, sunshinecity Of course the form tutor isn't the person who handles admissions! I'm talking about the Head Teacher and Deputy Head, both of whom were at the hearing and who would have contact with the pupils.

Secondary schools are big.

No-one who teaches your child will know who the children who won appeals are.

Your child is extremely unlikely to come into much contact with the HT or DH - you hope!!!

As PP have said, no one will know or care. It is nothing to me, how a child came to be sitting in my class. Every year, border agency staff swoop in and remove a few. We've been asked to check credentials ourselves, as class teachers. The response was ABSOLUTELY NOT. Not our business in the slightest how our classes arrived in our class rooms. That is entirely someone else's responsibility.

Good question Lucas glad you asked it - thanks ;)

I'm now at government ombudsman complaint stage, so when we do eventually get DD a place (medical grounds) which has to happen because its one seriously f'ked up system if we don't & it losing our appeal put DD in hospital for 2 f'ing weeks then DD really is going to be forced on them, so this has crossed my mind too.

Currently they are even stalling accepting her on the waiting list as medical need & the LA/Admissions are not given us a fair chance with evidence there either, so I have just lost all faith in the system to play fairly

good to know this doesn't affect our DCs in school :)

Sounds awful, Rockin - lots of luck to you.

I appealed to get my two children into my local ( primary) school, won and then 6 months later was working in the same school! No one really cares where the children come from, just what they do when they are there!