In year admission appeal hearing

[IRegretNothing]

I'm hoping for a bit of reassurance in advance of our school admissions appeal hearing as we've just had the lea's case and it's terrifying!
We moved to a town with only one secondary school. Its 0.59 miles away from our house but is oversubscribed and so our application for a place for our son in yr 8 was refused on those grounds. Places in his yr are 172 but they are operating at 177 currently.
Most of the secondary schools in the nearest town (8 miles away) are over subscribed but we found a place in a school 9.27miles by car from our house. We have younger children and work commitments so can't drive him ourselves and there is no school bus so our son uses public transport which costs us £25pm.
When we asked for financial help we were told we'd get petrol money if we drove him which we can't do.
After 4 wks at this school my son was complaining of being tired. The journey to/from school requires two buses and takes 1hr 25mins each way (when buses are on time) and frankly it's tiring him out. So we decided to appeal mainly based on this and the effect 3 hrs commuting is having on him which will only get worse when his workload increases as he goes through school.
We also mentioned a bullying incident in his new school, another child runned chewing gum into ds's hair and when he told his tutor, his tutor handed him scissors to cut it out himself (in front of his peers, ds was humiliated) leaving him with a chunk of hair missing. Other boy was not sanctioned. I waited a couple of days for the school to let me know what happened (son told me) but when I didnt hear I rang and complained that the teacher's management of the situation was inadequate. Boy was eventually sanctioned.
I mentioned this incident in our admissions appeal and I'm livid because ds's current school have minimised what happened (didn't say Ds had gum rubbed in his hair by other student just that his mother was unhappy he had gotten gum in his hair) and outright lying that they contacted me re incident and other incidents. Theyve also cited an ofsted report from three yrs ago saying bullying is minimal but what bearing does this have on my ds's experience of bullying?!
Should I mention the untruths from his current school or will that make me seem petty? Tbh the real reason we are appealing is becasue of the long school journey ds has to take when his catchment school is a 5min walk away. Should I mention bullying at all?
Do we have a good case? I'm worried we'll be dismissed instantly.
Thanks for reading my essay!

Well I spoke to the school ditectly and their head of admissions said Net Capacity Calculations were all a bit over her head. She didn't seem to accept that their PAN might be lower than the max number of children they can actually accomodate. She offered to contact someone who should know who will get back to me. The appeal is on Tuesday and so I hope I hear back in time.
I also spoke to the School Admissions Clerk who kept reiterating PAN and suggested that my question about possible discrepancies between the Net Capacity and PAN be directed to the school during the hearing. I explained that I'd rather be a bit more prepared than that and that I thought this information should be available when requested.
I readd somewhere that if there is no official NCC as it's an academy than a similarly calculated figure is calculated in order to secure finding for the school so I'm trying that angle to.
I find it all a bit stressful trying to navigate the different departments and never getting any concrete figures.

*funding, not finding! Please excuse the multiple typos in all my posts!!

Children's school bus passes are £10 a week locally so approx £45 amonth, that is the norm and very few pupils are entitled to free ones.
Am wondering if the LEA will argue that £50is a reasonable cost.

suggested that my question about possible discrepancies between the Net Capacity and PAN be directed to the school during the hearing

That isn't good enough. If they don't come up with the information you can complain to the appeal panel. It won't win your appeal for you but it may make the more inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt.

As it is an academy it may not have a net capacity calculation. That makes life a little more difficult but not much. The numbers you have got already suggest that the school is nowhere near full if they have pupils in Y7-Y11 inclusive. If they haven't opened Y11 yet and only have only have four year groups in operation that is another matter. They still have plenty of room but could argue that they will have a problem next year when all five years will be in operation.

Children's school bus passes are £10 a week locally so approx £45 amonth, that is the norm and very few pupils are entitled to free ones.
Am wondering if the LEA will argue that £50is a reasonable cost.

All this talk about no net capacity for an academy is rubbish, every school has a net capacity calculation based on the rooms in the buildings that are for educational purposes. If it is relatively new then the net capacity might not have been done officially yet but they must have used at least a theoretical figure for the calculation to get to a PAN of 172.

Funding is not based on the PAN or Net Capacity it is based on the number of pupils in school on a set date in October. The fact that the head of admissions at the school thinks net capacity is above her does suggest that the school are struggling to properly administer the admission process.

You can ask any questions you want at the appeal and I would suggest asking when the last pupil was admitted to the year 8 cohort. You need to confirm that was before you applied for a place at the school. I would ask them how many teaching groups there are for english and maths. Based on an average I would expect probably 6 or 7 teaching groups with lower numbers in the lower attaining pupil class. If it is 7 or more then you should ask them why another pupil cannot be admitted as they clearly have classes with less than 30 in them.

You should also ask where the extra 5 pupils came from. I would assume that they were at appeals for year 7. If they were then, you that shows that other appeal panels have agreed appeals. If they were after year 7 entry appeals then that is even better news in terms of panels having admitted.

They would probably not have admitted them to the school based solely on the fact they feel the school is capable of taking more pupils in the year group so it is really important that you build up your case for admission because of what the school has to offer not the current school is rubbish.

You are all being so helpful, thank you.
When speaking to head of admissions she explained that the year 8 students which took them 5 over their PAN were admitted at the start of this year-something to do with the fact that they are anticipating having to accept more students in the future year 7 intakes and so were obliged to accept bunch of appeals in Sept for current year 8. I don't understand that really!
I will definitely be making notes on your posts in preparation for the hearing. I will have a list of questions ready to go!

