Appeal - group session?

[RedSheep73]

We've had the letter giving us our appeal hearing date, and it says that as there are a number of appeals for the same school, they are going to have a session first thing for the school to put it's case, which all parents should attend, and then individual parent sessions through the day. Is this normal? We've also been told we won't get the school's case until 7 days before, which seems a bit last minute to me.

Does anyone know, at which point can we make our case that the school can accommodate extra numbers - in the group session with everyone else, or in our own session with the panel?

It’s fairly normal and can be quite helpful as other parents may ask questions and make points you hadn’t thought of. You can make the point about accommodating extra numbers during that session and when summing up at the end of your individual session.

Thanks Acis

It's the standard way to run multiple appeals.

That group session is for the school to make its case that it cannot take any more pupils. This case is the same for every appellant so it saves time just to do it once.

It will state its case, then the appeals panel and the parents will have the chance to ask questions. This is the time to make general points about the school being able to take extra pupils, BUT not a time to talk about your specific case. So it's fine to say "you talk about overcrowding but have there actually been any reportable incidents due to overcrowding?" but not to say "Little Fred is a quiet studious child who wouldn't cause any trouble".

If after this the panel decide that the school can take all of the appellants without prejudice, then all appellants will be granted a place and the appeals process is over.

What is considerably more likely is that they will be able to demonstrate at least some level of prejudice, and then the individual appeals will commence.

Ideally all questions on the schools general case will happen in the grouped session. There is no benefit to you to keeping back questions on this to your session; the panelists won't make overall decisions on each appeal until all appeals have been heard, so you gain nothing by keeping back questions (other than potentially wasting time and annoying the panel!)

Cheers Patricia

There is also one other advantage of a grouped appeal in that if somebody appealing does spot an issue which means that some of all the appellants were disadvantaged then the appeal panel has to sort out the mess for all the appellants, not just the one who raised the issue.
I have sat on panels where unfortunately somebody did raise an issue where three appellants were disadvantaged and had to be admitted. Unfortunately the parent who raised the issue was not one of those three who were top of the admission list and missed out. They assumed that having raised the issue they would be one to benefit but it does not work like that.
Having said that this is not a common occurrence

Thanks admission. Our case is more around why that school can offer things the other school can't, than trying to find fault with the process. But obviously I have things to say about why I think the school could take on more pupils, and I understand that that will apply equally to the others.