Advice please regarding secondary school appeal

[trixxieloo]

Hi
School appeal novice here looking for advice and tips.
We have our school appeal in a few weeks and I'm trying to prepare. I'm looking for info regarding stage 1 group meeting first.
I obviously want to lower the schools prejudice case but should I reveal (ask) my questions at this stage 1 meeting? the school is hearing 60 appeals and yes I want to lower the schools prejudice case but I want to do this in relation to my childs appeal (sorry if it sounds selfish towards the other appellants).

can I wait for my one to one stage 2 meeting to ask my questions? Will these be allowed at stage 2 meeting? I have already sent in all my evidence and supporting documents around my child's medical needs (this is the basis I am appealing under). Just wondering when is best for my case to ask these questions?

Anyone got any tips?

Thank you
Trixxieloo

As far as I know they all need to be asked at stage 1. You don't reduce the prejudice for just your child and it may be that another child has a better individual case so is more likely to win an appeal. The panel members will consider and rank all those appealing to consider whether any of them have stronger cases than the school's case to presumably not admit anyone else.

You need to put forward the general arguments about space, lunch arrangements, desks, classroom and class sizes etc in part 1. They apply to the school in general and all applicants, not just you.

You risk the Chair of the panel asking you to move on to your own case and not belabour these points if you try to argue them in your case. If they are hearing your case, they have decided there would be at least some prejudice.

Anyway, in reality, if you are allowed make these points in your time, it's not going to benefit just you anyway. The panel doesn't make decisions on appeals until all are heard, so if you do manage to make an additional point about capacity, you firstly risk having the appeal adjourned so the panel can consider it as new evidence (if they allow it, they don't have to allow new evidence at appeal) plus it will be taken into consideration for all appeals at the end of the process.

There is no benefit to you for holding back any general points from part one.

You also need to submit your case in advance, with these arguments, so panel and the admissions authority will have read the case beforehand.

Thank you. I'm on a steep learning curve.