PANs and school capacity

[RedSheep73]

I'm tying myself in a knot here trying to work out what we are going to say at appeal, as regards the school's capacity to take an extra child. The PAN is 150. School website states 200 for total 6th form. So I make that 5 x 150 + 200 = 950. However the school capacity, as agreed in their academy funding agreement, is 1003. Is that normal, to plan to be 95% full? Doesn't that just mean every appealing parent can point at those numbers and say you aren't full, you can take my child?
To add to the mix, the school upped its PAN from 124 in the last few years, as well as moving into new premises built for the bigger planned number. So there aren't even 950 kids at present, I calculate in Sep 2019 it would be 882. To me as the parent going to appeal, that looks like bags of room! Even if you take the 95% capacity number, they are still around 70 kids short of being full.
But if it was that easy, surely people would have got in at appeal in previous years...
So what am I missing, and what arguments are the school likely to throw at us?

Well, just because the site has the space for those children it doesn't mean the school has the current layout/staffing to deal with them. There is a lot more to it than just having the physical space.

For example; a PAN of 150 splits nicely into 7 classes of 30 in the year you would be appealing for. Classrooms are likely to be set out to deal with 30. The school will say that going over that will cause problems, especially with specialist rooms such as science blocks (set out as 15 desks of 2 students each, for example), or IT suites (30 computers on 30 desks). They are likely to say that taking classes to 31+ puts extra strain on teachers in terms of marking etc.

The school isn't going to be able to make much of a case for overall overcrowding that many schools make (for example, narrow overcrowded corridors, no space for pupils to eat lunch etc...) and it may be that the panel decide the overall prejudice to them to take another pupil is relatively low. But, short of the Head teacher saying yes I'll have all the appellants, they are likely to be able to show some prejudice.

But is the school year you are appealing for full? That's the relevant part, and I assume it is if you are appealing. It's not really relevant if the school is not full overall, a shortfall two year's ahead of your child isn't going to help - I wouldn't use that as a part of your appeal!

Thanks Patricia

Yes, I can see why they want to keep to classes of 30. Although looking at previous years, they must have gone to 31 on some occasions, so it can't be unprecedented. We'll just to argue that if yhey have done it before, they must be able to do it again. Why else do schools operate at 95% of their capacity, if not to give themselves that wiggle room?

ChicCroissant - well it's not the main part of our case of course, but you have to say something when the school argues why it can't take your child, don't you? Otherwise you've already lost. And having spent all my children's primary years in a school that took bulge classes and really was bursting at the seams, I'm distinctly unimpressed by arguments about schools being full if they're really not!

If they have only changed the PAN in the last couple of years, it won't be 150 in all years, so 5 x 150 could very well be wrong anyway.

Schools don't willingly operate at below capacity - they lose money doing that! They are either not attracting the pupils or they are leaving and not being replaced in the higher years - or that the school has only recently become popular and only one or two years are full.

Trust me, if you are going to appeal the school will already have their argument (along the lines that Patricia mentioned) ready as to why it will disadvantage other pupils to take extras on. Lack of space/resources/teachers/finances. You'd have to show that the disadvantage to the extra pupil was more than the disadvantage to the school and that is very hard to do. Having space in other years won't meet that criteria. If there are only 30 workstations in a classroom, 31 pupils will not fit and it doesn't matter if there are only 28 in a different year. Your counter argument needs to be focused on the capacity in the class/year that your child is in.

Good luck with the appeal, I hope it goes well for you OP. It is very stressful, I appealed (and failed tbh!) for my own daughter with a school in a similar state but on different grounds.