Appeal - preference school having a sixth form as an argument

[BlackoutBlind]

Hi just wondering whether the appeals experts can advise whether this is ever a point worth raising (in conjunction with other things).

I know we’ll only be offered schools without a sixth form and know my son will want to do A-Levels (full marks in end of year tests in year 5 etc). Obviously the counter argument is just that he’ll be able to join another sixth form or college after year 11 but is there any merit to the argument that he will benefit from being in a school where he can aspire to that, be around other students taking A-Levels in a range of subjects etc?

Other potential arguments so far include desired school offering photography clubs and photography GCSE plus German and Latin. He is doing courses in all of those in his spare time. Desired school is a specialist music college and he’s just started learning an instrument so I’m thinking chance to play in an ensemble which the other school may not have (further research needed) as an argument too. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks

You're confused about the EHCP Yellow. Yes, getting one can be a long and fraught process but once it's agreed and an establishment named, that school must take the pupil. If the EHCP is in place before the admissions round then the pupil is given a place at the school before any other child. So holders of EHCPs from or outside catchment will have been done first.

Once again, I agree with prh47bridge. This is utter rubbish and people with such little understanding of how school admissions and appeals work should, frankly, stay off these threads. Spouting misinformation like this helps nobody.

@prh47bridge

What I meant is the school no longer accepts exceptional circumstances as a criteria for admission, meaning appeals cannot be made on those grounds.

Again- appeals can be made on any grounds, it's up to the panel, not the governors, whether they meet the hurdle of proving detriment.

Many schools are now removing the EC criteria near me as they would rather an appeals panel deal with it than they themselves have to make the judgement during the admissions process.

What an appeal can't do now is say "we should have been accepted under the EC criteria", but they can still make the case that they have EC so the detriment to the child is greater than that to the school.

I see that @PatriciaHolm has beaten me too it!

The admission criteria are irrelevant for appeals unless the parents want to argue that a mistake has been made and their child was placed in the wrong admissions category.

Appeals are not just about correcting mistakes. They are about dealing with situations not covered by the admissions criteria that mean the child needs this particular school. The fact that the school doesn't have an admissions category to cover the situation, or that it used to have a category but removed it, is entirely irrelevant.