DS Placed in wrong category, how to word appeal- also Medical need

[FourDS]

Hi,

I am hoping someone here can help with wording an appeal, when you believe the school has applied the wrong category to your child and as such there was no chance he was going to be made an offer.
Its a secondary Year 7 application.

I found last night by letter after requesting the information, that one of my DS higher preferences (London Oratory) he was placed in wrong category. I can't understand what has happened. All other Catholic schools (CVMS, Wimbledon & St Thomas More) have placed him in the right category (Practicing Catholic and with CVMS baptized within 12 months). He was originally baptized CofE at 4months. But we have been practising Catholics for at least the last 4-5 years and provided various documents and certificates.

I have sent a further email to the school today asking how they came to this decision, so I can target the appeal accordingly- but I am unlikely to receive the response before the deadline tomorrow to submit my appeal.

In addition my suffers from PTSD and there are some reasons we believe this school would be better suited. Although I am not sure I want to go into detail with the school about this- as its very sensitive.

Any advice on wording widely enough to cover as much grounds as possible and give me an opportunity to get the relevant supporting information at a later date would be much appreciated.

Also, if the school has made an error and he would have been made an offer, can they still argue that they cant admit him because of overcrowding (they sent a detailed letter, why the cant go over the agreed number of admission for year 7.

Apologies- thanks in advance for any support and/or advice.

Thanks so much tiggytape for your quick response. I am 99% sure he should have been categorised higher, I will check again but went through with a fine tooth comb before.

The only point I am not certain on is the category of baptised within 6 months, as his baptism certificate says its sufficient for Roman Catholic, however their admission criteria and footnotes doesn't specify it must be a Catholic baptism.

So hopefully some good news to come. Although any suggestions of wording in such circumstances?

Thanks again

The thing is, a CofE baptism is tridentine, and so you couldn't get him 're-baptised' as a Catholic. Did you go through RCIA / similar? How old was your son then?

Thanks both
IrnBruTortie: Exactly, I went through RCIA about 5 years ago and my son done his holy communion when he was 8 years old, where I was advised that he also being received into the Catholic church- he can't re-baptised.

TiggyTape: I dropped something similar already, so hopefully they get in touch.

They also do random allocation as they have more people meeting those higher criteria than place, so don't know how that would work if they did make an error- as we still may have been offered a placed, if he wasn't randomly picked.

Will update when I know more.