Appeal

[Kate8686]

Hi I'm looking for advice on a high school appeal. My son did not get any of his preferred schools including catchment and 2 others close by. (This seems to of happened for a fair few kids in our area this year) so they have been allocated the nearest school with room.

He knows absolutely nobody going to this school. But has friends going to all 3 of the other schools.
He was diagnosed with a severe speech and language delay as a youngster, attended a specialist unit for his nursery year and half of reception and then did a gradual transition into mainstream school and was still seeing a specialist speech and language therapist until he was discharged in 2017.
He has residual speech problems which will never be cured and this does affect his day to day life, confidence and social skills.
The speech and language team went paper light in 2021 and therefore I am limited on what evidence I have but I do have some. He hasn't had any intervention since, as there isn't anything more they can do to help him.

The headteacher and senco at his primary school have offered to write a statement saying that he will benefit from staying with his friends due to this impairment and lack of confidence.

There are also curricular components I will be putting into my appeal, as to what the preferred schools offer.

Anyone been in a similar situation? Is this a valid reason for appeal? Any other advice?

Thanks for reading.

Appeal panels rarely accept a need to stay with friends as a compelling argument. The evidence from his current school will help. Evidence from a medical professional would carry more weight.

Anything the appeal school offers that is missing from the allocated school and is particularly relevant to your son can help your appeal - subjects, extra-curricular activities, pastoral care, etc.

Do any of the schools you would prefer have a social/medical category for admissions, and would your son have got in if he was in this category?

If so, did the admissions authority make an error by not considering him in this category? Or did you not submit evidence before now?

I don't know how strong the argument about friends would be- what if they ended up not going to the allocated school for some reason? But if one of the schools has better pastoral/SEN support, that would be a strong reason to argue for that school.

Read the admissions criteria for the medical/social category for the school you want carefully. You need to meet the requirements. Get letters from medical professionals if you can. Make it specific to this school. For example, if you get a letter from his doctor stating that he needs to attend a closer school because his speech and language difficulties will make it too stressful for him to manage a longer journey, but there are other schools that are closer the panel probably won't take this into consideration. If the school you want has specialist SALT support that other school's don't have then provide that evidence too. Make sure you check the PAN of the school this year, and also ask for the PAN for previous years as well if they don't provide it. Ask about reasons for any differences.

Finally, do make sure he is on the waiting list for the preferred school. If he doesn't get offered a place before September keep checking. Around Christmas the waiting lists might transfer from LA to school, so you need to keep checking that he is still on there.