The school is operating over 5 year groups, so the total pupils on roll for the school being 728 (its upper limit is 860 for all years) includes all of these. Most years are operating well below upper limits, year 8 is slightly anomalous in that it's over PAN.

As for the bus passes, I'm a tad surprised that parents are expected to foot the bill for approx £45 per month. Is this the case if spaces are not available in the child's closest school and the journey is then over 3miles? I feel for people struggling, imo education should be entirely free to access.

No it's if you reject your closet school and send them to the next one , which happens to be over three miles away. It doesn't matter that the closest school is in special measure and ear market for closure.
It used to that you could choose any school and you get free travel if over three miles away.
Now parents with two dc are looking at nearly £100 a month if they want a decent education for their dc.
It's not fair that state school choices should be made in the ability to pay.
Good luck with your appeal op.

Is this the case if spaces are not available in the child's closest school and the journey is then over 3miles

Just in case AndNowItsSeven's answer isn't clear, this is not the case. The LA must provide free transport if the school is over 3 miles from home by the shortest safe walking route and it is the nearest school with places available. In your case the nearest schools are all full, the nearest school is over 3 miles away so the LA must, by law, provide free transport for your son. The form of transport provided is up to them, so you can't refuse a bus because you'd rather have a taxi. However, telling parents who cannot drive their child to school that they will have to pay for public transport is not acceptable. The relevant guidance is clear that the council can only use a mileage allowance if you consent. You have not consented so they must come up with something else.

As I said earlier, I think you should tell the council that you will be referring their failure to meet their legal obligation to provide free transport to the LGO unless they refund your travel costs to date and provide a free bus pass or some other form of free transport for your son until such time as he moves to a more local school.

Sorry - spotted a typo on re-reading. That should be "the nearest school with places is over 3 miles away".

In an academy, the Net Capacity is the number of places the school has agreed to provide. It is not building size! Therefore, this has brought about the anomaly of different class sizes and a PAN of 172. Why such an odd number was agreed is anyone's guess!

You appeal about why the school you want is the best fit for your DS.

So using time for travel is a good starting point. Point out how much homework they are expected to do and your da is losing 3 hrs + a day for studying.
It's important here to look at la transport policy. They say no school bus, and only provide transport costs so you can point out that legally they are required to provide 'transport to school' for all placement over 3 miles away and that needs to be provided. And if they can't do this at current placement then it can't meet his needs and provide him what he's entitled to.

Be aware though that they may concede and provide the costs to cover the bus pass instead.

they may concede and provide the costs to cover the bus pass instead

They still have to contend with government guidance that the maximum journey a secondary pupil should face is 1 hr 15 minutes each way. Covering the bus pass would be a start but it would still be unreasonable to keep the OP's son at this school. They need to either provide faster transport (a door to door taxi, for example) or come up with a place at a school closer to home.

If the school was forced to accept 5 extra pupils into year 8 at the beginning of this academic year, then the first question the school need to answer is why has this happened and as there does not seem to be any further changes, why the school cannot accept another pupil. Look at the number of pupils who joined in september in year 7 was it 172 or 180?
Reading between the lines I suspect the school were looking to change the PAN from 172 to 180. I have no idea why that has not happened but it is very clear in the admission code that PAN can be increased (paragraph 1.3) and that schools can admit over PAN (paragraph 1.4). As such I cannot believe that the school's case to admit is a strong case, given that in the last six months they have gone over PAN. The words might sound grand but no panel is going to ignore the fact the school have taken an extra 5 pupils in the year group unless there is a very strong case for the reason that happened.

I think it has not happened because they agreed 172 x 5 not 180 x 5.

Hi everyone, I've had some great news!
Was prepping for the appeal hearing tomorrow when the phone rang. It was our preferred school ringing to say that a pupil in year 8 is moving away at the end of this week and our son can start next Monday! There's no need for us to attend the hearing tomorrow as the school have been in touch with the council.
So so pleased!
I want to say thanks to all of you for your advice and support.

excellent news.

Wow amazing news. So pleased for you both

I'm really pleased for you!

Ds has just got home from school and been told. Thank you all! I'm amazed by the coincidence (dh is veeerrrry suspicious) but happy to accept anyway!
The school had an ofsted visit a few weeks ago and the results have just been published. Results weren't as good as expected, and the school 'requires improvement' which I guess has meant some parents have removed their children (possibly to go to ds current school!).
I'm quite happy to view ofsted results in balance with other things. This school has vertical tutor groups, a range of extra curricular and enrichment programmes esp. for gifted and talented children. Gcse results are way above national average. It also shares management with the highest achieving state school in our nearest town so I have confidence in the school leadership. One of the issues ofsted had was that often children who are disadvantaged don't catch up as much as they should. Ds is v lucky that he isn't in that category and I'm hoping that as this school seems more community focused that it will help ds in areas he's struggled with historically.
Once again, thanks all! We're over the moon.

That is really good news. Call me a cynic however I am with DH, the timing is just a bit too convenient. But do not luck a gift horse in the mouth, grab the opportunity with both hands and hopefully your son will now flourish at the new school.

So glad it has worked out and a place turned up - as if by magic!