Successfully winning a school appeal

[4men1lady]

So..waited to as I was excited to see what offer we would get for ds.

Turns out we didn't get any of our top 3, in fact the school that we've been offered wouldn't even be in our top 5.

Any one out there know how to successfully win an appeal. Also, I want to get on the waiting list first thing so do I contact school of choice?

Sorry about the poor English. I'm quite pent up with sickness and anxiety, dreading telling ds in the morning.

We didn't get ours either. Ds didn't get into the school his sister goes to. Devastated.
I feel your pain

It's awful isnt it. Appeal will be going in first thing.

On what grounds would you be appealing?

Re ds, you need to be positive about the school he's been allocated. That is most likely the school he'll be going to do try to hide your own concerns and focus on positives for him.

I'd slow down getting your appeal in as you can't add to it later. In the hearing you can't bring up things that you haven't submitted in your appeal documents so it's important to get everything in there.

You are appealing for the school you want not saying anything about the school you don't want. So if it offers Italian and your allocated school doesn't and your dc is going to be a fashion designer that is relevant. If his friend Luke is going to the school you want and they have been best friends since reception that is not.

You are more likely to get a place from the waiting list than through the appeal route. I am not saying don't appeal, but do get on all 3 of your choice school's waiting lists. There is a lot of movement from the lists as people accept and reject places.

The first and most important message is do not reject the current offer, no matter how much you dislike the school (unless you think you can arrange a private school place in time or can HE)

Accepting the offer makes no difference to your chances both at appeal and of getting a place from the waiting list.

Secondly, most LEAs add you automatically to the waiting lists for schools you applied. It is however worth ringing to check.

Thirdly, you can take your time in preparing an appeal - all appeals lodged by the deadline will be heard in the same batch, and further offers (if any) will all be made then.

You need to think about grounds for appeal. For secondary, there are two main possibilities
a) something wrong with the process: mistake in allocations by LEA (is your DC in the right admissions category, does the distance to the school look right?) or an illegal criterion (very unlikely) or a decision so unreasonable that it's perverse (eg precipitates a child protection issue, threshold very high for this one)

b) balance of prejudice
This means the detriment (prejudice) to the school and its other pupils in admitting one more pupil is less than the detriment to your DC if they do not go there. Remember you are appealing for the school you want (not against the one you don't like). What is it about this school (or schools) that make them particularly suitable for your DC?

There's a rather useful school admissions pack available here