Secondary school appeal

[Snuggles23]

Hi, is anyone currently going through the admissions appeal process? We got offered an awful school in admissions day and didn't get any of our 3 preferred choices! This is all made worse by Coronavirus as we are not allowed to be present even by video call to put our case forward.

Which county are you dealing with? It’s an awful nightmare, first not getting the school you want and then the arrival of Covid-19 almost stopping everything. Do you have a school place for September? 🤞🏻

We have a school place allocated but not sending our child there as not a good school. Have got another school we could possibly attending but hoping appeal goes our way first. Are you going through an appeal as well?

If you are not going on a video call, how is the appeal being carried out?
You could ask for the appeal to be by video and see what is said. The changed regulations are clear that the preferred route for appeal is by video, then by telephone and then by written papers. The appeal panel would then have to state specifically why they do not believe it cannot be done by video.

No we have been informed that it will not be by video and they have all our documents and if they need to speak to us then they will phone us.

As Admission says, the temporary regulations are clear that the hearing should be by telephone or video conference wherever possible. Saying they will phone you if they need to speak to you is totally inadequate. They are taking away your chance of presenting your own case and questioning the case to refuse admission.

I would contact the clerk and ask them why they do not believe the hearing can be conducted by conference call. To be precise, they need to explain which of the conditions in Schedule 2 paragraph 2(1) of the School Admissions (England) (Coronavirus) (Appeals Arrangements) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 they believe will not be met and why. Paragraph 2(2) only allows the panel to decide without a conference call if one of those conditions is not met. And, if they think that the appeal panel phoning you if they need to speak to you meets the requirements of paragraph 2(1), they need to read the definition of "remote access" in regulation 7.

In my view, even if they are able to come up with a good reason for not holding a conference call, what they are proposing is against the regulations. Either hold a conference call or decide on the written submissions only. Ringing people if they need to speak to them is neither one thing nor the other. And, for all you know, they may ring the school's representative. That would clearly be breaking the spirit of the Appeals Code which is clear that the school's representative must never be with the appeal panel unless the parents are also there.

Another appeal here to be held by written submissions only.

I'm just preparing my paperwork to send in. I've downloaded this template and adapted it. Do I need to detail my reasons as to why I don't want DD to go to the offered school? I thought I was just giving my reasons for the school I was appealing for.

Also, on receipt of my paperwork will the LA send me their case so that I can respond to it? At the moment I have simply lodged an appeal and said that my paperwork will follow. I haven't been given a date.

Generally speaking you are appealing for a school not against a school, so it should be reasons for the preferred school. There might on occasions be good reasons why the allocated school is not suitable when it would potentially be realistic to explain why not, but not normally.

For a written paper appeal only, the process that has been proposed is the following.
Date set by which time all papers from the presenting officer and the appellants have to be with the clerk. Clerk will then submit all papers to the presenting officer, the appellants and the panel members. All parties will consider what questions they need to ask and send them back to the clerk by a set date. The clerk will then submit the questions to the relevant party asking for a response by a set date. All questions and answers will then be distributed by the clerk to all relevant parties. Panel will sit and agree decisions based on the evidence submitted.
The weakness in the system as it stands is the time this is going to take, with information being passed back and forward. There is also an potential issue if the question asked is not answered to the satisfaction of the person asking the question.
If anybody is doing less than this then they are not getting a fair hearing.