Secondary Appeal - Please Help

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Hi, I’m looking for advice or similar stories on secondary school appeals please.

We have recently relocated and have successfully secured spaces for my 2 youngest children in primary schools during our move - thankfully! There are only 2 secondary schools in our new area of which I applied for both. We were accepted and offered a year 7 space on 5th September 2022 at one of the schools, however, our official completion date was not until 8th October 2022. I explained this and I was told I am only allowed a 2 week delay on our start date and therefor the space had to be offered elsewhere.

Since then I have appealed and both appeals have been rejected on the grounds the schools are over on their numbers - which I totally understand. However, until a space comes up I am at a lose end with what I can do. I am still expected to get my daughter on a 2hr round trip to her old school, however, logistically this is impossible as there is no public transport to one borough to the other and driving 1 hr each way is out of question due to clashes with my 2 youngest childrens schools and my work.

In the meantime, we are doing all we can do with home learning as I work from home and paying for evening and weekend explore learning tutors.

Please if anyone has been in a similar situation or can offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Has your Y7 child been without a school place since 8th Oct 2022?

Have you contacted the local council admissions department? They have an obligation to prioritise children without a school place.

Have you applied to the four closet schools?

Have you gone through the in-year application process and also the appeal process? (It's unclear from your op if you have only done the Sept intake process, which is different to in-year transfer)

Does your Y7 child actually have a place at the secondary school where you used to live?

Hi, daughter lived with my mum for a month in October as she lives closer to our original schools place. However, our daughter struggled with this set up which resulted in the change back home and to home school learning and explore learning evenings and weekends in November 2022.

there are only 2 secondary schools of which we applied to both in September with in year applications, appeals both in November and lost in December.

I wasn’t aware that the the local council admissions could help or that l was an option as when I applied to the schools in year application it doesn’t go via the council and I was told to go via the schools direct. And same with the schools appeals process it was all done via the schools website.

I will contact the council direct on Monday and try get some type of support from them. Thank you.

Your LEA has to offer you a school place. It will most likely be the closest school with places available. Or you can just proactively ask which schools have places and pick whichever one you like best. If there are no places at your 2 most local schools, this will be a school further away though. In some (all?) areas you will e eligible for free transport if the school offered is over a certain distance away.

there are only 2 secondary schools

There will be schools further away. Parents dont get to say my child is only going to this school or that school and I won't consider further afield. Children sometimes have to travel out of the area for school. That's why you apply for four schools. You get free travel if it's over a certain distance from home.

daughter lived with my mum for a month in October as she lives closer to our original schools place. However, our daughter struggled with this set up which resulted in the change back home

Is your child still on roll at the school were your Mum lived? Not attending does not mean off-roll. Are you formally registered to be electively home educating (EHE)?

If your child is off roll and you've not registered to EHE, then your local authority is legally obliged to find a school place. However, this does not guarantee it will be at one of the closest two schools if these are full.

The LA have a duty to offer you a school place. If you have rejected this place and opted to home school then I believe they will consider this duty discharged and you are on your own. Are you on the waiting list for the two local schools? What is your position on the waiting list?

You also need to look at any other accessible schools - consider what public transport routes are available.

Normally, if the only school you can be offered is over 3 miles away, the LA have to help with transport - this might be a taxi if there is no bus. But if you have turned down a school place I'm not sure this applies.

Yes we were given a list of the nearest schools with places even though they were far outside our local town. The LA would pay for transport to the nearest school with places, even if this is some distance away, and even if this means taxi.

You can only appeal once per school per academic year so you need to find a school with a place or push the local authority for a place. You cannot restrict yourself to only the two schools in your town - it is your responsibility to make sure they are being educated.

Have you actually been to appeal hearings and been given a decision? If so, the decision letter should set out more reasons than the school being over their numbers. That on its own is not justification to reject an appeal. If you haven't been to a hearing (or been offered one and elected not to attend), you haven't had an appeal.

As above, have you had an appeal hearing or just been verbally told by the schools that they are full? Check your paperwork, if it was an appeal hearing then there is more to it than just 'full'
The local authority have to provide a school place, or did you reject their offer and instead decide to electively home educate?
If so, you would need to make another in year admission application to different schools or be prepared to sit it out on the waiting list as you effectively removed the local authorities obligation.
Also check you are on the waiting lists