Secondary school appeal help!

[Stressedoutmum11]

Hi all, I would be extremely grateful for some guidance on how to counter the claims made by the school for stage 1 and 2 of the appeal.

Abut of background on my child, he is in a feeder school but doesn't Live in catchment. He suffers with anxiety and going to chosen school will greatly help with this. Ever since he’s found out he didn’t get a place on offer day it’s affects his sleep and day to day performance.

summary from the schools case is
high performing school with an excellent reputation. As such, we are heavily over-subscribed and have already admitted more students than our school site can accommodate, in order to respond to this popularity and local demographics. To admit more students will only serve to place an intolerable strain on the school, physically as well as financially, which would severely prejudice the quality of education we can provide for the students already admitted. Ultimately, this only serves to undermine the school’s reputation and will lead to our eventual demise.
Furthermore, to admit additional students into any year group is likely to bring about a serious health, safety concern, particularly within design and technology.

images are attached with other points.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as dad works away most of the week and I am a full time student in another city. Also have 2 other children who are in school and the logistics of the school offered which is in the opposite direction would mean children are late getting to school on a daily basis.

thank you.

. I have further seen that the school offered has had incidents of children being followed and knife problems, is it fair to mention this in the appeal?

No, you mustn’t say that.

You are appealing for the school you want. Not saying the other school isn’t good enough for your child, just for other people’s children. Nobody wants their dc going to a school with ‘knife incidents.’

I have further seen that the school offered has had incidents of children being followed and knife problems, is it fair to mention this in the appeal?

I don't see that this would serve any useful purpose. Any school these days can, sadly, potentially have incidents of children being followed and knife problems. And presumably ones that you are aware of have been dealt with - which is better than the ones that no one is aware of that are not being dealt with!

I agree with PatriciaHolm and prh47bridge. The school’s case is so far over the top that I think many panels would be sceptical about some of the claims. Clearly, though, the school has got into the bizarre situation of having a published admissions number and then an actual admissions number that’s far higher, so pupil numbers across the school are high.

Often on MN, we suggest that one strand of the appeal should be chipping away at the school’s case for not admitting. That’s tricky here, where the school is admitting so far above PAN, but you could question why the school or the LEA has not revised the PAN to match what actually happens.

I think you need to focus much more on positive reasons why your child needs to attend this school, with supporting evidence from healthcare professionals. A sad consequence of the pandemic is that many children have had a very difficult two years, and many are experiencing anxiety. The school/LEA are likely to argue that all secondary schools are prepared for this and will support children as they settle in, so you need to demonstrate why your child needs a place at this particular school.

On the PAN it might be worth seeing how that's tracked over time. If they've coped with a bigger number of students at his year level then they've currently admitted their might be some argument to say that they can actually cope with that.

Thank you for all your input. Received the news that my appeal was rejected and we cannot appeal again until June 2023, feeling very upset as the panel mentioned I have a strong appeal and written a very good letter as well as proving sufficient evidence.

I’m sorry to hear that. I asdume the panel concluded that, although your case was strong, the school’s case was stronger.

I assume you don’t know this, but did anyone else get in on appeal.
sorry to hear that. 😥

I did ask but the school did not give me this information. Thanks all.

school did mention that the fair access protocol is used for pupils not having a school
place but I’m unsure how to go about this. Seems like I have no options left.