secondary school applications - social reasons

[YoMrWhite]

Hi all

Due to my husbands job in the local community we would prefer for our ds to go a school a bit further away from where we live.

Does anyone have any experience of applying for a school due to social issues? Are there any good websites I should look at?

TIA!

Are the schools you are looking at oversubscribed? If not then you won't have a problem. if they are then your DH job won't have a bearing on the application (although I can understand how important it could be)
When you apply to a school you don't give a reason, only if you are turned down and appeal would that happen.

You can apply under the social/medical criteria if your LEA (or school) has one.

Have a look on the website to check what evidence is required.

I work in children's services, and many SWs apply using this criteria to avoid their own children being at the same school as children they work with.

Agree with tethersend it is possible for parents in some jobs e.g. social services to use this criteria to make sure that they/their children don't encounter problems with their clients.
Not all LEAS (or individual schools) have this admissions category though.
I would try contacting your LEA to find out what they recommend and what paperwork you need to provide.

Many thanks to you all.

The school is oversubscribed unfortunately but there is an option to apply for a particular school for social reasons and state what they are.

It's actually both our jobs that are in the local community (one is indeed social work) so I'm hoping it will be ok.

You'll need to show not just that you have a particular job, but why specifically they require entrance to that specific school.

There is no easy leapfrog IYSWIM for all police or SW or whatever DC to use this category.

You will need evidence (say letter from senior manager) giving the exact reasons why your work activities mean your DC need to attend the preferred school, and exactly what he preferred school offers that makes it the best (or only) option that fits the requirement.

Ok thanks. We have a letter from my husbands employer.

Does the letter specify why that particular (named) school is required?

Why would it give you entry into a particular school, though? Having reason for not going to the local one is slightly different to "we want that one instead"??
They'd hardly be compelled to take over their numbers on that alone.

Well the school we want is in an area that isn't covered by my husbands work. And is the closest one that isn't iyswim?

This school would be accessible to him while others not covered by dh and my work would be really difficult for him to get to.

I'm guessing we should include that in our reasons....

Difficulty of journey, unless there are evidenced mobility issues, won't be considered as a relevant factor.

^We need to avoid schools in the XXX areas as my husbands job is ..... and so my child needs to not .......
Our first preference school YYY is the closest school to us that is not in area XXX.

(We have only listed a school in XXX as our last preference school because we have been advised that we should include one school in catchment in our list.)^

Would that work?

If the school is not safe or exceptionally inappropriate for the DC to attend, then it should not be listed.

Yes, it means that you might end up with an undersubscribed school at an even greater distance but that would meet the actual reasons underpinning the exceptional social need. (You'll probably end up with complications about eligibility for free school transport if it is at a great distance, but you can meet that if it arises).

Some of my colleagues have been successful in getting places for their children at the nearest out of borough school for the reasons the OP describes. Whilst this is no guarantee that the OP will be successful, it is down to the individual's LEA to decide if they meet the criteria via their med/soc panel, so it would be wise to speak to the LEA(s) in question.

You need to have a look at the admission criteria for the school(s) in question. If the admission criteria has on it one that is for social /medical reasons, then you should apply under that criteria but you need to be realistic about the schools you are choosing. If you apply for the best three schools in the LA then there is a probability that the LA will question your real motives.

I would strongly advise that if there is a social admission criteria that you write to the LA now with full reasons why you should be considered under the criteria, asking them to confirm that you will be considered under that category. The last date for on-time applications is the end of this month so there is little chance that you will get confirmation before the end of the month of this. You may need to hedge your bets on being accepted under the criteria and put down the most local secondary as your third option, so at least you have a reasonable chance of getting into this school if the LA decide not to allow you to be considered under a social criteria.

If there is no admission criteria for social then you need to decide whether you are going to put down schools outside the immediate area where you live or not. Given the social issues I suspect you will. I would make very sure that on the application form you put in big bold letters, with asterisks and anything else you can, the reason why you have put down these preferences and ask for this to be taken into consideration, though in reality they cannot as there is nothing in the admission code that allows that to happen.

If you subsequently get to a position where you do not get the school you want because your request to be considered under social criteria was rejected or because there was no social criteria, then you should appeal. Panels tend to be quite sympathetic to such situations because they realise the potential difficulties for the pupils and their parents. If you have at least made it clear to the admission authority that you need to be considered because of parent's job, then the LA have no excuse that they were unaware of the situation. So make sure that you keep good copies of all correspondence for any possible admission appeal. I hear quite a few appeals like this, where the parents have not made it plane why they wanted certain schools and the panel cannot blame the admission authority if they were not aware of the circumstances. If they were aware then it does give panels the ability to agree that the LA should have given some consideration to the problem the family faced.

Thanks ks very much Admission that's fantastic!

We were planning on putting the local school as our second choice as anywhere else we would be unable to get him there (we live rurally) do you think that will be ok?

The school we would like him to go to is the only other school that is local, would be easy to access where he would be unlikely to come across people who know what his dad do (or have had dealings with him as dh doesn't cover that area)

I'm really confused about whether to put the local school as option 2. Much as I don't think it's the best waybest option for ds, I can't think of any other school we would be able to get him to.

Help!

Thanks. Just to clarify the LEA does have a social and medical needs policy.

Ah I see you said I should put It down as my third option.

I don't have a second option though, so do I just put it as my second?

My inclination is to look if there is another school that you could get to and would seem suitable that you can put down as second preference. If you put the local school down as second preference then it does ask the obvious question as to whether this is just an excuse to get to the preferred school. If however there is no logical school that is within manageable distance (say 10 miles) then put the local school down as second preference and argue the case at any appeal.
As there is a social needs criteria, the important thing is to get them to agree that you are going to be counted under that criteria. Need to put everything in writing and have good reference from senior management of where DH works confirming the potential difficulties of attending the local school. Most LAs are good at accepting that this kind of situation is a potential problem but you need to do the donkey work of making them very aware of the situation.

Thanks. I will give them a call and confirm they will be counting it as social policy.

There is one other possible school but it's about about 8 miles away and so difficult to get to.

We live rurally which doesn't help!

I am also considering using this category for similar reasons and like the OP I don't have much choice but to put the local school second which i appreciate may undermine my argument. I was wondering if the school I am applying to which will be my first preference will be aware of what other schools I have put on my application. Would it be the LA who consider if the child meets the criteria for exceptional social reasons or would it be the school. In my case the school I am applying to for my child is in a different LA to where I live. I would very much appreciate any advice.

I was wondering if the school I am applying to which will be my first preference will be aware of what other schools I have put on my application

No. They are not allowed to have this information.

Would it be the LA who consider if the child meets the criteria for exceptional social reasons or would it be the school

That depends on the type of school. If it is a community or VC school it will be the school's LA. If it is an academy, VA school or free school it will be the school.