To ask for secondary school appeal help, I am desperate.

[FluffyUnionSocks]

My youngest dd did not get a place at the same secondary school as her two siblings. Nor did she get her second or third choice school which were both within the catchment area. She was given a school 12.8 miles away which in my opinion is not walkable twice a day for the average 11 year old girl, there is not a foot paths the whole way and would mean walking down 60 mph A roads on the grass verge next to the hard shoulder. She could get the first bus in our village at 7:00am (bus runs every 2 hours) to the town centre where she would arrive at 8:30am, then get another bus to an Asda store 1 mile away from school arriving at 9:15am approx and then walk the last mile, she would arrive at school at 9:35-9:40am daily, the school starts at 8:20am so this is just not an option. I have heard that the appeal panel don’t care about transport issues but the local authority have given her an out of catchment school which she can not get to on time by public transport.

Secondly we have a safety plan put in place by the police (not for domestic violence but threats from outside the home) the local authority is aware of this as they recently chaired a multi agency meeting (ASBRAC) where the plan was was reviewed and renewed. Part of that plan along with lots of other things is the children aren’t to use public transport unaccompanied by an adult, left home alone or out in local area until the problem is resolved. My eldest child is 16 and the same rules apply to her, I take and collect my other two children to school, if the council do not budge one set of children will have to be late every day and one leave school early every day. They couldn’t do after school clubs as we are a one car family and dh needs to leave for work at 3:30pm and then isn’t home until 6:30am the following morning. If he gave up work to allow someone to do after school club we couldn’t afford our car pcp payment, mortgage or our life generally on universal credit.

Some one that knows about school appeals please tell me do I have a chance of winning this? Do I write all of this on the form? I have evidence of the safety plan/ASBRAC but I don’t necessarily want to hand that over as it has sensitive information and you never know who the panel knows, although I could photocopy and delete the offending parties details.

Because of wiggly county borders the designated - and crap - within county school for our village is 6 miles away. There are three schools in a town 3 miles away which are outstanding. That town is in another county.

Our Primary HeadTeacher was very clear that we needed to have the crap school on our list as a backstop incase of the scenario in the OP. She had too many year's experience of parents believing they were more likely to get their choice if they only put one school down and that decision backfiring badly.

DC qualify for transport to the out of county school because it is closer than the designated school.

@prh47bridge the issue we have in our area is we still wouldn't have got a place at the nearest (middle) school and actually we have priority admission criteria to a different middle school but the LA still get out of providing transport to 2 entire villages of children!

What are the school admission criterias, ie are any religious, cared for children first, nearest first etc
Has there always been a problem with availability
Or Has there been an increase in children to affect the lack of places

Would be worth looking at the above before an appeal.
I wouldn't mention the issue of first choice outstanding school, offered school special measures. It won’t carry any weight.

I have to say
From reading PPs it seems like you need a degree in school admissions and travel. It’s all so confusing.

That sounds very odd and possibly illegal.

Would not surprise me at all. It's a major issue locally.

The whole point of a preference system is that the parents state their preferences and the LA examines them to see if they can be accommodated by applying the oversubscription criteria for each school to the application.

If at the point of application a child would have been successful in gaining a place at their nearest suitable school but do not name that school in their preferences, the LA's obligation is fulfilled.

If at the point of application the child would not have gained a place at a nearer school, the LA has to pay for transport if it is over statutory limits.

The parent cannot rely on the LA filling all places for nearby schools, then saying 'well there's no place so you have to pay for transport'.

But that is not the situation at the point when transport is applied for. The guidance is clear that the school that the LA claims is a nearer suitable school must have places available and that there must be a real prospect that the child could get a place at that school. If the LA has allocated a place at the nearer school and the parent chooses not to take it then it has discharged its duty. However, if the LA has allocated a school which the parent doesn't want, obviously it can't claim that is the parent's preference. If, at that point, the parent were to apply for a place at the nearer school but can't get one, the LA cannot rely on the fact that it did have places available months or even years earlier in order to refuse transport.

@Xol that just isn't true. At the point of application for transport, the LA can review the school application and see if the nearest suitable school was applied for. If not, no dice.

Anyway, this doesn't help OP, who doesn't care about transport because transport isn't safe for her DD.

Lougle is correct. The law is concerned with the whole process, not just the point at which the parent applies for transport. The clue is that the relevant clause in Schedule 35B of the Education Act 1996 is in the past tense - "no suitable arrangements have been made...". If a parent took a case to judicial review using your arguments, they would lose.

An update. I presented the council with a folder of evidence around my daughter’s safety and was backed up by the police. I heard from them yesterday that after examining the information they are offering her the same school as her siblings without having to go to appeal. I am beyond thrilled and glad that they understood why the allocated school was not a viable option. I am so relieved, keep rereading the letter I got in post to make sure I haven’t missed it.

Brilliant news

Well done OP, what a relief - common sense has prevailed.

Also well done on getting all your evidence and the police backing. It sounds like you had a rock solid argument

@FluffyUnionSocks can I ask did you have a 'hearing'/ meeting or did you just send them all your evidence?

@Pipsquiggle I had no meeting/hearing with them, they are an email based office which take up to 28 days to reply, there is no phone line. I rightly or wrongly turned up at the council building and insisted on seeing a human, I had to be pretty forceful but remained polite. I handed over my A4 ring binder of evidence including a statement from the police and the DS contact information if they required more detail, that’s was obviously previously agreed. It was a bold move but I couldn’t sit around waiting for 28 for them to reply to my email.

That's brilliant but I bet you are annoyed you had to go through that in the first place!

Excellent news. Well done.

Really very happy for you and your daughter OP, I hope she keeps safe.

Brilliant OP. Love your tenacity

That's brilliant news!

Great outcome. Well done!

Well done! So pleased for you.

Great news

So pleased to hear this! I was upset on your behalf when I read your posts, so glad it has been sorted out relatively quickly.