A question about second school appeal

[irritablehead1]

I hope no one minds me asking this hypothetical question, but I'd really like to understand the process before I'm plunged into it...

If you end up appealing a second school place, does every council have different criteria? Or is there 'winning' criteria that you can use to have a successful school appeal? And if so, what sort of criteria should you be concentrating on?

What do you mean by second?

Every school has different criteria.

You concentrate solely on why the school you are appealing for is beneficial for your child.

You do not focus on
Childcare issues
How another school is crap and you want a good school instead
How you were a prefect there.

SORRY, I meant 'secondary'

There's no one set of criteria.

You should definitely win an appeal if the admissions procedure contained an error and your DC would have been offered a place had no mistake been made (eg they got the distance from your home to the school wrong)
Also if the decision is so unreasonable that it's perverse in a legal sense (threshold very high for this - maybe child protection issues, or allocating the only school that isn't adequateky accessible to a pupils who needs to use a wheelchair)

Those grounds apply even for Infant Class Size appeals (where they are the only permissible grounds) but for year3 and above there is also 'balance of prejudice'

This means that you can win if you can show the detriment (prejudice) to your DC by not attending the school is greater than the detriment to the school and it's other pupils if they go over numbers.

So it all depends on

• how strong the school's case is that they cannot admit more - it might not be particularly strong if they have been a few pupils over the PAN (permitted admission number) most years - you can ask to find out the actual numbers in each year group in recent years. Schools are required to provide you with information that will inform your appeal.

• how strong your case is.

You are appealing for this school, not against the currently allocated one, So what is it about this school that is so particularly important to your DC that cannot be met by the offered school - for example, availability of a certain subject - maybe a language (with evidence why that provision matters). Or co-curricular provision - maybe for a child with proven musical ability there orchestras and ensembles that the offered school does not have.

Transport issues will be irrelevant, and pastoral issues unless you can show unusual need and that the appealed-for school has systems and procedures which the currently offered does not

@prh47bridge @admission - anything you wouid want to add?

Not much to add.

There are no magic words or arguments you can use to win an appeal. It is all about making the best case you can.

The strongest case is if a mistake has been made in the admissions process that deprived your child of a place. A mistake that made no difference to the outcome won't help you.

Cases that cross the threshold for unreasonableness are also very strong, but, as Meditrina says, the bar for that is very high.

Most cases, however, are about showing that your child will be disadvantaged by not going to the appeal school and that this outweighs any problems the school will face through having to cope with another pupil. This is about disadvantage to your child, not disadvantage to you, which is why transport issues are irrelevant. So, if you have to appeal, you need to look at what the appeal school offers that is missing from the allocated school and is particularly relevant to you. If you do that, you will have a stronger case than many appellants. A lot of parents at appeal don't understand the process and therefore make a case that is almost bound to fail.

If you do find yourself in the position of needing to appeal, you will get plenty of advice on here.

You've had the rules from the experts above.
My understanding from reading these boards is you need to find things in your preferred school not provided by the offered one which your DC specifically would particularly benefit from

You can't use Ofsted report or GCSE results.

You can:

• use the fact they have an orchestra/wind band and your DC plays the clarinet
• use the fact they teach greek which your DC has already started outside school
• use the fact they run lunchtime nurture groups which your DC already needs to attend at primary

So, being honest, what are the reasons you prefer one school? Can you evidence this in an appeal friendly way?

Thanks very much everyone. So helpful. I would have appealed completely differently!

Fingers crossed it won't be necessary.

Just to add, anything you claim as a reason should be evidenced.
For example if it's to do with music, send copies of exam results or a note from the tutor.
Or if the school has too many stairs then evidence that your child has mobility issues