In Preparation for Appeal Panel Day

[Hye000]

So… like the title states… im attempting to mentally prepare myself for the day of the appeal. Im just wondering (& hoping im not the only one). Do you go in (Teams or face to face) with a written script maybe summarising what you have already said in your written appeal?? Is that what previous people have done?? Or do parents just wait for any questions posed to them from the presenting officer or panel and answer those. Are we expected to re-iterate what we already said… I just don’t know what’s expected and don’t want to end up being flustered if I’m expected to have a long speech prepared and end up in a tizz!!! 🫠 Send help!! 🤦🏽‍♀️

if any of this makes sense and anyone has experience or similar worries please

Would you suggest I take in any proof of my child’s extra curricular interest as part of my appeal as like you said. Any parent can say that their child “likes or attends” a particular activity. Would it be advisable to show medals and certificates??

I have not but I will definitely read through and hopefully be able to use this information in the appeal. Thank you! She has an eating disorder which was diagnosed due to poor Oral intake and also due to how much it affects her socially. She is officially diagnosed and is having ongoing support from CAMHS and the all age eating disorder service. Both of which have provided letters for the appeal and the dietician has offered to attend the appeal also.

Thank you for sharing. My appeal was about 5 pages 😖 (panel are going to hate me! Lol) and I went with bullet points too as advised by the lovely professionals on here. I’m just not sure what to say in my speech to go in with. When I get stressed I tend to go over and over the same points especially when I feel they are really important (my mind thinks they just don’t get it so I’ll keep saying it!) 🫣 are your bullet points things you have already said in your appeal but worded differently?

I took copies of everything. I had an annotated version of my appeal statement to remind me to get things said. I think we all agreed they'd read my statement and they went straight to questions. It was OK. Like you we applied under medical need but that wasn't granted and we failed on distance. Our appeal was granted.

Do they tell you how or why your appeal was granted?

0P, you've had some very good advice on this thread now – as well as some very dubious advice earlier on. While it is excellent that you have medical professionals supporting your appeal, unless I have missed it, you haven't said what exactly their letters say? It's not enough for them to say something along the lines of "Mrs X tells me that her daughter needs to attend this school, because…". What do you need is specific examples of what this school will be offering to support your daughter, I am struggling to think of examples relating to an eating disorder, but for example for a child with mobility issues a consultant might be able to say that the appealed for school is all on one level and so is much more accessible for the appellant than the offered school, which is three stories with no lifts. Or perhaps a child with frequent hospital admissions needs to be within a certain radius from the closest hospital which they offered school doesn't have or something like that.

However, I think you also need to prepare yourself and your daughter for the fact that your appeal may fail. I don't know from where she has got the idea that the offered school is so unsuitable and that she will refuse to attend if not offered this other school. At her age that would seem to be a position which she has arrived at because you have made clear your unhappiness about the school to her. I hope she's not being encouraged in that intransigent viewpoint because it's not going to be helpful down the line, you might already want to spend some time being more positive about the school at which she has a place.

They sort of did. It was a point we'd raised and her consultant had also raised it. We discussed it and the chap from the LA conceded that it could cause a serious issue and something similar had happened before. I don't know if anything else we said hit the mark but that was the reason given. Sorry I'm being vague!

I agree with pp. you need to be very specific about what provision your preferred school offers in relation to your dd's medical condition. I can't think of anything that I wouldn't expect any school to provide as a reasonable adjustment, for example an early lunch pass, quiet room to eat lunch, an adult to check in, a quiet room to rest, modified timetable to account for fatigue etc.

