Anyone used a solicitor for a school appeal?

[Holymoly321]

Our son didn't get any of his three choices and had been allocated a brand new school miles away in a very run down high crime area. The school is just six portacabins at present and there won't be permanent buildings for over another year. We are appealing for his first choice which is massively oversubscribed and allocates places at random from throughout the county. We are thinking of hiring a solicitor to help us with the appeals process but wonder if having a solicitor represent us at the appeal will work against us with the panel. Has anyone ever used a solicitor for appeals? Was it worth the money? Do you wish you'd just done it yourself? Amy info would be most helpful!

[tryasimite]

@Worriedmummy26 you need to start your own thread for this. Scroll to the top of the page and choose "Start a new thread" from the drop-down menu.

[MarchingFrogs]

@Sms91

Hiya prh47 would you mind if I pm u my current situation and if you can offer some advise please

As per the advice given to the previous 'piggybacking' poster, you really need to start your own thread, entitled something like'Appealing for School X, please advise' and use the '@' at thr beginning of theor username to tag those such as prh47bridge or PanelChair, who will be able to give you the best advice.

[Sms91]

Hiya prh47 would you mind if I pm u my current situation and if you can offer some advise please

[viques]

Aha! Have just spotted that you have indeed reposted. Best Wishes,

[viques]

@RCBOn

Please can someone help with secondary school appeal. We are appealing on the basis of admin error / miscommunication.

-10 October: Contacted the admissions team and asked them if its acceptable to supply only the rental agreement before the deadline as we would not have last 3 months Gas / electricity bills as mandated on the website, response was - That's fine, we will work with you to gather all the remaining documents.

• Moved on 28th October and submitted rental agreement - 6 months contract
• 17th Nov: Admission team asked for 3 documents - standard document evidence list from website ( Rental agreement up to March 2022, Disposal of old property / no access and at least other two other documents out of DL GP Registration Usage bills etc.
• 19th Nov: we responded with what we had - DL, GP Registration, and reason why we can not rent our property - Had survey done and it required extensive building work and was worked upon by builder initiated in early Feb but delayed due to covid and the time the builders take to respond, plus the fact one of us were furloughed , we mentioned of our intent to extend the contract in shorter interval if possible.
• 14th Dec: Admissions Authority - Individual - She was not satisfied with the address evidence we submitted and asked for usage bills to satisfy address evidence.
• 15th Dec: we provided usage bills as requested in the same reply to her email
• 12th Feb: Admission Team generic email id not the Admission Team official who previously asked us the documents in December, responded to 19th November email mentioning acceptance of DL,GP but require Rental document up to Mar 2022.
• 17th Feb: our response was a big surprise to get it very last minute
• 17th Feb: Now Admission Authority - The official and not generic email id, responded with an apology that she then accept the evidence we sent through so far, and the admission team was not CCd.
• 17th Feb to 26thFeb: we didn't think we needed to provide anything more
• 26th Feb: Admissions team generic id - asked for a contract extension again at 15.30PM
• 26th Feb: we responded to check if there is a miscommunication and if this was going to affect our offer on Monday. Admission team official's email was on auto response on out-of-office and no response from Generic EMAIL ID in any form till March 9 on that.
• 1st March: Looking at the offer we assumed that you are waiting for contract extension document.
• We sent several email explaining all the previous communication and review and offer the place.
• 9th March kind of Authorative email, having gone through all communication and correspondence, we ask you to provide Disposal of old property document in addition to Extended contract agreement referring to November email which lists all the documents but not considering to mentioning above review in December or their address evidence acceptance email on 17th Feb. and for admissions purpose they will consider us from old address only till we submit further evidence, but they will be happy to review the situation if we provide further evidence in future.
• taking additional burden having to pay rent and mortgage, we took the risk to extend the contract till April 2022 in one stretch, and since we were in touch with letting agent after last month's email from admission team, we could now get the extended contract in couple of days and submitted but work on Previous property was ongoing, which the authority knew, hence we could not submit this before 15 April deadline.
• Building work was completed on 12th April and contract document signed with Agent for letting out property and a copy of this submitted to Admissions authority to show our intent and update on progress.
• We rent out the property on 28th April and submitted the Lease Agreement on May 4th and requested Authority to review the situation and offer the place.
• Now a standard response we are receiving from Authority saying DS is on Waiting list and that we have lodged an appeal will process that request accordingly.

SO, I am not sure if I fight my case based on the fact that they Confirmed our address evidence document as Acceptable so should have considered for first round allocation, and should been consistent with the review, as we missed out second round and third round as well.

DS is allocated a school place which is near our old property and 7 miles from current property. Whereas our first choice school is 100 feet away in catchment.

Any help and guidance is much appreciated.

@RCBOn

You have tagged your post onto quite an old thread, so it might be better to repost it under a new thread title and @ in some of the advisors.

prh47bridge

admission

PanelChair


lougle


which will give them a fighting chance to find your post!

good luck.

[RCBOn]

Please can someone help with secondary school appeal. We are appealing on the basis of admin error / miscommunication.

