LA is bulling me to put daughter in lower year

[NinaKKjones]

I really am desperate for advice,
After a relocation due to a forced move i applied to the local school for a place for my daughter for year 10 it was now March 2019 (year 10 start date was Sept 18).
The school did-not see us untill early May and then REFUSED her a place, did not offer an appeal .
I contacted the LA for help they advised there was no other schools in the area they would ask school to reconsider.
We have now reached July no one has any concern as to school missed and im freaking out .
The LA send me an email to say that The school will offer her a place but in year 9, and i HAVE TO ACCEPT IT NO APPEAL ALLOWED.
And if i dont force my daughter to face this public humiliation i will be prosecuted.

Does any one know where i stand have made a complaint but the LA seem to think despite it proven to be damaging to a child this is acceptable.
No where to turn and still no school place

I have tried out of school areas colleges even looked at how i could fund paying

This is my point and the one and only point
We have guide lines whether we agree with them or not
Whats the point if their not followed

Gov policies Placement of pupils outside their normal age group

Guidance v3.6

Making decisions on placement outside the normal age group
The Admissions Code 2014 makes it clear that admission authorities must make
decisions about placements outside the normal age group on the basis of the
circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This
will include taking account of:
• the parents’ views;
• the views of the headteacher of the school/s concerned;
• information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development;
• where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional;
• whether they have been previously educated out of their normal age group; Principles for decision-makers
LA recognises that each case must be considered on an individual basis but
believes in the following principles:
• Established good practice within the County and nationwide shows that, apart
from in the most exceptional circumstances, schools are able to meet all pupils’
personal, social and educational needs within their appropriate age group, and
that this is a reasonable expectation.
• Decision-makers should be able to demonstrate that other strategies have failed,
or are highly unlikely to be successful in meeting the child’s needs.
• In no case should a child be placed in a year group more than one year different
from their school-age peers.
• In no case should pupils be retained in a year group solely to avoid/defer other
decisions e.g. about transition to a further Key Stage.
• It should always remain clear in which National Curriculum year group pupils are
registered at the school. It is good practice to record this information on annual
reports to parents.
• The needs of the child must always be considered as the key criteria, rather
than, for example, school organisation, curriculum and assessment
considerations.

wrong child

So, you want your daughter to sit exams she won't have had the majority of the teaching for why?

If you fight for her to be admitted into year 11 she will be a year behind - what she did for a couple of terms in her old school will almost certainly not be what this school taught. The effect of that will be that your child will end up with shit grade GCSEs. Now if you and her aren't particularly interested in education, think school is a waste of time, are happy to live a life of minimum wage jobs topped up with benefits, then fine.

If however she has any sense of ambition at all, you will be doing her a massive disservice. Most people who value education would be snapping their hand off - local authorities are usually VERY unhappy about funding a child for an extra year.This one sounds brilliant, and the school is acting in her best educational interests.

Be the grown up and see this as a fantastic opportunity for your child to not have their education fucked up by whatever circumstances led to this situation, rather than going all teenagery with that attitude,.

I understand what you are saying but a year 11 placement would not be in your child's best interests if she has coursework missing or her coursework is not valid for that school...unless you can categorically say all her coursework has been completed to a satisfactory standard and you know the new school has the same exam boards then what exactly do you expect the LA to do? Hire one teacher solely for the purposes of teaching your child for an exam board no-one else is doing?

But they do appear to be following the guidelines and doing what is best for her. That's the point.

That's just not what you want, but putting her into year 11 in September when she has to all intents and purposes missed year 10 is madness and will lead to a very poor set of exam results.

The fact she is a bright kid and did some of year 10 somewhere else is irrelevant, as she won't have been doing the same exam boards and covering the content in the same order and timeframe as the new school.

They are suggesting a solution which is likely to save her GCSES. Your idea would ruin them.

Are you in a very rural location? In all but the most rural areas there will be another school she can travel to. Why did the school ‘refuse’ your initial application? Was that application made through the local authority? Why couldn’t you appeal?

I think you have just proved the point.

Interested to know why you think your child can do 5 terms work in 8 subjects in 2 terms.

What your child did in year 10 in her previous school will be somewhat irrelevant

Can I ask why you moved at such a crucial point if you were keen on your child staying in her year group and are not considering he

I think your referring to year 9 places is confusing the matter. You were offered a year 9 place in July, so before the end if the school year ended. Meaning your DD will start year 10 in September. If I understand correctly. So 1 year behind her actual age.

