Ended Managed Move

[Babbaloo1]

Help and advice please. My DD has had 2 and a half years of progressively worse emotional and mental health as a result of choosing an all girls school where not only did she not make friends but was subjected to the usual bitchy style bullying behaviour, a total lack of support from the school and a huge turn over of staff. so she had nothing positive going on at all in school and the result was that she started refusing to attend - threatening self harm etc etc - the school decided the best course of action was to put us on a penalty notice monitoring period so the only way we were able to get her out of the school quickly was via a managed move to a much smaller school. She settled well but the move has highlighted some deep rooted issues created by the school experience and as they have no access to her funding the new school have ended the move but have advised they will welcome her back in the next year if she can show that she has had some significant intervention to help her with her anxiety and self esteem/confidence issues. The old school have written to us to say that she is expected back in to a full timetable with no concessions as they made every effort to support her prior to the move and if she is absent they will be requesting a penalty notice. I am broken! My Doctor is preparing a referral to the CAMHS and Clinical PSychologist teams....she is already suffering due to her experience at that school - how can I send her back there? She was happy at the new school in everything apart from PE and feeling very self conscious if she didnt have her 'buddy' with her but she was only there for 7 weeks.....she is pinning her hopes on being able to return to them in September. They do have room in her year but we thought the managed move was the quickest way out of a horrible situation as we were being threatened with fines whilst trying to cope with an emotional wreck of a teenager. Help I am going out of my mind...

You need to take a long hard look at what has happened and then think through the alternatives.
Firstly from your post it would appear that this was an official managed move agreed with yourself, your daughter and the two schools, if apparently orchestrated by the previous school. In these situations there is always a period where you are officially still registered with the original school but hopefully doing OK at the new school. Then you officially transfer to the new school when they are happy with the situation and progress of your daughter.

Whilst I can understand there may well be deep-rooted issues arising from the previous school, the receiving school must have known what they were receiving in the way of a pupil as well as knowing that normal funding follows the pupil based on being in the school in October, so they would not have any funding through to April 2020 unless it was agreed between the two schools for an early transfer of funding.
I think the school's reason sounds very weak which makes me wonder what has happened in the new school over the last 7 weeks. Has it been as positive as you suggest or have there been incidents in school or poor attendance?
I do however think there is an easy option here. You say that the school you want her at is not full in the year group, so just go to the school and ask in writing for a place at the school. They cannot refuse you if they are not up to the PAN for the year group.

Surely she wasn’t perfectly happy there if they’re only prepared to have her back after she’s had “significant intervention”? It doesn’t sound as simple as requesting a place there as they’re undersubscribed. Her issues appear not to be school specific?

Clearly she wasnt perfectly happy there but I had seen more glimpses of my real daughter in the few weeks she has been at the new school than in the previous couple of years. She was coping better with a mixed school and she had funny stories to tell every day, was working hard and completing her homework and had a growing number of friends - but she still has massive issues around body image and self confidence so was avoiding PE and was still too nervous to walk into lessons alone - so she had had a few sessions with the pastoral support team. The message seemed to be that the previous school should have done more to help her and as they have the funding we should go back to them and get the referral to respite in a medical setting to deal with her lack of confidence and resilience - the new school say they will be happy to have her back once she is showing improvement and that way she will be back with them ready for her GCSE's.

As Admission says, if there are places available in your daughter's year group all you have to do is apply formally for a place. They must offer you a place in that situation. They have no choice.

Deregulated your DD from the first school
apply formally to the new school

prh47bridge that’s not true. If a student has failed a managed move then they don’t have to accept her.

Agree with admission and prh. If they have places they must take her.

Sorry Jackshouse but that is incorrect, there is no direct connection between a managed move and a separate application for a place at the school if there are places available.
If the receiving school does not want to admit even though there are places, then the governing board of the school must refer the case to the local authority for action under the Fair Access Protocol. Under most circumstances the receiving school would be told that they have to take the pupil. However this situation only applies where the pupil does not have a school place, which is not the case here, so to me the school has no alternative but to admit if they have available places.
Unfortunately this seems with each post to be a situation where the original school did not do what they should have been doing and the receiving school have recognised that this is a more difficult transition than they were expecting, hence the comments about funding. Neither school is putting the pupil first which is very disappointing.

If a student has failed a managed move then they don’t have to accept her

I am aware that some schools behave as this is true but it isn't. I even know of one school that tried to refuse a parent's legal right to an appeal on this basis. However, there is no exception for children who have failed a managed move. Indeed, managed moves are not even mentioned in the Admissions Code or the relevant legislation. If a school has places available they must be offered to anyone who applies unless the child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools within the last two years.

I would, however, disagree with GreenTulips regarding deregistering the OP's daughter from her current school. That will make no difference to her application to the new school and will commit the OP to home educating her daughter until such time as she is admitted to another school.

The point is the child doesn’t want to go back to the existing school and OP would be fined for not sending her
Deregistering her would at least prevent both of these scenarios

Thank you for this - it sounds like although the old school will be avoiding putting the support she needs in place - as they have done for the past two years as life got tougher all round - we do have a route out of that cold environment and into the new school. At least we can try and relax for the holidays.

if she didn't have her 'buddy' with her

What/who is her buddy? A 1 to 1 support? A comfort item? Another child?

What is the local fair access protocol?

Does she fall under any criteria for referral for fair access?

It is unlikely that the Fair Access Protocol will help. The FAP is there to help pupils who don't have a school place and have difficulty getting one. The OP's daughter has a school place so the FAP is not relevant, nor is it likely to come into play if the OP voluntarily gives up her daughter's current school place. Even in the unlikely event that the LA could be persuaded that it was relevant, they could simply place the OP's daughter back at her current school.

The OP's best approach is to apply to the school she wants. As they have places available they must offer a place to her. If they refuse the OP has the right to appeal. With a properly trained appeal panel it would be an easy win.

If the school had places, I’m confused about why you just didn’t apply there much, much earlier instead of trying to deal with the escalation of issues at her current school. If single sex is so awful, why choose it?

Not all girls in girls’ schools are horrible by the way! Girls can be nasty to each other in all schools, co ed or single sex. It’s just bad luck if you get in with difficult ones and you cannot find nicer friends. Did she have primary school friends? Where did they go to school? As others have said, just apply for a place!