Any appeal help- no special circumstances or solid evidence

[allcrossednow]

Please could anyone advise what help/evidence I can request from our current school (& anyone else you.can think of!) to support my appeal application? I was thinking of asking my son's teacher if they could provide an impact statement highlighting why 'in their professinal opinion' they support our choice for the chosen school & believe it to be better suited to him & his learning styles & current academic level etc over the one allocated.

None of our 3 choices or catchment given- was allocated a dismally, very publicly failing school with an outstanding petition from its current 6 form students to remove it's academy status for failing them with little funding & lack of basic resources.

Does anyone know if a school/teacher would be happy/allowed to do that? I don't want to ask if it's not the done thing! Especially as I rarely see her other than parents eve because my DS walks in & out of school himself. I do know her well enough though she has had him a previous year too & only has high praise for him so would think she would be ok to ask.

We basically fall in to the 'other' category of criteria for all schools with no extenuating circumstances. I can demonstrate why the chosen school is the right choice based on my child's interests & academic ability. The school's own ethos is very academic driven with high achieving across the board being their focus. So I hope that basing most of my case around that will be ok. (I am in no way a tiger mum or wish to come across like my child is brilliant because I say so)! That is not us I just wish to make a solid case with little to no professional backing & do the best for my child as who really would set their kids up to fail from the off when there may be the slimmest of hopes. He will drastically full behind at the allocated school within weeks if he isn't given good role models or working to the current standard he is used to.

Would also like to say we are mainstream not private. Very hard to get across on paper that he is not a little genius who I am pining over. He's just an average child who enjoys to learn & does well at his expected level & slightly above but is highly thought of by all teachers, peers.

He has a recognised certificate from Trinity London College achieved last year in musical theatre along with an in depth report from the principle of the academy of arts he has attended for 5 years. I am hoping that would be a solid piece of eveidence- detailing west end work & local theatre experience? As the chosen school has a great department for music/drama. Along with many supporting extra curricular clubs which he would thrive in. He has a keen interest in several of the other clubs too. Some of which are not available at the allocated school.
(Also not sure if it would be relevant but the arts academy he attends actually uses the school site on weekends, so my son is familiar with part of the school & the travel route).

I have no help to draft my case & just feel at my wits end that in reality we get very little choice on where our kids are given if we have nothing other than "this is the best fit for us".

Any help appreciated. Apologies for the length wanted to give as much info as we have. Thank you for reading if you got this far!

That can, and does, happen to an extent. However, some schools can't expand, some are worried about adverse effects from expanding and some popular schools view the length of their waiting list as some kind of badge of honour. The free schools programme was another attempt to get a surplus of places in areas where there are failing schools. This was heavily resisted by campaigns that took the view that no additional places are needed if there are already enough to go round, even if the places are at unpopular schools.

I do appreciate everyone's opinion & all the advice I have been given on here. I have said I am going to appeal. It was never just about a good school but a good school that fitted our child's needs & was local enough for us to stand a good enough chance, (in my opinion) & based on others locally I know who already attend & the head's speech itself. Seemed silly not to select.

I apologise my post seems to have kicked of a fierce argument however I really do think something has clearly gone very wrong this year for many families. I know from local news we are not alone of the worst case by far. So there is a need for an overhaul of the selection process. Or rightly as @Smother said, we may as well just be told where they will go to save all the heartache & wasted time looking into schools if we really have no real choice. Would save us all alot of time, money, paper & many tears & grey hairs!

And to the pp sorry I have complety lost track now.... I have requested home school information also & it isn't an empty threat. I am lucky/thankful enough that I would be able to see it through for as long as required until I do find the right school.