Working in a secondary school, that would absolutely be the right thing to do in my opinion. Even if she had completed the whole of year 10 at her previous school (which your DD hasn't), unless I had looked at the exam board, set texts, syllabus, content already taught, at both schools and spoken with subject heads for every single subject and satisfied myself that both schools were exactly the same in everything, I would not start her in year 11 at a new school.

As pp have said, it's not fair on her to expect her to sit exams where she has only been taught half the course.

In my experience LAs do not like giving money out that they don’t have to. If your dd has missed most of year 10 and you’ve moved and she could potentially be taking exams that she has barely had any teaching on especially if the boards are different she may end up with low grades. If the LA though it would be cheaper they could easily shove your dd into year 11 without much thought whereas they’re giving her a decent chance. Have you talked to the school in question to see if any of her studies match up to their boards? My youngest is in a specialist school and is staying in the same year group and class. It doesn’t bother me. My main concern is her getting the best education possible.

I think your dd would be better off going into y10. The idea that she will somehow cope with a y11 workload, in a new school, while 'blending in' and simultaneously catching up on everything she missed in year 10 is... implausible. It is making life 10x harder for herself. It is a bad idea.

Yes your right its not public humiliation to me or you

My daughter finished her old school easter holidays 2019 The new schools was applied to hoping to start after easter hoildays . School refused to admit her NO SCHOOL EVEN MISSED AT THIS POINT !!!!!!!!

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work .

And yes your all right and i do agree i would love her to start it all fresh from the beginning again ,
But i have a daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment
who is the one that will always be whatever the kids choose to label her as .

Even if the school had accepted her after Easter she would still have been best off gong into a year below unless she was lucky enough to find a school that not only did the exact same subjects with option columns but also chose all the exact same set texts/history periods/RS combinations etc etc.

It is geerally considered that January of Year 10 is the LAST possible time to move your child and even then it usually means dropped subjects/a lot of catching up. Anyhting after that means you can pretty much say goodbye to good GCSE results.

My dd did GCSE's last year and my son will do them next year. Year 10 is a crucial year. Most of the syllabus will be finished by Christmas when mocks will start and then it will be consolidation and exam practice.

Unless she tells them, they aren't likely to know her age, she won't stand out and no-one will actually care. If anything she has a much better chance of fitting in with new social groups as options means groups will be split from year 9 rather than her joining a pre-existing group which might be closely bonded/have cliques already.

I am sorry for you, that you are disappointed, especially with her not getting placed after Easter.
Having done an in-year transfer myself I was told to expect at least 20 working days to process so I am not wholly surprised.
But you still have not answered any questions wrt coursework components and exam boards...there is no getting away from the fact your move was not viable if they use a different exam board or only a few instead of 8.

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work .

Because it's a moot point now.

daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment
who is the one that will always be whatever the kids choose to label her as

I understand your dd is anxious. Teenagers are very self-conscious. But no one will know her age, will they? I'm not sure that they would care very much either. Has she been bullied before? There is nothing humiliating about making sure she has all the teaching she needs to do the exams. It would be a lot more humiliating to work hard through year 11, then get her GCSE results and find that she's failed them, can't get into the college she wants, then has to be separated from all the friends she made in year 11 because she never had a fair chance in the first place.

But i have a daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment

All teenagers think anything outside exactly what they want when they want it is public humiliation and punishment. Sometimes we have to "adult up" and tell them how it has to be.

I think most teens would be very quickly accepting of another pupil who had had to move and miss/switch syllabus.

Even if she had moved at Easter she would have needed to go in the year below to give her a chance at decent GCSE's.

LA recognises that each case must be considered on an individual basis but
believes in the following principles:
• Established good practice within the County and nationwide shows that, apart
from in the most exceptional circumstances, schools are able to meet all pupils’ personal, social and educational needs within their appropriate age group, and that this is a reasonable expectation.

Yes, but how does that tally with 'teach my child a whole 2 year course in less than 2 terms'?
There's not a big difference between teaching year 10 and 11 educationally. In fact I'd say you'd struggle to tell if I was teaching y10 or 11 after the first half term of y10
There's a massive difference in terms of how much of the course has been covered.
• Decision-makers should be able to demonstrate that other strategies have failed, or are highly unlikely to be successful in meeting the child’s needs.

Highly unlikely to meet the child's needs = we can't teach one child 9 2 year gcse courses in less than 2 terms

• In no case should a child be placed in a year group more than one year different
from their school-age peers.
She'd be a year below so not a problem
• In no case should pupils be retained in a year group solely to avoid/defer other
decisions e.g. about transition to a further Key Stage.
That's not relevant
• It should always remain clear in which National Curriculum year group pupils are
registered at the school. It is good practice to record this information on annual
reports to parents.
Easily done
• The needs of the child must always be considered as the key criteria, rather
than, for example, school organisation, curriculum and assessment
considerations.
The needs of the child means the child has the right to have a good chance at getting a range of qualifications to set them up for life.

