Appeals

[rmohat]

Hi to everyone.
I need some help. I have an appeals meeting for my son who is 13. He attends high school but we have had to keep him at home as the bullying has escalated. He refuses to go to school and this has had an impact on his health, mental health and creates anxiety at another level. I appealed for two schools.

I have all the paper work all ready, but what do I say to why is this school good for my son and why is the one down the road not which is a very rough school.
Can someone give me some advice.

Not an expert.

Presumably almost any school is better than no school?

You are appealing for the school you want, not against a school you don't want.

So the school you want presumably has good behaviour as evidenced by Ofsted, and good pastoral support which is why you want it compared with existing school that he is too scared/anxious to attend?

You may also find that compared with existing school the one you want has some very suitable extra curricular activities or niche GCSE subjects.

So why not the school down the road? You say it is 'rough'. I expect what you meant to say is that there is evidence that behaviour in this school is poor (maybe a recent Ofsted or evidence in local paper about fights outside of school?) which is why it isn't appropriate for your anxious bullied son. Maybe this school doesn't offer triple science or maths Olympiad for your academic child, or other things too. None of this should be relevant though as I don't think you should be asked about schools you aren't appealing for.

Don't mention the school he is at. At all.

Find out what the school you are appealing for offers that your child has a talent for. EG glee club or textiles GCSE.

Have you asked the current school for support or even a managed move?

As well as appealing for another school, if DS can’t attend school full time the LA have a duty to provide alternative arrangements. This should begin when it becomes clear DS will miss 15 days, the days don’t need to have been already missed or consecutive.

As others have said, highlight the features of the two preferred schools which would particularly suit your child. That might be curriculum, extra-curricular activities, pastoral care, whatever.

Does your child want to return to school? Are health/mental health professionals involved? If so, you should mention that your child is currently out of school and a move will help get them back into education. Of course, much depends on whether the school has strong arguments against admitting an extra pupil, but I think many panels would be receptive to this argument. It will help your argument if you have a letter from a health care professional saying that, in their opinion, your child would benefit from a move to either or both of the preferred schools.

I have a letters from the GP, CAHMS , assessment to be assessed for Autism.
Letters sent to the current head of school to put measures in place for bullying, their measure was to isolate my son in a room with a teacher or TA and one other boy for the whole day. This was not happening. He would feel that he is being isolated for being bullied. The s hool have not supported him in any shape or form and then being told by an educational professional that he needs to man up was the last starw for me.

Their quote was" I will look after him" please don't worry. My son had suicidal thoughts and the head of year left him in his office on his own. Its just not acceptable at all. He missed 3.5 weeks before summer and not been to school since the 5th September, as he was told by a class peer he needs to die.

I just had this gut feeling he camt go anymore. Send him and his mental health will deteriorate or keep him home safe. The s hool send him work home once a week but its not good enough. Some of the work he doesn't understand as they have not covered it yet in school.
Thabk you to all that replied and helped me.

Those letters could be very helpful. Do they say that your child would benefit from a change of school? Do they say that the preferred schools would meet their needs?

The LA should be providing alternative education under section 19 of the Education Act 1996, if they aren’t doing that you should email the LA’s Director of Children’s Services requesting provision be provided. Then if it isn’t email again threatening Judicial Review, if that doesn’t work contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter. Sending work home is not an acceptable substitute.

In light of your last post you should also apply for an EHCP. IPSEA has a model letter you can use on their website.

Trying to invoke section 19 is unlikely to go well when the OP has voluntarily withdrawn her child from school. The expectation is that she will home educate.

There has already been good advice about the appeal on this thread. I will, however, disagree with one poster. If OP has documentary evidence to show that the current school is aware of the bullying and has not taken any effective action to stop it, that is worth bringing to the appeal panel's attention.

As so often, I agree with prh47bridge.

I’d missed the ‘advice’ about mentioning bullying. Generally, arguments about bullying don’t carry weight at appeals. Parents sometimes argue that their child should attend a particular school because they might be bullied at another school, but LEAs and appeal panels tend to take the view that all schools have behaviour and anti-bullying policies and should deal with bullying if it happens. Here, though, the situation is different because this isn’t a hypothetical concern. The child was bullied and the school failed to take effective action. If OP can provide documentary evidence of that (such as email exchanges with the school) it’ll add to the weight of their case.

OP hasn’t voluntarily withdrawn to EHE her DS, she hasn’t deregistered. Her DS is unable to attend due to his mental health. Emotionally based school avoidance isn’t EHE.

Even if the LA didn’t accept the EBSA and thought she was voluntarily keeping DS who is still no roll at home unless the LA are going to take enforcement action they should provide education under s.19.

I have emails that were sent to the school. I have sent them over to the panels team.
The school have failed to deal with this in an appropriate manner and follow their policies. They just do not want to address this matter. Yes my son is sensitive, but that does not give them the right to brush the matter away.
I thabk all of you for your advice which has been very helpful .