DD with mobility issues has been offered school with no lift!

[Theycallmepheobe]

DD has mobility issues as a result of a stroke when she was little. Her first choice school have been doing lots of transition work with her and in past years all children from the village have got in ok, so we just assumed it would be ok. She’s really upset. The third choice school (where she has a place) had little interest in talking to me about adjustments and have not been that helpful. In total contrast to the first school who have been fantastic. We are 28th on the list for her preferred school - not based in London or in an area where lots of children go to private school. Is there hope? We will appeal as well and her current school have been very supportive, but I’m hopeful she might get in anyway. In retrospect we should have applied via the special needs process but she gets on mainstream primary school without much support (but there are no steps).

Agree with PanelChair. This sounds like an appeal you should win if your daughter's mobility issues mean the offered school is clearly unsuitable. It sounds like the preferred school is onside and wants to help. That may also help your appeal.

You need to have the email conversation PanelChair suggests in order to get things in writing. That will help you at appeal.

Thanks everyone some really helpful advice. Yes the preferred school does have a lift and they have agreed that DD and another girl could leave lessons 5 mins early and take the lift. I’m feeling a bit more optimistic 😀

What happened in terms of the initial application is now irrelevant unless the LA have made a mistake in the admission process. From what you have said it would appear that you are just outside the distance of the last place allocated and whilst 28th may seem a long way down the waiting list at present it is not unusual in secondary schools to be considerable movement. You might just want to check that the distance that the LA have quoted as the distance to the school preferred does seem sensible.
However what you need to do is concentrate on the appeal, as this will probably be your best chance of getting a place at your preferred school. Many secondaries have appeals and in many instances the appeal panel do admit deserving cases - roughly 30% are successful on average.
So the first thing to do is contact the school where you have been allocated a place and ask them to confirm that there is no lift to allow your daughter to access some of the classrooms and what appropriate adjustments need to be made to accommodate your daughter. From what you have said, that is not going to be very helpful.
The preferred school can and will make appropriate adjustments so you need to make that a central part of your case. In this particular case it will actually be an advantage to use the negative response from the allocated school to just confirm they do not seem to be that interested in the welfare of your daughter.
You also need to talk about the friendship group that your daughter has that will be going to the preferred school, who act as an aid to your daughter going around the school. That then leads onto the question that the panel will need to ask and understand and that is just how bad are your daughter's mobility issues.As there is no EHCP plan it would appear to not be that bad but you do need to convince the panel that there are issues that would significantly affect your daughter's ability to move easily around the allocated school, especially given they do not seem very helpful. Anything that you can get from physio and especially a consultant confirming a level of mobility issues will be an advantage.
I would normally say that trying to personalise an appeal is likely to backfire badly but in this particular appeal the reality is that if you can convince the appeal panel that your daughter does have mobility issues and that the preferred school have been incredibly helpful then you have a good chance of winning at appeal.

Prh47bridge, Tiggy and PanelChair are experienced experts.

Some Other PP have posted observations that are plain wrong.

You can get started by gathering your evidence. Get two letters from relevant Health Care Professionals. They are busy people: I drafted up what to say and sent it in a Word doc. (Each letter differently worded). The letter should briefly name or describe the condition and what the effect is. Then the reason for the need to attend the school. (E.g difficulty with steps, balance, slowness, tiredness in struggling with steps, tiredness and difficulty with journey to allocated school).

The letter should say “in my opinion” or “it is my view” or “in my judgement” “xxxx school is the only school which suits xxxx’s needs”. It should not say ‘her mother believes she should attend this dchool’ Or ‘her parents have told me ...’.

Tell them how well your Dd does at primary where it is flat and no adjustment is needed and this helps her confidence and therefore her academic progress (if true).

Lay out what you have told us here about putting it in tne application and the LA saying it wasn’t taken into account.

Tne reasons why the preferred school will suit her and the other one will not - the way they dealt with your concerns included.

Good luck!

(I have a child with a mobility disability, no EHCP, and got places in two suitable schools on medical SEN need.

(Admission is also an expert)

Thank you, SlackPanther. One of the reasons I (and others) do this is as a corrective to the number of people who turn up on these threads and confidently give advice that is wrong and, if followed, wouldn’t assist the parent at all!

My friend's daughter was in a similar position. Went to appeal all guns blazing and it was literally a case of...she needs an accessible school and she got in.

By all guns blazing I mean they gathered loads of evidence from primary school, doctors etc about her requirements. She didn't have an EHCP either.

There is a MNer who several years ago won an appeal in almost exactly this scenario. Maybe she’ll find this thread, too.

I understand that your preferred school is the one with the lift, however to reassure you, I work in a large secondary with multiple buildings most of which don't have lifts. We have several students with mobility issues and at least one in a wheelchair. All their lessons are scheduled to take place in an accessible part of the school - the teachers move to a ground floor classroom when teaching those children. It works fine.

If only all schools were as accommodating as yours, keiratwiceknightly. Unfortunately some are unwilling to do anything to help pupils with disabilities. Some don't even bother telling their staff when a pupil has a disability that is not immediately visible. I could cite, for example, the school that didn't tell their staff that a pupil was deaf in one ear resulting in teachers thinking the pupil concerned was ignoring them or worse and being repeatedly disciplined.

Thanks all for the responses. I will start getting the medical evidence on Monday and will get the offered school to put in writing how they could make it work. They have taken on an extra 100 students this year which I can’t think will help their focus on this. I think mentioning how well she gets on now with no stairs is a great idea.