Another plea for appeal help!

[GoldenMushroom]

Hello everyone, first time posting so be gentle!

We are appealing our daughter's secondary school place - it's all being done by written submissions so Im in the middle of wading through all the necessary info I need.

Our situation is this:

• school is oversubscribed with a PAN of 300.
• in 2018 the PAN was permanently increased from 270 to 300.
• Building work is currently underway to increase the size of the school, adding new classrooms, science and art rooms and more dining space. This was supposed to be done by the start of autumn term 2021 but is apparently due to be completed in December.

I have the received pupil numbers for the school and they are as follows:
Y7 300, Y8 300, Y9 300, Y10 270, Y11 258.

Can anyone tell me if I could use the lower numbers in later years to argue that there is space in the school, especially as they are currently increasing the size of the school. Im worried they'll use the building work to say they cant admit any more even though it would be (in theory at least) just for 12 weeks. Teacher:pupil ratio is 1:18 as well, is this high? I have no idea!

We are in Brighton btw if that makes a difference. Thanks for reading.

The figures of 270 and 258 do not really help you. The school PAN of 270 was correctly administered for what is now year 10 and 11 and then correctly administered to a PAN of 300. The PAN of 300 does suggest that in each year group they could take up to 300 in year 10 and year 11 but it has no bearing on a year 7 appeal.
The school and LA has to admit to the PAN. You have that PAN of 300 and so that is the level to which they will admit. The question that you have to ask is whether or not there is an agreed increase of PAN for entry in 2022. If there is then you can argue that with the building work expected to be completed for September the school could admit over the existing PAN of 300 to the new PAN. But if they have not increased PAN then you will not have a good arguing position to take more pupils. I suspect that the new build is not increase in size but replacement of old buildings, which would further weaken your argument.
Sorry not what you want to hear.

Also note that a current y11 of 258 is being replaced by the new y7 of 300 so an extra 42 pupils compared with this year.

Thanks for such quick responses - i forgot to say that plans submitted to the council say the school is increasing its numbers to 1500 so i figured that there would, in 2021, be 4 years of 300 with one final year of 270 (ie 1470) in a building suitable for 1500. Plus, 2022 is forecast to be another "full" year but numbers are forecast to drop a fair bit from 2023.

I confess I'm finding interpreting all these numbers really confusing. I just hope appeals panels are sympathetic to dunces like me! Once again, thanks for replying.

You know that claiming they have room is only half the battle?
You need to show why your child would be disadvantaged by not attending.

Yes absolutely - we submitted our argument all about that yesterday, that has been our primary focus so far. We are getting the school's/LA's case on Monday so I'm just trying to get ahead of all my research.

We have found the whole COVID situation to be, unsurprisingly, a nightmare. Hard for me to keep it brief, but last year the school requested they refer her for an ASD assessment but due to lockdown and backlogs etc etc it hasn't progressed much so we have tried to incorporate that into out argument as well but without as much concrete proof as I'd have liked.

Mumsnet has been a wealth of information though so i know what needs to be said, just hoping its enough

1500 pupils expected in the future would normally suggest that this is a PAN of 300 for the 5 year groups from year 7 to 11, which would suggest the new build is replacement building not increased building

In practical terms, Year 11 being down on numbers doesn’t create space in a Year 7 classroom.