Appealing Secondary School

[MsWu2015]

Our first choice was Sacred Heart Upminster but were rejected on grounds of distance. There are children living further away with a place. Has anyone got experience of appealing on grounds of distance (or know anyone that has)? N.B. school journey is about 45mins or less from our house.

For most state schools there are usually more admissions criteria than just distance.

Have you checked the full admission criteria list and the order of precedence ?

I would suspect that the others who live further away have got in as they meet a selection criteria higher up the list than the distance one.

Had a very quick look at their admissions criteria, as suspected, it is a faith school and their admissions criteria prioritise Catholic faith, various parishes, siblings etc in different ways. Highly likely that people further away than you will have got a place quite legitimately. You can't appeal just on the basis of distance or that you live 45 mins or less away from the school. Only if you think that the people living further away than you should NOT have got a place, based on the school's admissions criteria (which you will need to read carefully) might you have a case for appeal.

A 45 min journey is completely unrealistic in terms of admissions for any London school it you are applying under the distance criteria!

Faith, lottery, special aptitude scholarship or selective test, Statement, Social and Medical, Looked after or sibling are the only way you could get into a school 45 mins away in the area. People who live further away probably got in on faith or siblings or looked after or social and medical.

To make a successful appeal , are there strong social grounds on which to appeal? Backed up by evidence form a professional? In what way would your child be disadvantaged by not going there - do they have specific facilities or clubs or curriculum that suit his special talents or proven interests, and which you allocated school does not?

Have you not left it too late to appeal? Here all appeals had to be lodged by the end of March.

I appreciate your replies Catontherun, Unexpected, Hairy McMary and Bert2e

@Unexpected - we met the 2nd or 3rd criteria (practising Catholic, living within the Diocese). I will look into the comparator you pointed out regarding people living further away.

@bert2e my letter gave me a deadline of end of april

How would I specifically find out about people who are in and live further?

You're the one that said there were children living further away that got a place! How do you know? They obviously won't tell you about individual children, but you can ask how many children were admitted from higher criteria.

Your rejection letter should say what criteria you were - was it 2 or 3? You don't seem sure but this Should be absolutely clear. Were you in the right category? You should also have been told what the furthest offered distance was for your criteria. Are you further away than that? I suspect you are by a long way given that you live 45 mins away in the most densely populated city in the country!

Assuming no mistake has been made you have to demonstrate why this school is best for your child's needs, and that those needs cannot be met otherwise.

Did you submit the supplementary form? Are you resident in the named parishes?

What does your rejection letter say - category 2 or 3? As someone said, the supplementary form will have been all-important in determining your elegibility on faith grounds, did you complete one? You said further away children got a place - presumably you have proof of that and are not relying on rumour?

I agree with tiggytape here. The admission criteria are complicated and as such it is almost impossible to know exactly why you did not get a place, if you know that there are people living further away than you. They may well be perfectly legitimate based on the complexity of the admission criteria order.
Therefore the only sensible way forward is to appeal. Simply appeal on the basis that you believe this school will be the best school for your child and that you will elaborate on the reasons why nearer to the date of the appeal. That gives you time to get the information that you need, however the appeal document from the school must tell the panel why your child was not offered a place. That will either confirm you have a potential case or confirm you have no case other than a desire for your child to go to the school. If you do not appeal, you have no chance of a place, by appealing you have some chance of success, albeit may be a very slim chance.
One other issue that has been raised is whether the time for appeals has passed. Whilst the admission authorities might like you to think that there is a cut-off date, there is not. You can appeal at any time. What the cut-off date does is make sure that your appeal will be heard with all the others who have appealed by the specified date within the 40 school day limit period. If you appeal after the specified date then your appeal could be delayed but it would still have to be heard within the 30 school day limit after the appeal is received.