In-year application appeal

[WrenP]

Could I ask some advice about making an appeal for in-year school admissions?

We have just relocated to Winchester so I can take up a job as a children’s oncology consultant, and I have applied for schools for my four children. I’ve managed to find a primary school that has places for my little two, but have unfortunately received rejection letters from all three secondary schools as they are full in both Y8 and Y10.

Our first choice has been very helpful and advised us to appeal, so I’m starting to go through the process and write supporting documents. Has anyone been through this and been successful? Any advice for what to write or what evidence to include would be hugely appreciated. It’s pretty daunting and I really want to my best for my boys as they are both getting quite stressed by the uncertainty.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.

Yes, I'm currently on a temporary contract and would otherwise not have a job from the end of this month. I'm the main earner. We carefully balanced our options and felt the harm to the little ones of not having a mother around for a year would be a worse option. I may be wrong, I don't know.

We were planning to support our eldest with extra tuition to fill in any gaps over the summer and in Y11 once we've secured a new school place and worked out where those gaps are.

I'll look at Perrins, thanks

Sounds like you’re in a tight spot OP. Congratulations on the new post, and good luck with the appeals.

The difficulty for your yr 10 DC is that, as pp said, even if the school is running the same subjects on the same exam board they may have done the modules in a different order to their current school- very common in subjects like science so practical kit can be rotated round the classes. The holiday tutor could help massively with that though with the right information from the school.

Op I echo those who say might be best to leave oldest child where he is now...disruption at this stage is not advised. If not, please do check thoroughly the order of work they have done in all subjects. AQA MFL for example has a scheme of work, but lots of schools I imagine will work through the text book in order, which is a very different order from the SoW. Just one example, there will be similar discussions fir all subjects I imagine.

As a fellow medic I have to support OP. There are certain specialties that really aren’t that common in terms of career advancement and you have to go where the job is. It is a situation that not many people understand or appreciate.

OP - I have no experience of your area (I am an adult oncologist and London based) but do also think for your Y10 - if no joy on appeal, an independent may be the only way to go at this point.

Thank you, that means a lot. I feel awful about moving him in Y10 and tried really hard to avoid it.

The LA have a legal duty to offer a place somewhere though. What are they saying?

They haven't offered any alternatives yet.

The only other thing I thought about was exploring the option of my eldest resitting year 10 once he's accepted to a school down here. Does anyone know if that's a viable possibility? It might be more sensible to start then entire GCSE course again than try to fill in the gaps if they're too significant.

When is his birthday?

The last week in May. He's young for the year and has no idea what A levels he wants to do yet. It might give him a bit of breathing space.

Does the school you are most interested in have spaces in Y9? It's worth exploring if they do.

I don't know - I only thought about it in the middle of the night last night when I couldn't sleep!

Private schools might be more open to the ‘repeating a year’ option. I would say you should ring every possible school and favour any that would allow this - remembering that you are then applying and appealing for a Y9 place not a Year 10 one. I genuinely don’t know how possible this us, but the disadvantage of moving nearly half way through (assuming not in new school until half term) his GCSE teaching is so severe that I would push very hard for it if you can.

You asked for advice on appeals, not (as far as I can see) a lecture on the merits of moving, or not.

If the LEA can’t offer anything, you can ask them whether they’d use the Fair Access Protocol to create spaces in a school that’s otherwise full, but that wouldn’t necessarily be the school that you’d choose.

For any appeal for secondary school, you need to convince the panel that the prejudice (detriment) to your children in not attending the school outweighs any detriment to the school in having to accommodate additional pupils. You can mention things like needing to be in education (especially for your child in Y10), needing to be at school to make friends and settle in a new area and anything about the school that would particularly suit your children - subjects offered, extra curricular provision, pastoral care or whatever.

Bear in mind that waiting lists are held in admissions priority order, so if one child gets a place, the other (as a sibling) is likely to move up the waiting list.

Hello. Just to let you know that Kings is full in all year groups I believe. So no spaces. Sorry. We are looking for a Year 9 space.

That's really helpful, thank you. I just had one more question - are we allowed to appeal to more than one school? Our second choice in Winchester would also align really well and we'd be more than happy with it, but I wasn't sure if we could appeal to both.

Yes, you can appeal for any school where you’ve been refused a place. The panel might ask whether you’re appealing for other schools, in which case it’s perfectly acceptable to say something along the lines of you’re keen to get your children into a local school with minimal disruption to their education and so are appealing to those schools which you think will meet their needs, etc.

Moving into the year below is common in the independent sector if you have moved from abroad. Something to ask about if you do look privately.

Or since you are the main earner, could their other parent home educate just for the next academic year?

As well as prepping the appeal, it’s worth asking where does have spaces for a year 8 and year 10 and going for a look around. I suspect that might be either Perins in Alresford, or even Amery/Eggars in Alton or one of the Eastleigh schools. (I don’t know the Eastleigh schools well, but the Alton/Alresford ones are good.) It would also be worth then looking at transport whether that’s the bus to Alresford/Alton or train/bus to Eastleigh and see what’s doable for where you live.
I’d look at your DSes separately, it is more important to get the closest match for your oldest DS with exam boards, order of books studied etc. and that’s probably worth a bit more of a journey than for your younger DS.

I also highly recommend Perins in Alresford.

Plus the infant and junior in Alresford are great and you have equally excellent primaries in the villages eg Itchen Abbas, Cheriton, Ropley, Owslebury

For those suggesting home edding - do you truly think that this is better for an inexperienced parent to take on than school (plus tutor) to fill the gaps?

I have just moved to nuneaton from abroad and my girl has been offered to go to middlemarch school which is so far from my home. Does anyone know anything about this school? I am new to the area and so I don’t have any idea. What happen if I don’t accept the offer? Or I should accept and appeal at the same time? What should I do? Thank you

Don't decline it as you may not be offered another place. How far away is the offered school? Many kids travel 45 minutes or more.

CSY - People who know that school are unlikely to see your question here. You’ll probably get more response if you start your own thread, naming the school in the title.