Secondary school appeal advice please.

[SchoolAdvice2023]

I am appealing for a secondary school place for my daughter, she did not get a place at any of the three schools we selected.
school 1:- 2 siblings attend and there is priority to siblings.
school 2:- closest catchment area school to our address in a straight line, no siblings
school 3:- second closest catchment area school in a straight line, no siblings attend.
She was offered an out of catchment school over 10 miles away with no public transport links from our village and no safe walking/cycling route.

My dd has SEN and a local authority education plan in place but not an EHCP. The school she been given “requires improvement” and has been that way since opening in 2016. The latest ofstead report from November 2022 says that the SENCO provisions are extremely unsatisfactory with no structure resulting in SEN students failing, the SENCO department is not fit for purpose. Teachers ignore SEN plans and leave students to struggle a lot of teachers are unaware which students in their classes have SEN or how to access support for them.

In reflection school 1 which siblings attend is offstead outstanding and has a specialist department for dyslexia, we’re students are thriving and meeting all educational milestones.

Can I use this as grounds to appeal, I’ve read not to run down your given school but surely the fact offstead said it’s failing SEN students and the SENCO department is not fit for purpose is relevant for a SEN student.

How come she hasn't got in to school 1 on sibling priority? I'd start by making sure that was actually applied.

The local authority said the admissions policy was followed and she missed out on a place by 5 meters.

I think the offstead report demonstrates that sending her to the allocated school would be more detrimental to her education than having one extra child in our chosen school. Primary head will write a supporting statement and provide documentation to show the level of daily support currently received at on a daily basis.

Does your DD have dyslexia? If so the fact they have a specialist department could maybe be used on appeal.
You can't use a bad Ofsted as an appeal point.

Sounds like she must be very very near the top of the waiting list anyway.

Yes she has dyslexia.
I know a bad Ofsted in general can be used this school has lots of issues with bullying, bad behaviour, attendance, staff retention and the list goes on and on. Just wondering because the Ofsted says the school is not equipped to teach children with SEN if it’s reasonable to highlight this?

Are you saying that for school 1, every single Y7 place has been allocated to a sibling who lives closer to the school than you do? Did you enter details of the older siblings on the application form?

What's the local admissions policy re: catchment areas? Not everywhere uses them but your initial post suggests your area does.

Does School 1 have a siblings category in its admissions (and did the siblings meet any requirements, e.g. not in Y11 or sixth form), and if so, have you checked that this was the category your DD was considered under? As SE13Mummy says, this implies that every Y7 place went to siblings who live closer, which seems improbable at secondary level, unless it’s a tiny school.

Or is school 1 something like this?
siblings in catchment
catchment
siblings out of catchment
other out of catchment

I did put sibling’s on the form eldest is currently year 9 will be year 10 in September. Yes the LA have said she missed out on a place by 5 metres in a straight line. It is not a small school, average sized I would say 300 places each year.

The admissions policy states
Looked after children
Child with EHCP
Siblings
catchment area
out of catchment area

Where does siblings come in admissions priority? Or is it siblings within a certain distance?
Thats crazy op must be an error

over 10 miles away with no public transport links from our village

Surely you can't be expected to accept this? How is the council expecting any child to get to school in these circumstances?

Did you clarify with the LA that your DD had been counted under the sibling admissions criteria? I agree with PP it seems very unlikely that all the other places have been filled by siblings. Do you know any others who have been admitted that don't have a sibling.

It doesn’t say anything about distance for siblings just ALL siblings are before catchment area children with no siblings

Op as others says, there surely must be an error here - unless every yr 7 place has gone to a sibling? This would be a good first point to establish tbh.

I'm inclined to think there's been an error by someone somewhere. I find it hard to imagine 300 places being filled entirely by siblings.

If you put the 3 closest schools first then I think the LA has to pay transport?

I have asked if there is an error and been told no, the last place went to sibling that lived 5 meters closer than us.

I don’t want my child to go to the failing school we’re her SEN will be ignored and she will be left to fail regardless of who pays travel costs. That school is not a correct match for my daughter as they can not meet her needs, this is confirmed in the most recent Ofsted report. Out of choice I would like her to go to my other daughters school but I will take any of the other 6 secondary schools that are closer to our address than this one.

You need urgently to check which admissions category your child was placed in, because the message from the LEA makes it sound as if they ran out of sibling places, which would be very very unusual in a 300-place entry school. On the information here, this looks to be an error, which the LEA ought to put right without making you go to appeal.

If you do have to go to appeal, don’t go on about the offered school being poor. Turn it around by highlighting the positive benefits the preferred school could offer your child, which wouldn’t be available there.

They would provide a taxi.

OP. If you were to ask one of them nicely, one of the appeals experts may be willing to double check admission criteria for you if you PM them the name of the school.
Despite your reassurances, I'm struggling to comprehend a whole year group of siblings, though I can comprehend a school mainly full from catchment kids and not quite having room for all out of catchment siblings.

Are you sure that out of catchment sibling comes before catchment non sibling?

As others have said with a PAN of 300, it is unlikely that pretty much every other child who has got in has a sibling connection.

My DC will go to catchment school with similar PAN. She got in before siblings out of catchment. Some siblings out of catchment never got in. But imo its right that she gets a place before them.

I would think it's nearly impossible that 300 kids are siblings of current pupils. Are you sure it isn't in catchment siblings, catchment, out catchment siblings, out catchment?

Also, did your children get the school by choice or were they allocated it? Some LAs (such as Hampshire) have a 'displaced sibling' policy, whereby if a sibling was allocated a school that was not nearest, then future siblings are treated as 'in catchment siblings' even if they are actually out of catchment.