Anybody else watching the letterbox, waiting for appeal result letter?

[LucasNorthCanSpookMeAnytime]

It's been a week and still nothing :( It's driving me crazy, I can't seem to do anything except watch for the postman all day!

[DeWee]

If however something has changed that allowed people to win this year who wouldn't have won before, she might be able to appeal again and raise that in her own case.
So she needs to find out what the official reason is that they won, and if that is something that has changed she can use that. Her appeal (to my mind) was certainly stronger or as strong as those I knew this year.

it seems to me the panel felt the school's case wasn't that strong so all those appealing won because in comparison their cases were slightly stronger I have been told (second hand) that basically the head turned up and said "we can cope with all these people" and the appeals weren't heard, just accepted. I don't know how true that is, but I don't think it's totally off the wall.
They were definitely told pretty much straight away, I'm fairly certain actually at the appeal, certainly not by letter anyway, because I know when the hearings were and they knew the same day. But they may have wanted to let them know asap as induction days were the next week, so they may have phones/emailed later I guess.

no appeal panel will want to create classes over 33 that's what I hoped for. So if more come forward and they decided to admit, then they'd need to look at a bulge class, which, as I said, they could do without too much problems.

Another question then:
If they've admitted 15 extra in year 3, could the school use that to argue against admitting more in other years-ie saying that the school as a whole is at capacity? All years are over full, with at least one child over PAN, so it won't be absorbed by spaces in other years?

If one of the people who didn't appeal, comes forward and shows malpractice at the appeal, would they take the places away, or would it stand? (I don't think they should take the places away, and certainly hope they don't, because I know some of the people, but I'm just wondering)

Could my friend ask for transcripts of the appeals this year and use that to help her? Or is she not entitled to them as they weren't involving her?

[DeWee]

So from what I'm reading, the head is able to turn up at a appeal and say "yes we're fine to take them all this year" if, for example he knows there is a child (eg of a friend/staff etc) he wants to make sure gets in? But then the previous/next year he can say "we can't take over numbers"? Because to me that does sound dodgy. (and no I'm not implying that's happened) Couldn't someone offer a backhander to get that situation if there weren't too many appealing?

What would the panel do if they thought that was happening? Can they request someone else comes in, or do they just take the head at face value?

I know the head's usually quite happy to have a few over numbers, which was why I was suprised none won last year, because there were less than 10 appealing, which would be less than 2 per class, which they've gone to before. The PAN is 30 per class, I know he asked to have it increased (I think to 32) and was turned down two or three years ago, my initial thought was that the school had been granted the increase, but apparently not. (there are other junior schools in the area with PAN of 33, so it wouldn't be unprecidented)

Thanks for the help.

[DeWee]

The spare classroom was newly built this year, so that may have made the difference.
In all honesty, I find it more surprising that none were accepted last year than all this year. I know the head has encouraged people to appeal, and openly said he'd like to raise the PAN as he felt they could handle more. And space wise, the school has generous size grounds and classrooms, more than 30 in a class is not going to over crowd the school.
Maybe the spare classroom was built with that in mind and they'll formally raise it next intake. If they did that, would it raise it through the years, or just the new intake?
They've never had a bulge class before, and there are three or four schools locally which almost never are full, which I think was the LAs argument against raisng the PAN. They aren't full for next year either, but I'm guessing they may become full in a few years time.

don't suggest you make such suggestions or queries though on the back of 15 unexpected successful appeals I wasn't meaning to imply it had happened in this case, I was genuinely wondering what would happen iif that was suspected to have happened.
Sorry if I gave that impression. I cannot in any circumstance imagine the head doing that. He's not that sort, very open and honest and I suspect if someone tried it on he would be the first to put a stop to it.

I was looking at what you said, and wondering what is there to stop a head looking at the appeal children and thinking "they're a nice lot, we'll have them" or "I'm going to fight this lot because they're going to be a pain". Hard to prove anyway.

There's another one that I can't find now by an MN poster who went to appeal and the whole room were told they had won so all had a place. She had a friend who was near top of the waiting list so hadn't appealed and suddenly had no chance of a place and was very upset. That I think is the closest to what I am aware of happening in our case.

[mummytime]

I'm mentioned on a quoted thread, but it isn't from this year.

However what I understand has happened at one local secondary this year is that they agreed to take all 27 pupils who had appealed. BUT having a long memory I know when they relaunched they wanted to have 7 form entry (I think thats right) but were only allowed 6 form by the LA. So I think they have just expanded to the number they wanted initially (about 3 years ago).
I might in those circumstances appeal just incase they were willing to make it the round 30.

[woodlands01]

A similar situation occurred at my daughters very popular secondary school. Last year close to 20 appealed and at stage 1 all got accepted - no individual appeals/hearings necessary, they all went away on day 1 with smiles on their faces. This year there was a lot of complacency in parents - no place offered 'oh we'll appeal, they all got in last year' and a letter written in 5 minutes. Only 2 out of 28 were accepted. Over-crowding and total net capacity were a large part of the case for the school.
The previous years entry in year 7, an outstanding OFSTED leading to parents moving into catchment and in year entrants meant that within a year the school went from accepting up to 30 per form to strictly limiting to 28 due to general overcrowding.
What happened previously is no guarantee of anything. A good appeal case, thoroughly researched can still be successful as was my friends.

[woodlands01]

Apologies for punctuation, appalling!