Secondary Appeal on Class Disruption

[Forestmoss]

I have prepared an appeal for a secondary school for my child. I am now not sure if I'm approaching this the right way. Basically the area we live is not the best and the local schools have quite a few disruptive pupils. She does help other pupils and is often picked to work alongside with these children as a calming influence. She doesn't complain to the teacher but she does find it difficult. The majority of children from her primary will go on to the local secondary, which she has been offered. This does bother her and she wanted to attend another school a bit further away. I also think this would definitely will be better for her. My appeal explains this and that she has done well in primary school but finds the disruption frustrating and I think her results will suffer in this type of environment. Is it ok to say this as I'm reading you can't say anything against the school offered? I haven't actually said this, just that she wants to move away from this type of environment. Without this I haven't really go anything to appeal on and this is the reason she and I want her to attend another school.

Just reading my post back and to make it clearer, when I've said I haven't actually said this, I mean I haven't actually said anything against the school offered as such. Just that it's known there is disruption in classes at this school.

Not an expert, but you need to argue for the school you want, not against the school you don't. If seems that your argument is all about getting away from the assigned school. Unfortunately any school can have disruptive students but equally any school should be capable of dealing with it, so that's not a great argument.

Are there any other reasons to prefer the other school? You would do better to focus on those.

Absolutely not an argument for appeal however you word it. Do you think all the other kids enjoy the disruption? Are they also not deserving of a disruption free education? Plus you've only got hearsay that she'll be subject to disruption as she's not there yet.
You'll need to find something about.

I think any appeals panel would dismiss this appeal if this is the only reason you can come up with. As the experts on here often say, you don’t know who you might be offending if you are negative about the first school .

What are your daughters passions, her strengths, her interests. Academic work, music, drama, sports etc etc. look over the preferred school with a fine comb to see what it has to offer that the first school doesn’t.

Go on the waiting list for the second school , but accept the first school place, and remember if it comes down to it she will be in a much bigger pond, with more fish and opportunities to make new friends.

Yeh OP you won’t win an appeal by talking about disruption in the offered school. As others say, firstly it is a thing that is bad about the offered school; secondly who knows that there will be disruption?; thirdly there could be disruption in the preferred school; fourthly any school is expected to be able to deal with disruption.

YY you need to think about what the preferred school offers your DD that the allocated one does not – things like a school orchestra and she plays the violin; German on the curriculum and she has learned German at primary; a hockey team and she is a keen player; a strong offering in drama and she already has experience of appearing in plays.

If there are no health-related reasons then arguments like these are your strongest shout tbh.

And I agree with @@viques accept the offered place and get enthusiastic about it with your dd; but also go on WLs for any schools you would prefer.

Honestly you have no grounds to appeal based on that argument. As others have stated , it needs to be along the lines that your preferred school offers something that the other school does not eg orchestra for a gifted musician type of thing.
Go on the waiting list but I would start being more positive about the school to your daughter.

Presumably the intake is not confined to those children so the secondary presents an opportunity for her to find others to work with. Your argument will not support an appeal.

This would get thrown out. You need to argue for the school you want, not against the one you have.
You need to find something in that school that will mean your child also attending, won't have a negative effect on the others.

I see no chance of an appeal on those lines succeeding. As others have said, you need to turn this around and present positive arguments for your child to attend the preferred school, based on features of the school that will benefit them.

Sounds like I may need to forget the appeal and focus on the positives of the local school. But thanks to you all, appreciate the advice.

You don't need to forget the appeal, just find arguments for the school you want. You're not there to slate what you got. You're there to argue that the school you want, is essentially the only place that your child can be in and them being an extra student, won't cause a negative effect on others. You don't even need to mention what school they've been offered.
There's tons of resources online and examples even of people who found unused rooms in a school and won that way. It's a long shot but you need to understand what you're going in there to do.

You can't appeal on these grounds, but you may be able to find other grounds. Look for things the appeal school offers that are missing from the allocated school and are particularly relevant for your daughter. This could be subjects, extra-curricular activities, pastoral care, etc. Those are the kinds of thing you need to use to build your case.