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!

- I wonder if I should just make an 'in-year admission' in the last week of term before this waiting list is disbanded and hope to get chosen due to continued interest in the school in the New Year. Can't afford to move 500 yards into borough and DDs Bff looks about 50 yards away as the crow flies and she got in back in September...hopefully the 18 in front of us at the moment will mostly be happy where they currently are or changed their minds...

To be honest. I think you may need to stop focusing on the friend closer getting in. Being close does not always give you an automatic right to the chosen school DD is baptised catholic. Her DF is a practicing catholic. The catchment catholic school is very much on our doorstep, I'm talking end of the street we live on close. DD never got a place. The bff who lives close to the school could have additional needs you dont know about. Or there could be similar circumstances. I.e I have some friends in my life who are a foster couple, so the x number of children they have will get in anyway as their LAC. It is not common knowledge that the children are LAC so people often assume that X and Y are 'obviously playing the system' .

Re the 18 places in front, I think you're going to have to build a very strong case for your DD to get in to the school. DS was on the waiting list for his current school for a year before he was offered a place, DD was no1 on the waiting list.
She remained at the top of the waiting list for two years before getting a place on appeal.

PPs are right. You need to focus on why the preferred school is the best fit for your DD.

... And moving (if you were to move, which I know you're not) isn't about moving into the borough, it's simply about moving closer. LEAs aren't allowed to discriminate against people living out of borough (except to the extent that distance criteria will favour people living closer to schools and that will often - but certainly not always - favour people in the same borough).

The admissions code and appeal code are on the DfE website. It's worth spending time reading them.

All the info on this thread is really helpful. My granddaughter has just been passed by for all 3 of her choice schools and been allocated a place at an "inadequate school". We are devastated. So my son and I are about to put together an appeal. I am glad you said stay positive as right now all I can do is focus on the negative..Also is there any chance of success if she is 35 th on the waiting list.
I really wanted to ask would the fact that she is the only Y6 child in her year group who has not been given a place at the school be a good grounds for appeal? Also she is out of authority but there is a child who lives around the corner from her and she got a place last year- she lives further away from the school and also out of authority The only other thing I can focus on is her shyness and lack of confidence being away from her entire peer group- don't know if that will cut any sway and the wonderful facilities that would be available to her- she is very arty and a good dancer. Any help or advice would be great!!.I am not sure how to go about finding numbers and class space etc?

Hello
I’m new on Mumsnet so maybe you talk about my problem many times already then could you please send me link on previous pages or just help me because I need your advise . My daughter was unsuccessful with all 3 secondary schools☹️. We know that it was happen because of our location. We are in Southampton at the moment but applied for Bournemouth Schools because we are moving to Bournemouth in midsummer. So I would like to appeal on schools decision but don’t really know how to organise it all in right way. What kind of support papers we need to have? How and what to write in appeal ? Do I need to get lawyer ? Maybe someone appealed already and was successful please help me . Thank you very much

@Anjelika2503 If you haven’t already, I would suggest starting a new thread in Secondary Education board. There are lots of knowledgable posters who will be able to help explain it. As you can see from this thread, the general advice is that you shouldn’t need a lawyer.

Thank you .

Hi, my daughter got admission into independent high school [year 7] but cannot afford the high fees and the school does not offer bursary. Can she get financial help elsewhere? If yes, I would appreciate your kind information .

@Thomas9975 I suggest you start your own thread regarding this with a suitable title, you won’t get replies here as it is a zombie thread. (But for what it’s worth unless you are armed forces I don’t belive there is any funding, that’s why there are state schools)

Hi, How can we get to the waiting list of all of them? Is it like just call any school we think is good and ask them to put our child's name in the waiting list?

Admission
My son has been turned down for all 4 schools due to out of catchment area and this reason was used to reject his places. We don’t have any good schools near us and I want to appeal for his 1st choice. I won’t be able to pick him from school as I will be at work and his childminder lives near his 1st choice of school where he attended 2 years nursery too and he is well settled in that school.
Do you think I have grounds to appeal?

Admission appeals for reception year are very much dictated by whether any admission appeal will be an infant class size appeal. For infants there is a law that says that there cannot be more than 30 infant pupils with one school teacher other than in certain situations, which you certainly do not meet from your post.
If the school has an admission number of 15,30, 45, 60 then it will be an infant class size appeal. You can only win such an appeal if there is an issue with the admission process and an error has been made which if corrected would mean you would have been offered a place.
Given that your four preferences were all out-of-catchment schools it seems unlikely that a mistake has been made.
If the appeal is not an infant class size appeal, then based on what you have said that the appeal will be about using a local childminder then I would say that you have a very low level of chance of success as panels are told clearly that this has to be given little weight in the arguments for a place at the school.
You should get your name down on the waiting list for the schools you want but I think you need to be looking at other more local schools that may have places available.
Sorry that is not good news for you.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

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 - 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.

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.

@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.

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