Question for appeals panellists

[dynamaya]

Hi. I know there are a few appeal panel members on these threads. Would it ever be reasonable to appeal for a year 7 place on the grounds that the school's sixth form is very under capacity, therefore they have space for more children in year 7?

I think what it's important to remember too is that the great majority of appeallants still lose.

An appeal isn't an easy back door into a space in a full school. Occasionally a school will put up a weak case, but increasingly school cases are strong, so an appeallant really needs to show good evidence. As prh says, often this covers things that simply won't be covered by medical/social criteria, even if those exist (and many schools don't have them anyway, or they only cover the child not the parent, which can in reality cause serious detriment to a child).

Appeals aren't perfect. Panels aren't perfect. But they are necessary, and in my experience, often offer a very important service for children and parents.

The difficulty is where a school is their own admissions authority, that somebody has to put forward a case for the application being treated as such and then the governing body has to agree.

Providing no evidence whatsoever at the time of application but then producing loads of it at appeal is common - had it been provided in the first instance, all the stress and worry might have been avoided.

I don't see the link between my quoted post and yours Mooncup. Our application was to our council, considered by their panel and included appropriate supporting evidence.

Just adding some more information about applications on the grounds of exceptional circumstances. Some parents don't provide information to substantiate their application until appeal.