Secondary school appeals

[gabs98]

I've been reading with interest some of the recent posts about secondary school appeals.
I had to appeal (thankfully won!) for my son's primary school place a few years ago.
The primary school my son attends is known as a "feeder school" for the local secondary school. Both schools are within a 5 minute radius of our home.
I won the primary appeal on safety grounds (after fleeing domestic violence and being hunted down by ex husband).
Tbh, I didn't mention any of these safety stuff when applying for primary school place because it never crossed my mind that son wouldn't be offered a place (as we live so close). That's why I never mention the safety stuff when applying for the place. Just took it for granted he'd be offered a place.

My question is, would it be worth mentioning all the safety stuff when the time comes to apply for high school place? And mention that I appealed for primary school nearest to home (and won) on those grounds?
Would it be taken into account?
Or can I relax a bit and be confident of him getting a place in the local high school because primary school is a "feeder school" to it?
Won't need to apply for a couple of years yet, just trying to brace myself for what to expect!

You need to look at the admission code for LEA. Normally feeder schools is not one of the criteria.

Is it a genuine feeder (i.e. named in the admissions criteria) or just a ‘generally they all go to X school’?

In terms of how much of an issue it may be, it depends on your local area. You should be able to find out (may need to ask the LA) which category and what distance the lady admitted child was, which will give some indication as to whether you are likely to be comfortably in, or on the edge. It’s not an exact science as the population changes each year, but will give you a ballpark range.

It will also depend if the admissions criteria for the school have a ‘medical/social’ category. If so, this may be something taken into consideration (especially if the evidence was compelling bough to admit above ICS regulations). If there isn’t a category for it, or it isn’t taken into consideration, you could still appeal on those grounds as applications and appeals are separate and follow different principles.

As has just been said, for getting a place, a lot is going to depend on whether the oversubscription criteria have a category for medical/social need or for children at feeder schools or whether you’d get a place on distance alone.

For any appeal, much is going to depend on the detail (and the strength (or not) of the school’s case not to admit) but you would need to show that you and your child were still at risk from your ex-partner and being at the preferred school would protect your child from that risk in a way that the allocated school couldn’t. Nobody wants a child to be at risk of harm, but having won an appeal for primary doesn’t necessarily mean you’d win for primary seven years later.

Look at the admissions criteria for the secondary, and also the information which will be available on the LA website about which criteria were applied when awarding places this year/last year.
You can then gauge how likely it is that he will get a place. Secondaries being bigger than primaries, the distance from which they get in is usually larger (but if it is a church school or has some other priority criteria, that may affect things).

Apologies. I misread your first post as asking whether you should appeal again.

Double-check the admissions criteria and (as far as you can) assess how likely you are to get a place at the preferred school. I doubt that the fact that you won an appeal several years previously would carry any weight, but evidence of a current risk to his safety and well-being should.

When it comes to apply for a secondary school place, you will be expected to confirm 3 or possibly up to 6 preference schools. The way the system works is that each of you preferences will be considered in turn starting with your highest preference and the places in the school will be offered on the basis of the admission criteria for the school starting with the pupil with the highest reason for being offered a place at the school (this will be pupils with an EHCPlan and pupils who are looked after children.)
You will be in a reasonable position to get a place at the preferred secondary school given it is 5 minutes from your home and distance is always one of the admission criteria. Unfortunately your past issues are not likely to fit any of the agreed admission criteria which would give you a higher priority.
On a better note if you were unfortunate to not get the offer of a place at your preferred secondary school and appealed then your past issues would then constitute a strong reason for a place to be offered at the school by the appeal panel.
Having said that you have said it is a couple of years before you need to apply, so I would suggest that you do not over think this as an issue. Wait till you need to apply before thinking too much more about the possible issues.