School Appeals

[Matsar]

Good morning, newbie here so please go easy!! and apologies if this is in the wrong place.

So as with a lot of other families we woke on Thursday morning to find our DD had not been offered a place at our preferred school but instead allocated at a school that we have never heard of and is a 1 hour bus journey via 2 buses away from our house.

I'am currently putting together an appeal based on a lot of factors, however the main reason for posting here today is to get some feedback on some observations I have made whilst researching this subject to strengthen our case.

Our LA made the admissions data available to view on Friday and I have noticed the following:

1. The school which we have been allocated has a PAN 180 and received 220 applications, they have offered 173 with 43 of those offers being families including us that have been allocated that school as there is no room elsewhere and this is the closest with space.... Where have the 47 children that applied to that school AS PREFERENCE been placed?? and why have 43 children children who don't want to be there been allocated that school over them??.....or am I wrong on this??

2)Our preferred school was oversubscribed and has a last place offered of 0.88, however due to knowledge of successful applicants I know that there are families who have been offered a place who sit outside of this distance and don't have any mitigating factors as to why they should have been prioritized in allocation....with our home address actually being closer... I have verified this on OS mapping.

Should pursue these two lines of investigation or am I barking up the wrong tree???.....Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly make sure you are on the waiting list for any school you would prefer over the one you have been allocated. There will be movement before September.

1 sounds like a complete waste of time, to be honest. The preference system is complex. Those children who expressed an interest may have been placed at a school which was higher in their preferences, or may have been further away than you are. I don’t see how this could possibly do anything in your favour.

For 2, if you have good reason to believe that there are families who may have made a fraudulent application, then by all means report this. It won’t necessarily get you a place though - you don’t say how close you are, but there may well be other families who are still closer who would come ahead of you. You wouldn’t get the place for being the one who has pointed the situation out.

However, you can appeal for any school you like. You would need to show that it would be worse for your daughter to be denied a place than it would for the school to have to take an additional pupil.

I’m sure one of the more knowledgable posters will be along, but have a look at some of the other threads in this section. You would be looking for things you can demonstrate that your preferred school offers that others don’t - e.g. sports which she shows an aptitude for that others schools don’t have, language options when your daughter is looking to pursue languages etc.

Thanks for your response.... just for my own knowledge does the number of applications shown on the admissions data include those who have listed that school as a second or third preference and not just the the first preference, I suspect it does.

We are on the waiting list of our preferred school so all good on that front and will be able to check our position next week.

I have a good number of issues lined up for the appeal but I'm just wanting to get a different point of view on the admissions data.

I'm not saying that there are fraudulent applications in terms of addresses but there are certainly families that fall outside of that last place offered distance so something isn't quite right there surely ? ?

1. If you have to name 3 preferences, then all 3 will count as 'applications' for the school, even if they were third choices. So with the school you were allocated only 130 went to people who named the school as their first choice (or put unrealistic schools above it). It was probably a fall back school for the other 90 and they got higher choices.
   As none of the schools you listed could offer you a place, you and 42 others got placed into the nearest school with places.
   i.e. There is zero benefit in pursuing this as you have misunderstood.

2. You can check what distance the school used for you and check it is correct. Some schools use 'as the crow flies' others use 'best walking route'. If others are further away from you then one of 3 things has occurred:
   a) the LA has made a mistake in your distance / categorisation
   b) the other families lied
   c) the other families have something that places them higher that you don't know about, e.g. being adopted.

You can ask the LA to check your distance and what category you were under.
If you believe parents have lied you can report your concerns to the admissions team who will check. But the people highest up the waiting list would get any revoked place.

You need to make sure you are on the waiting list for any school you prefer above the allocated one.
If you want to appeal for any of the schools who rejected you, you need to find reasons to show why the disadvantage of your child not attending is greater than the disadvantage to the school of going over numbers.

x-post with the experts.

Just to be clear, an adopted child could live 50 miles from the school and would get a place over practically any other child. So last distance offered is about the final category that places are filled from, not the distance that any accepted child happens to be from the school.

tiggytape Thanks, its straight line distance that the school use and I have used the same mapping the LA uses so I'am confident that there is an issue there.

I get it with issue 1 but it does seem odd.

You say you’re on the list for your preferred school - are you on more than one?

EduCated unfortunately we only put one preference, on the assumption that we have lived in the successful admissions area for over ten years with DD elder sibling attending (now moved on to college)- I know now that this was a mistake, and probably didn't understand the whole process properly- hindsight is great!!!

First thing Monday, ask to go on the waiting lists for any school you prefer over the allocated one.

Thanks all,

We are on the waiting list of our preferred school automatically, can I simply phone the admissions teams to get a place on other waiting lists OR do I need to submit a late application??'

I'm confident that our other factors for appeal are strong, but not that strong in terms of an appeal in regards to the admissions process.
your responses here today have been very helpful, thank you.

Phone up and ask to be put on the waiting list of every single school your DC can reasonably get to.

Nor sure what you mean about factors being strong, but not in terms of the admissions process? You don’t need to demonstrate any issue with the process in order to have a successful appeal, this isn’t like appeals at primary where infant class size rules often come into play.

If you wanted to post your thinking on the appeal, I’m sure some of the very knowledgable posters here could help you shape it and work out what to focus on and what to give less weight to.

tiggytape yep we have those boxes ticked, just wasn't sure were we stood in terms of other waiting lists.

I think that we will be high on the waiting list of our preferred school so fingers crossed we will see some movement.

Really wish we had looked it this in greater depth, but it didn't even cross our minds based on our previous success. we will be watertight when DS is making the school transition that's for sure....third time lucky!!!!