That is absolutely not the case, I have not discouraged my daughter in anyway but the effects of her eating disorder and the details are the reason she will refuse the allocated school. It’s very long and in depth to explain in a message but there a large factors which affect whether she is able to eat and the anxiety that is largely raised when she is in busy areas such as dining rooms at school, she has sensory issues not just relating to food but these will impact her during many parts of the school day and has heavily relied on the social support she has received from her peers who she has been with since before her diagnosis who are aware of her issues. The preferred school lay out In comparison to the allocated school is a large factor due to the dining facilities and the fact that the preferred school have a centre for those with additional needs and reassured her that she could go there to eat if she was struggling in any way. My daughter is not defiant that she would refuse school just because she didn’t get what she wants. The immediate threat to her physical and mental health will be huge. The allocated school is expanding the dining facilities and this will pretty much ensure that my daughter will not enter there especially given that she has no peer support there so she will avoid those areas that give her the greatest amount of anxiety, thus potentially hospitalising her due to her already poor oral intake and that she is already not meeting her nutritional needs. It’s a lot more complex than what can be written on paper.

I have tried to in my original appeal letter, I am not asking for advice as to whether the appeal will win. If you were in my position and had a child in my DD’s situation and knew all of the circumstances I have no doubt you would do the same. This eating disorder could hospitalise and kill my child… what else can I do but try everything in my power to prevent that?? There is no cure privately or on the NHS so do I send her to the allocated school where she will 99% likely stop eating or avoid eating. She is already extremely petite and has only recently gained enough weight to put her in the safe zone, it wouldn’t take much for her to be malnourished. She eats no fruits or veg of any kind.. non at all. She doesn’t eat anywhere enough calcium on a daily basis, she doesn’t drink enough. She can’t even be in the same room as family if they are eating certain foods.

I've just fleshed out what I've said in the bullet points to be honest. So, there's no new information in my speech bit, just instead of 2 lines of info I'm saying it in a paragraph. DS has no medical needs and we missed out on distance. My DD is already at the school but in year 11 so I know a lot about what the school offers.

Is siblings not in there admissions criteria then??

I have heard people winning on medical - one example I heard was that the prefered school was nut free and this was a child with a severe nut allergy. Can’t see extra curricular will be decisive. I heard a primary appeal that won - mum had a medical condition that she couldn’t drive and allocated school was impossible to reach by public transport so child had no way of getting there. Preferred school was walking distance.

I have been involved in cases where extra-curricular activities have indeed been decisive.

In answer to the OP, rather than any details in subsequent posts, I took in my statement and pretty much read the entire thing out. I spoke for over an hour!

You can’t re-phrase it, as it doesn’t matter, it’s not a valid reason for appeal.

Yes, but it is "siblings attending the school at the time of admission", by which time, DD will have gone to college.

I talked through each of the points in my appeal. Not word for word from the document, but just explaining it and answered the questions the panel had. It did take a while and I felt guilty that I was taking so much of the panel’s time, but I wanted to include everything. The thing I found interesting is that none of the other parents had done as much research (or got the fantastic advice on here) so they were in and out really quickly.

Sorry - should have said good luck!

I see the bad advice is back. Things the appeal school offers that are not available at the allocated school are very much valid reasons for appeal. That is exactly the kind of thing the appeal panel wants to hear.

I wouldn't recommend doing that!

I've come across cases where the parent has simply said that their written case sets out everything and asks for questions. I've come across cases where the parents have gone into a lot more detail.

If I'm presenting an appeal, I will bring out the strongest points in the parents' case and maybe add some more detail to those, or try to get them across in a better way than is possible with just the written word.

You have even lesser knowledge and experience than I do by the sounds of it

And you are extremely rude.

I think the difference is focusing on why the desired school is the right one (what it offers etc) as against why the given school is the wrong one. So you are appealing FOR a particular school as against AGAINST another. If that makes sense 😂

Does the allocated school have an area where children who need it can go for a quiet space? I had until a year ago thought most schools had it as standard provision, but isn't. Have you asked allocated school what they would do to support (if you have a professional recommendations for needing a space to eat and allocated school can't provide that, the panel can then consider the detriment of not being able to have the recommended space). If the allocated school can meet her needs other than existing peer group, you will find others will have similar arguments around peer group as anxiety is common and being separated from existing peers. Also good to highlight the extra curricular she can take part in. The social and medical is really difficult to prove, even with an EHCP, a lot of mainstream school would say they can meet most needs.