No school for DD

[Laladance]

In May I removed my daughter from the secondary school she was attending due to bullying. The school failed to offer any help and my DD’s mh was in tatters. She was already seeing a therapist due to the terrible time she was having. We decided to home educate until she felt stronger mentally. My DD has asked to return to school for the start of year 10, not the school she left but a new school. I applied for 3 schools closest to our home(we moved house last year and DD was travelling to her previous school) all 3 schools full within her year and no alternative school offered because she is being adequately educated. HE was never longterm, it was while we worked on my DD’s mental health and she felt ready to return to school. Now I have to sit in front of an appeals panel in September to plead my case. I feel awful for her that she may not get one of these 3 schools and the fact if she does, she will be starting much later into the term which will be really hard for her, especially after all she has been through. Is it too much to ask for her to be allowed a fresh start, at a new school close to her home? I am dreading this appeal, I feel that my emotions will get the better of me.

I dont really know the ins and outs of it all but if they're refusing a space at any school due to her being "adequately educated" you will have to tell them that you are not home educating anymore so she isn't being educated at all.
I think they will then have to offer a space, not necessarily at one of your nearest schools though.

Sounds like she's been through a tough time of it, hopefully you get offered a space soon and she can start afresh at a new school. Best of luck with it all.

Have the LEA not offered any school or just not your preferred school?

Spesk to ypur local parent partnership
Get someone to come with you
Build a good case why this school works for dd
Eg fragile emotional state this school offers xxx and yyyy

I'm sure the experts will be able to give further advice, but you absolutely have to make sure the panel knows that the home educating arrangement has broken down and she is a child not in education. Ask them to apply the Fair Access Protocol get the appeal school to take her despite being full. Look for things the appeal school can offer that no other can - pastoral support if they offer any (evidence her need for that with the therapist), particular GCSE combination she wants (eg Drama because it support her performing arts classes on Saturday mornings), maybe Additional Maths if Maths is her strength, athletics club to meet her running hobby.

Our LEA policy is to apply to all of the schools in the area. You will find an in year application on the admissions part of the school websites. If they refuse your application they have to in writing then when you have all of your refusal letters the LEA will place you in one of the schools as a " child without a school place" most in year applications are refused as school are over subscribed but the LEA can & will over ride you just may not get much of a say in which! Ask the LEA for a list of the schools they recommend you apply to before they will help to make sure you have sufficient refusal. I have been there and its a pain up the arse but we got our son back in to school.

The other option is seeing if any local colleges offer the 14-16 courses. They do an nvq alongside English language and maths gcse. I know others who did this instead of a return to school. Good luck x

If the schools are full, they will decline.

I recently successfully appealed for both of my teens, as we moved areas at the worst time possible, with only one catchment school in our area (rural) and the rest are out of catchment and unreachable via public transport.

It wasn’t as intimating as I thought - I mean, there 5 white, middle aged men on the panel, so not exactly diverse, but they ended up voting unanimously to let both my DCs in and go over PAN in both year groups.

They’ll give you chance to speak - detail your child’s difficulties.

You’ll also get a pack for each school to tell you why they don’t want to go over PAN - look at that very carefully; I referred to multiple points in theirs.

Of course, much depends on the strength of the schools’ cases for not admitting, but you certainly have an arguable case here. Make it clear that HE was only ever a stop-gap, your child wants to be in school and being in school will benefit their health and wellbeing. Also highlight anything else about the schools that will suit your child - curriculum, co-curricular programme or whatever. Good luck.

Thank you all so much for some really great advice! Much appreciated 😌

Have you managed to get anywhere with this?

I received an email today, the appeal date is on 22nd September and will be via video link. My dd has not been good the past few days, seeing everyone returning to school and not knowing her fate. I’m hoping these next couple of weeks pass quickly.