In Year Transfer Appeal - Secondary/upper School

[MotherOfSwanns]

I have been sent your way for tips, sorry for jumping on as a new user and immediately asking for help.

The background is, we live in a three-tier school system, whereby the children move to Upper School in year 9. There is only a girls' school and a boys' school in our town, the only co-ed options are in different towns and are two-tier so start in year 7. There is a co-ed school in a nearby village that used to do a second intake for year 9 but my DD got caught up in a transition period whereby the school stopped the year 9 intake but she was already in year 7 so we missed the chance to apply then. We immediately applied for her to go on a waiting list to transfer. She has been around 30th on the list for two years.

She did not want to go to a girls' school, all of her friends at middle school were boys and she struggles with female friendships. As predicted, she is now year 9 and at the girls' school and having a horrendous time. Bullying, lack of support, her attendance is awful (having been 100% throughout her entire school life) and her MH is diminishing. We have appealed to the Borough and have an appeal date in two weeks.

The admissions team from the school called me to manage my expectations and said she is still 27th on the list in a school where no one leaves. They do, however, have room for boarders in her year group (it's a state day school for some, and others pay for board Mon-Friday). My argument is, if they have space for boarders then there is space in the class for her.

I assume my stance needs to be why this school is best for her because.... rather than she can't continue to go to the girls' school because... ?

Any tips are gratefully received, many thanks in advance.

Do they have a separate PAN for boarders? Maintained state boarding schools are entitled to do so, and don't have to fill the boarding PAN with those who just want a day place, so they are correct in that sense.

Yes, you need to make the case for the school you want, but you can bring up the bullying etc if you have evidence of what is happening and the impact on your child. This would need to be evidenced from school, such as emails, and ideally something from a medical professional rather than just you saying "she's very upset" etc. Evidence the dropping attendance too.

Overall you need to show that the detriment to the school of taking an extra child is less than the detriment to her of not getting a place.

Does the boarding school have clubs/societies etc that would suit her needs specifically? Often a boarding school may have a wider variety of offerings as they need to keep the boarders busy!

Thank you for your reply.

PAN for day students is 52 and separate PAN for boarders is 18. There are currently 63 in her year group so 7 boarding spaces available. We sadly can't afford the board, nor does she want to, so taking one of those isn't an option.

All correspondence with the current school has been via telephone so I will need to gather some written evidence, I guess?

Yes - a panel cannot simply take your word for it I'm afraid, as many appellants will cite "bullying" as reason for appeal without any evidence. If you can get something from school with a list of reported incidents, interventions, and her current attendance that will at least help.

As PatriciaHolm says, you need to gather documentary evidence to support your argument that this is the best option for your child. Email the school with your summary of the situation and ask them to confirm it for the record.

Agree with @PatriciaHolm and @PanelChair. I just wanted to add that you don't have to prove that the appeal school is the best school, just that it is better for your daughter than her current school. So, for example, if your daughter is keen on hockey and the appeal school has a hockey team but her current school doesn't, that is something you can bring up even if her current school is the only one in the area that doesn't have a hockey team.

You need to remember that you are primarily appealing for the school you want, not against the school you've got. But if you can evidence bullying and show that the school has failed to deal with it effectively, that is something you can bring up. Since it is affecting her attendance and her mental health, your daughter needs to get away from it.

Yes, for clarity I should have said that “best option” here means best of two - the current school and the preferred school - not best in the borough/county/wherever.

I was taken aback on another recent appeal thread where it seemed that one of the reasons for rejecting the appeal was that the parent (the panel said) should have done more to investigate places at other local schools. That’s faulty thinking on the panel’s part; the appeal is focussed on the preferred school (and, indirectly, on why the allocated school is less suitable and less able to meet the child’s needs) but can’t speculate on whether any third, fourth or fifth school might be more suitable.

That's interesting, as I spoke at Council last year about the lack of co-ed provisions in our town and all councilors did was recommend other schools in other towns. Not my point!

Is her/our need for her to be in a mixed school a valid argument for why that school is the better option for her?

Your desire for her to be in a mixed school is irrelevant. Focus on your daughter. Her need is a valid argument if supported by evidence from a qualified professional. In the absence of that, you would struggle to convince the panel that this is a need rather than a desire.

If you can get evidence of ongoing bullying and back that up with some other reasons your daughter would benefit from going to the appeal school (extra-curricular activities, clubs, etc.), you will have a decent case.

We applied for co Ed on the grounds of mental health/sen and were successful but it was at the normal admissions time, it took reports from her mental health team and gp

I’m talking about appeals. The parameters within which appeal panels work (set out in the appeals code) are that (summarising loosely) they weigh up the child’s need for a place at that school against the school’s need to stick to its published admissions number and reach their decision on the balance of prejudice, ie disadvantage. Whether a third school might be even more suitable is irrelevant here and outside the appeal’s or the panel’s remit.

Likewise, an appeal isn’t the appropriate place for arguments about whether the area needs a different sort of school provision. Ultimately, that’s for the education authority to determine.

In framing your appeal, you need to distinguish between what you’d like as the parent and what your child needs. It’s the latter that carries weight.

Yes, many schools (though not all) will have an admissions criteria for social/medical needs, which would be higher up the admissions criteria than most other categories. For this you would, as you say, need to strongly evidence that this is the only school that could meet a child's needs.

However that is not directly relevant here as this is an appeal not a regular admitting point. Appeals have their own code and requirements.

What OP could do, in parallel to the appeal, is investigate whether this school has such a criteria and request her daughter be placed in that admissions category. This wouldn't get her a place, but it would put her very high in the waiting list. However, it would require significant and external evidence of the need which at the moment it seems OP doesn't have.

Thank you all so much. I really appreciate your help.