-10 October: Contacted the admissions team and asked them if its acceptable to supply only the rental agreement before the deadline as we would not have last 3 months Gas / electricity bills as mandated on the website, response was - That's fine, we will work with you to gather all the remaining documents.

• Moved on 28th October and submitted rental agreement - 6 months contract
• 17th Nov: Admission team asked for 3 documents - standard document evidence list from website ( Rental agreement up to March 2022, Disposal of old property / no access and at least other two other documents out of DL GP Registration Usage bills etc.
• 19th Nov: we responded with what we had - DL, GP Registration, and reason why we can not rent our property - Had survey done and it required extensive building work and was worked upon by builder initiated in early Feb but delayed due to covid and the time the builders take to respond, plus the fact one of us were furloughed , we mentioned of our intent to extend the contract in shorter interval if possible.
• 14th Dec: Admissions Authority - Individual - She was not satisfied with the address evidence we submitted and asked for usage bills to satisfy address evidence.
• 15th Dec: we provided usage bills as requested in the same reply to her email
• 12th Feb: Admission Team generic email id not the Admission Team official who previously asked us the documents in December, responded to 19th November email mentioning acceptance of DL,GP but require Rental document up to Mar 2022.
• 17th Feb: our response was a big surprise to get it very last minute
• 17th Feb: Now Admission Authority - The official and not generic email id, responded with an apology that she then accept the evidence we sent through so far, and the admission team was not CCd.
• 17th Feb to 26thFeb: we didn't think we needed to provide anything more
• 26th Feb: Admissions team generic id - asked for a contract extension again at 15.30PM
• 26th Feb: we responded to check if there is a miscommunication and if this was going to affect our offer on Monday. Admission team official's email was on auto response on out-of-office and no response from Generic EMAIL ID in any form till March 9 on that.
• 1st March: Looking at the offer we assumed that you are waiting for contract extension document.
• We sent several email explaining all the previous communication and review and offer the place.
• 9th March kind of Authorative email, having gone through all communication and correspondence, we ask you to provide Disposal of old property document in addition to Extended contract agreement referring to November email which lists all the documents but not considering to mentioning above review in December or their address evidence acceptance email on 17th Feb. and for admissions purpose they will consider us from old address only till we submit further evidence, but they will be happy to review the situation if we provide further evidence in future.
• taking additional burden having to pay rent and mortgage, we took the risk to extend the contract till April 2022 in one stretch, and since we were in touch with letting agent after last month's email from admission team, we could now get the extended contract in couple of days and submitted but work on Previous property was ongoing, which the authority knew, hence we could not submit this before 15 April deadline.
• Building work was completed on 12th April and contract document signed with Agent for letting out property and a copy of this submitted to Admissions authority to show our intent and update on progress.
• We rent out the property on 28th April and submitted the Lease Agreement on May 4th and requested Authority to review the situation and offer the place.
• Now a standard response we are receiving from Authority saying DS is on Waiting list and that we have lodged an appeal will process that request accordingly.

SO, I am not sure if I fight my case based on the fact that they Confirmed our address evidence document as Acceptable so should have considered for first round allocation, and should been consistent with the review, as we missed out second round and third round as well.

DS is allocated a school place which is near our old property and 7 miles from current property. Whereas our first choice school is 100 feet away in catchment.

Any help and guidance is much appreciated.

[Oblomov20]

Prh47:
"My wife keeps telling me I should offer my services for a fee! "

I agree. With your wife! I've been on Mn for donkeys years, and I think your advice is priceless!

[SQ196]

Thank you.

[AlissKezamMoivit]

@SQ196 at the top of this page you will see Talk > Secondary Education - click on Secondary Education and you will get the list of current discussion topics. The link to start a new thread will be on that page.

[SQ196]

It’s my 1st post not sure what to do.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

ps also list in the thread the admissions criteria. e.g. Is there social & medical need explicitly listed?

[TeenPlusTwenties]

@SQ196 Start a new thread with Secondary Appeal Please Help in the title. Then prh47bridge and others can give you tailored advice.

For an appeal you need to list why your preferred school is better for her than offered school. (Why she would be disadvantaged by not attending.) That is unclear to me from your post.

[SQ196]

Admissions Yr 7

I’m devastated my daughter hasn’t been offered a place at her preferred school, has sibling link Yr 10, attends feeder school, walking distance, SENCO visited her twice in yr 5 happy they can meet her needs but school outside catchment. I’m preparing for an appeal and have evidence of her SEN since 2015. Paediatric Consultants, Speech Language Therapists, IEP and SENCO. Detailed assessments with reports. ASD, Difficulty with Social Interaction officially diagnosed. School are applying for EHCP with my consent, recommenced by medics too. All her class have been offered places at school. I provided evidence with application but school said they’re unable to assess at selection. I’m worried and first time experiencing anxiety attacks when discussing current position, I won’t be able to argue my case although her school have offered to attend appeal with me. What else can you suggest? PLS.