So you can't drop a child back who has been with you since y7 because you're bothered they might pull your GCSE results down at the end of y11 so you make them repeat y10 that they've already studied.

Where a child hasn't studied the required guided learning hours for a course then they are within their rights to as to do otherwise hinders the child's educational opportunities.

A typical GCSE is 120 guided learning hours plus homework, revision etc. Your daughter doing 9 courses in 2 terms won't have done that.

I'm still not sure how you think they aren't following the guidance. Copying and pasting it multiple times doesn't change the fact that your daughter has studied 2/3 of Year 10, will have had 6 months out of education by the time she would be due to start y11 and under your proposal you expect a school to get her through a full set of GCSEs from scratch in under 2 terms.

Based on the provisional exam timetable for summer 2020:

April 2020 - MFL speaking exams
November 2019- May 2020 - drama practical
Final exams for the summer begin on 11th May.

And you still think the LA are failing because they are putting your child's educational needs first by enabling her to study the full course properly and perform in a way that will give her the most opportunities post 16 and beyond?

So much bold fail. I'll try again.

LA recognises that each case must be considered on an individual basis but believes in the following principles:
• Established good practice within the County and nationwide shows that, apart from in the most exceptional circumstances, schools are able to meet all pupils’ personal, social and educational needs within their appropriate age group, and that this is a reasonable expectation.

Yes, but how does that tally with 'teach my child a whole 2 year course in less than 2 terms'?
There's not a big difference between teaching year 10 and 11 educationally. In fact I'd say you'd struggle to tell if I was teaching y10 or 11 after the first half term of y10
There's a massive difference in terms of how much of the course has been covered.
Decision-makers should be able to demonstrate that other strategies have failed, or are highly unlikely to be successful in meeting the child’s needs.

Highly unlikely to meet the child's needs = we can't teach one child 9 2 year gcse courses in less than 2 terms

In no case should a child be placed in a year group more than one year different from their school-age peers.
She'd be a year below so not a problem
In no case should pupils be retained in a year group solely to avoid/defer other decisions e.g. about transition to a further Key Stage.
That's not relevant
it should always remain clear in which National Curriculum year group pupils are registered at the school It is good practice to record this information on annual reports to parents.
Easily done
The needs of the child must always be considered as the key criteria, rather than, for example, school organisation, curriculum and assessment considerations.
The needs of the child means thechildhas the right to have a good chance at getting a range of qualifications to set them up for life.

So you can't drop a child back who has been with you since y7 because you're bothered they might pull your GCSE results down at the end of y11 so you make them repeat y10 that they've already studied.

Where a child hasn't studied the required guided learning hours for a course then they are within their rights to as to do otherwise hinders the child's educational opportunities.

A typical GCSE is 120 guided learning hours plus homework, revision etc. Your daughter doing 9 courses in 2 terms won't have done that.

I'm still not sure how you think they aren't following the guidance. Copying and pasting it multiple times doesn't change the fact that your daughter has studied 2/3 of Year 10, will have had 6 months out of education by the time she would be due to start y11 and under your proposal you expect a school to get her through a full set of GCSEs from scratch in under 2 terms.

Based on the provisional exam timetable for summer 2020:

April 2020 - MFL speaking exams
November 2019- May 2020 - drama practical
Final exams for the summer begin on 11th May.

And you still think the LA are failing because they are putting your child's educational needs first by enabling her to study the full course properly and perform in a way that will give her the most opportunities post 16 and beyond?

B

Have you actually looked at the syllabus for each subject, the one that your daughter has studied and the one that the proposed school teaches? How much of an overlap is there. Certainly the school and the LA feels that there is insufficient overlap to enable her to successfully complete the course by next Summer. How could you NOT want her to have the best opportunity to achieve?

Do your dd was in School A, from September, in year 10.

You moved around April, applied for a year ten place, and were offered a year 9 place?

Now they are offering year 10 for September so one year out of age group?

I think that's odd tbh. I can see why you are confused.

She couldn't have started after Easter for various reasons: her options might not have matched with their timetabling and they may be doing different boards anyway.
You haven't answered this question and I think that's where we find the solution. This is the best for her educationally speaking.

Can I just say. I had to repeat a year at school due to a move. It absolutely was not a public humiliation, no one gave it a second thought and If anything put me at an advantage. Please don't worry

And it was year ten so I was sixteen halfway through the year