School Appeal - Dismissed

[Shard156]

I would really appreciate some guidance on what I can do next.

We have recently had our school appeal dismissed. Other than the school admissions criteria being followed and the school being overcrowded, the School’s case outweighed ours because a suitable school was offered to our child and they couldn’t see any reason that she couldn’t travel to that school.

My DD has always suffered from severe anxiety, shyness and a lack of confidence. She doesn’t do change very well and we tried to appeal for the secondary school 80% of her current school peers would be attending.

This school was our 4th choice as it was a good distance from our house, so we thought that we would stand a better chance with a nearby school. We didn’t get offered any of our preferred schools. The school we were offered we refused and we found a smaller school (130 pupils in Year 7) but 14 miles away from our home.

We thought we had a good case. Our evidence consisted of medical records showing she went to see the doctors November last year and in March this year due to anxiety, nightmares, stress and rashes. The doctor recommended a counsellor, which we arranged. We had a letter from her counsellor as part of our evidence. We had a letter from the head teacher of her primary school also mentioning her shyness and confidence and endorsed the school we were appealing for. We had a letter from both our employers mentioning that we work away from time to time at short notice and a letter from my DD grandparents saying that they have taken and picked her up from primary school since she’s attended.

From the beginning, the appeal process hadn't filled us with confidence. We were sent the letter from the Appeals Team to let us know the appeal hearing would be held on the 5th May. This would have given us less than 10 schools day to prepare and we asked for the LEA evidence on why we were refused the place. We were told that we wouldn’t be sent any evidence and that we didn’t get the place because of the distance from the school. As it was short notice to prepare our case we asked for a new hearing date which they agreed to. The new letter arrived and this was for the 12th May but for a different school. We called the Appeals Team and they agreed a mistake had been made and that they would try and get us a new hearing but it might not be until July. Thankfully the hearing was arranged for the 30th May, we sent our evidence to the appeal team 5 working days before the hearing but their evidence only arrived to us on the 26th May. On the appeal day, one of the panel members didn’t turn up and a replacement member was called and arrived 2 hours later.

During the hearing the LEA gave their evidence and was asked one question by the panel about when the building extension was due to be completed, which they couldn’t give an answer for.

We put across our case and were asked four questions. Why was the school we were appealing for our 4th choice, why we mentioned in our evidence that we don’t see any evidence about overcrowding issues, when clearly there is. (We hadn’t seen any LEA evidence before we had written and sent our evidence). The new panel member who had only just arrived then asked why we had chosen that school to appeal for and the final question was the school we had been offered, had we accepted the place, which we answered Yes.

That was it. No questions about our DD’s condition, no questions about the school we accepted, no questions about the school we refused. I thought the lack of questions was maybe a good thing because our evidence answered their questions.

After receiving the dismissal letter, I felt sick. I felt like they hadn’t read our evidence and we were being rushed through and fobbed off. To mention that the outweighing factor was that they couldn’t see any reason that our DD couldn’t travel to the school 14 miles away when they didn’t even ask about the travel arrangements, where the school is located and why we had chosen that school, was particularly disappointing.

I don’t know what I can do for my DD. What concerns me is what happened on the original hearing date on the 5th May. Did other appeals on that day get their decisions before our appeal was heard. Did we have a different panel, certainly one member was different.

Any advice would be really helpful and I appreciate any direction.

If other appeals were heard for this school on May 5th, then yes, they would have been decided on at that point and decisions made. Ideally it would be the same panel that heard your case, but sometimes emergencies happen, people fall ill, so last minute substitutions have to be made. You should have had 10 school days notice of the appeal, but this can be waived if both parties agree.

What did you get from the school as evidence? The case would have been pretty generic - admissions by distance and you were too far away - but there should also have been their case for prejudice to the school of admitting over PAN.

In terms of timing for papers, all the appeals code requires is "reasonable deadlines for to submit additional evidence, for admission authorities to submit their evidence, and for the clerk to send appeal papers to the panel and parties".

Did the new panelist request any time to read your papers? The other panelists would have read them in advance, and I would expect a panelist brought in at no notice to be given a short period (maybe half an hour) to read the relevant documents.

Questions about the school you refused wouldn't have been very relevant, as you are appealing for a school not against one, but I would have expected some questioning about why your daughters condition requires this school and not any other, nearer one, given there clearly are a number of nearer ones.

If you feel you were disadvantaged by the change of panelist, you can escalate to the LGO (assuming it's a state maintained school not an academy as you mention the LEA). They cannot overturn the appeal decision, but can order a fresh appeal if they find that there was

a)something wrong in the way the appeal was conducted and
b) this may have affected the decision (note, both these conditions have be met -it's not enough for something to have been wrongly done if they don't consider it would actually have had an impact on the decisions).

I may be wrong but as far as I know, unless she has a statement of SEN then your DDs issues have little bearing on a school appeal. It is far more about the allocation rules being followed and whether it would disadvantage the pupils at the school you are trying to enter as it would increase their class sizes. They are quite right to wonder why you would put a school 4th if you genuinely thought it was the best/only place for your DD hence your decision to appeal. You also accepted a place elsewhere which shows that you are actually happy for your Dd to go to a different school.

Why not concentrate your efforts in getting your dd settled into her new school. Have you met /spoken to the SENCO and come up with a transition plan? Has she had the opportunity to look round recently?

I appreciate its not the school you wanted but prolonging the uncertainty may not be in the best intetest of your dd, esp as you have so little chance of success.

I may be wrong but as far as I know, unless she has a statement of SEN then your DDs issues have little bearing on a school appeal

You are wrong. For a secondary school appeal the question the panel must consider is whether the disadvantage to the pupil from not attending this school outweighs the disadvantage to the school from having to cope with an additional pupil. Medical issues can win an appeal provided the evidence is adequate even if there is no statement of SEN or EHCP and even if the school does not have an admissions category for medical needs. It is very definitely not just about the allocation rules.

Shard156 - As you rejected the offered school and chose one 14 miles away, travel arrangements are irrelevant to your appeal. I am not surprised they did not ask about travel arrangements or anything else about this school.

It does sound like a few mistakes were made in organising your appeal. I wouldn't like to say whether or not this is enough for the LGO to step in and order a fresh hearing. You can try but there are no guarantees. Your only other option is judicial review but that could be expensive, particularly if you lose, so I wouldn't recommend going down that route.