Secondary Academy Appeal - Head presenting case against us

[Jax57]

Hi all - have now been given Appeal date and who is on panel etc but is it usual for the Head of the school you are appealing for to present the case against you? I have their statement (normal stuff about classroom sizes etc) and did ask school for 'net capacity' which they originally did not give - as they do not have to - but in statement they have stated that maximum capacity is 1642 over their preferred total of 1595 (inc 6th form). Just slightly concerned that Head is presenting case against us (I have documented her contribution to a University research paper re friendship groups etc)...how could this affect our case?

It’s perfectly usual.

Thank you for the reassurance!

It’s normal. And if the school doesn’t present a case against you then you’d have to be given a place.
It is part of the cost to a school when there are days of appeals in the summer.

The head was at out appeal - tbh I wasn't expecting her to be there so I was a bit shocked initially. However she was very friendly and I didn't feel interrogated.
Just do your research - in our case the net capacity had not been updated for some years and there had been fairly recent extensions. Also with info from DfE , council and school websites I could evidence that they had gone over PAN for many years and some class sizes were 31/32.

You have to show why that school is the right one and convince the panel that the detriment to the school of taking your child is far outweighed by the benefits to your child.
Ours was a grammar school appeal on over subscription and I found the section on appeals on the elevenplusexams.co.uk very useful. Whilst your appeal may not be for a grammar school a lot of it will still be relevant. Good Luck.

It is usually the Head or Deputy that attends appeals. Ours was very civilised, he put the case as to why the school would struggle if they took on extra pupils etc ( we were trying to get a place for Year 9 following move to area). He ended the appeal saying that if we were successful and the panel decided our child should be given a place, that we were not to worry that the place had been given through appeal as he assured us our child would be made to feel very welcome at the school. I thought him saying that was very thoughtful and caring. We were successful by the way. Good luck