Appeal advice needed

[tomorrowisanotherdayaotheysay]

Hi
We are in London and didn't get any of our 6 choices. We have been given a very close local school however it's Greek Orthodox and we are not happy with a faith school and especially one we are not affiliated with.
Does anyone know if we have any grounds for appeal or if we have to just wait on the list for one of our 6 choices, any of which we'd be happy with!
We did have a faith school on our list but it was our faith, we put it low down as we didn't really want a faith school overall
If I can get any advice that would be very much appreciated.
Our local council have said they don't deal with appeals for faith schools or academies so we'd have to go direct to the schools.
Thanks in advance

An appeal is really hard with super limited reasons. You are better phoning the schools of your first choices to find out where you are in the waiting list. In London they is often quite a lot of movement on the lists.

Accept the place so if all else fails, your DC has an actual school place for September.

Then contact the schools higher up your priority list, ask for DC to be added to their waiting list (it should happen automatically, but it doesn't hurt to ask anyway) and advise that you would like to make an appeal. You'll get the documentation through and then you can look at their admissions policy and the accompanying documentation and decide whether you want to continue with the appeal.

Throughout that period (and check the cutoff dates for submitting appeals), people will be changing their minds, accepting waiting list places of their own and it's very possible you will get offers from schools you ranked higher in your preferences.

Some schools will take the information over the phone, some will ask you to email (which is easier usually) - but it's very early days, much can change in this period.

Thank you. I don't feel we have a great appeal case and have been told there will be alot of movement so I hope that one way or another we will get a different school. We have accepted and want to appeal whilst also waiting on lists but I guess we will have to see what is required for an appeal
I honestly didn't think we would not get one of our 6!

No, there aren’t “super limited” reasons for appeals. For secondary appeals, you can present any reason why the “prejudice” (ie detriment) to your child if they don’t get a place outweighs the prejudice to the school if they have to accommodate an extra pupil. So those reasons can be anything to do with curriculum provision, after school activities, pastoral care or whatever. You need to make a case for your child to attend the preferred school, not a case against the school you’ve been given.

What is it about your preferred school that makes it the best one for your child?

You need to appeal for a specific school, not against the one you've got.

Non-matching faith won't be considered as a strong argument - all schools are deemed capable of educating all faith and none (whether faith or community school)

So - check there hasn't been an admin error which deprived your DC of a place that they would have been offered if there had been no error (do the grounds for rejection on the unsuccessful notifications look right?)

If not, then its balance of prejudice. That means you need to show that the prejudice (detriment) to DC by not attending the school is greater than the prejudice to the school and its other pupils in going over numbers.

So what is it about the school you want to appeal for that makes it overwhelmingly good for your DC? Are they musical, and desired school,has orchestras and ensembles, offered school does not. Or can you show your DC is particularly good at science and appealed for school has triple but offered school never more than double. Or maybe there's a language that your DC already has some familiarity with that can be studied at desired school but not at others?

This is so helpful, thank you to everyone who has replied. Will be working through this in the morning. Thank you

Some great advice on what to do on this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4493994-Tips-What-to-do-if-you-arent-happy-with-your-school-place