[prh47bridge]

@Toystorey1 - Just noticed this. As AlissKezamMoivit says, you are more likely to get relevant responses if you start your own thread. You may find that some people don't notice it is an old thread and respond to the OP rather than you.

I hope your son has an offer from the school you wanted. However, if he hasn't, the fact that it is a sporting school and he loves sport will help your appeal. The fact he is a carer of his siblings and this will give him respite may make this stronger.

I would also talk about the pastoral support, particularly if that is better than the support available from the allocated school.

I doubt that the school being on the way to his siblings school will carry any weight with the panel. You can mention it but I doubt the panel will take it into account.

By the way, I'm going to report your post as you seem to have included your son's name.

[AlissKezamMoivit]

Hi @Toystorey1 you are more likely to get a response if you start a new thread rather than resurrect an old one - most people will just read the Opening Post and respond to that without realising you are asking a new question. Unless you have already found out that you have the school you want, repost this in a new thread and tag prh47bridge (who is the genius in these matters) by putting an @ in front of the username to send a notification. Hope you get some help (I am not a specialist, just interested in what is going on on allocations day)

[Toystorey1]

Hi i know this feed is 2 years old but i am lookijg for some advise if possible. We have 4 boys 2 are disabled. My eldest son is going to secondsry school we find out tonight if we are going to get the school we want for him. I was wondering if we go to appeal can we use that our son is a carer of his siblings (two younger ones disabled) and that by attending the school we wanted would be rest bite for him has its a sporting school and he loves his sports. It also has a great pastural team who we spoke to when we went to look around and [name redacted] was very happy to sit and chat with them about his brothers disabilities. It is also on the way to his siblings school which is close by so would help with home and schook balance. Do you think this would come under special circumstances?

[cauliflowersqueeze]

I was on a panel representing my school and a parent came with a solicitor. He made a massive idiot of himself and really it did the parent no favours whatsoever.

[prh47bridge]

For a secondary school, unless you can show that a mistake has been made (which is highly unlikely for in-year admissions), you need to show that the disadvantage to your son from not being admitted outweighs any disadvantage to the school from having to cope with an additional pupil.

I am very surprised at the comment from admissions. If the school is below its admission number and genuinely has two places available your son should have been admitted. However, if the school is genuinely full in your son's year there is no guarantee that an appeal panel will agree that they can take two additional pupils.

Presumably your son has been given a place at another school. You therefore need to look for things that the appeal school offers which are missing from the offered school and are particularly relevant to your son.

[prh47bridge]

You have, presumably, already submitted your argument for the appeal. You should receive the case to refuse admission shortly if you haven't done so already. If you have any documentary evidence you want to use you need to submit it immediately if you haven't already done so.

You need to look at the admission authority's case for weaknesses you can highlight during the hearing. The admission authority will present their case first, following which you will have a chance to question them. This is your chance to highlight the weaknesses in their case. After that you will be asked to present your case, so you need to think what you are going to say. Don't read your written case - the appeal panel will have read it already. You could simply say you don't have anything to add to your written case or you could use the opportunity to highlight the important points. The admission authority and the appeal panel will then ask you some questions. Both sides will then be asked to sum up, so you may want to prepare a short summary of your case.

If you need guidance on your case, you will need to tell us:

• do you own the property you used for admission purposes?
  
• if not, do you rent it?
  
• do you actually live there?
  
• did the admission authority contact you and give you a chance to explain the situation before deciding to use the address of the property you own?
  
• what is happening with the property you own that is 22 miles away? Do you rent it out on a long term lease to someone else?

[UK19989345621]

We have been struggling with the accusation of the address of convenience for local secondary school
They simply refused us because we own another property in 22 miles away and they are saying is viable to travel everyday

We have now appeal next week and I am a bit confused about what to do

Anyone got any advice, please

[prh47bridge]

Unfortunately you are looking at a thread about secondary appeals. You are talking about a primary school appeal. As they have admitted 30 the appeal will almost certainly be an infant class size case. That means you can only win if a mistake has been made or the decision to refuse admission to the village school was so unreasonable as to be irrational. The school may want the extra children but admitting them would leave them with a class of over 30 in Reception which is illegal.

If their admission number is 30 this is definitely an infant class size case, in which case I'm afraid it is unlikely you will win. However, if the admission number is lower than 30 it may be that they can accommodate the additional children by mixing years. If the school says that in the hearing it should be possible to win.

[Bridge44]

Hi am new here, been reading this thread with interest and hope..

Prh47bridge said previously (9/3/17 14.42)
'Appeals are not just for mistakes. The OP can appeal on the basis that the disadvantage to her son from not getting a place at this school outweighs the problems the school will face from having to cope with an additional pupil'

I think this is the relevant issue for our appeal.. 4/5 children have not been accepted into our local village primary school within a very tight knit community where everything revolves around the village but the L.A has only offered 30 places there. The school are fully supportive of us, encouraging us to follow the appeal process as they want to take the extra children?
The school we have been offered is 3 miles away in a town and is taking a double intake class size of 60 for the first time this year.
Would be so grateful for any professional advice or help to support our situation. Thankyou.