Secondary School year 7 appeal

[Lurea]

Hi

Is there anybody out there with any advice or experience with regards to secondary school appeals.

My DS has not been given the school we were hoping for. He has allocated our 3rd option (his older sister goes to this school). It is a great school, but it is a catholic one and our son is not happy to continue to attend a religious school (he is now attending a catholic school). Although, we are catholic we need to respect his view and we think we he will struggle with the school religious ethos and will be required to take GCSE RE. He will thrive in a school providing a secular education His favorite school is an IB college specialized in language and music and it will perfect match for him as he already speaks 2 languages in addition to English. He would like to learn German but the school he has been allocated does not teach it. In addition, he is very interested in music.

We have appealed but not sure how to support his case as it is quite unusual as most people wants their children admitted in religious schools.

My son preferred school is oversubscribed, and we have been informed that a number of people have appealed for it and that appeal stage 1 will be discusses all families together. I am not sure how this will work out.

If anyone has ANY experience or ANY advice, I would be so grateful.

Submit the appeal request.

But bear in mind that the German teacher may not be there in five years (it's a far less popular language nowadays - many schools are dropping it in favour of Spanish).

Music isn't a niche subject and even if there is currently a limited carousel at one school whilst the other bigs it up, that could have changed in five years. And external qualifications in music are easy to access.

Many schools have RS as a compulsory GCSE. RC schools are not unique in this. He'll still have RS lessons and unless withdrawn by you, will still have to take part in the legally required acts/assembly. It's also a relatively easy subject in my opinion.

There's also nothing stopping you changing schools later if he goes to the current one and really doesn't like it.

Also request to go onto the waiting list if you haven't already.

Thanks for your quick reply.

My daughter goes to the religious school and I must say the ethos is quite strong. She is happy but I feel it my son will not thrive in there. He will benefit instead from the international vibe of the school we are appealing to.

Religious flavour of the school is not a strong argument - it is a preference not a need (whether it’s a preference for or against). Focusing on the languages and the music seems like the stronger angle. Are you able to quantify the interest in music (playing in groups etc.)?

Ultimately it will rest on the strength of the school’s case, and how that balances against yours.

I would suggest doing a search in this topic as there are loads of posts explaining

Thanks. Our son plays a piano and guitar and would like to be part of the school orchestra.

in regard to the religion, we feel like that as he will move into adolescence his views will not fit in

i have researched in this topic but I could not find any case where parents were appealing not in favour of a religious school. I am not sure whether this will be considered a strong factor

The religious element won't be a strong bit of your appeal. Our school system means lots of children attend schools that don't align with their beliefs.

You will be better off focusing on the languages and music aspects. However you will need evidence of what he already does to show his interest and you will also need to investigate exactly what the preferred school offers that the others don't, as they will all have some language/music offering.

"Our son plays a piano and guitar and would like to be part of the school orchestra."

These are not orchestral instruments, so I would suggest you change your angle on this one. Does the school you want him to go to have a guitar group (if he plays acoustic guitar) or a rock band (if electric)?

Thanks bendingspoons for your advice.

my son preferred school has a completely different programme as it provides international baccalaureate. In this school some of the subjects are thought in German and French and this is the reason my son likes it so much.
His father lives in Switzerland and this is the main reason for him to anting to study German and French

This is actually your strongest point so far - the need to have those languages fluent because of his father, especially with some of the subjects taught in those languages as that is much more powerful than just the normal high school teaching.

On the music, @LetItGoToRuin makes good points too.

Not wanting a religious school is actually quite a common appeal point, but it's really taken into account as it's a want, rather than a need.

Thanks again for the extremely useful advices. I am going to re-organise my discussion points as I thought struggling to accept a religious education was the main reason for appealing

sorry I meant to say a band not orchestra
he is learning acoustic guitar but he wants to move onto electric one.

About the stage 1 appeal, the school we are appealing for had accepted 30 and 25 students over the PAN in 2021 and 2022. When I have asked the school about these extra students they said that the local authority asked them to admit more students. However, in the school financial report for 2020 there is written that the school was already planning to increase the intake as a capacity survey identified that the school has capacity to expend its intake and have taken a bulge in Year 7 for 21/22. The intention is to further expand, reviewing capacity every year to ensure that the quality of education is not impacted for existing students.

is this information useful to support the car that the school can admit one more student?

Has it taken over PAN this year as well?

It definitely helps remove the argument that many schools will use that the whole school site is overfull, crammed in, no room in corridors etc.

However, if the intake for Year 7 for this September is already considerably over PAN, they may be more able to argue that fitting in another student in that year would be problematic, in terms of physical space in classrooms, science rooms, etc. What is the PAN for this Sept and what have they offered?

Thanks Patriciaholm

fir this September only 2 places were allocated over PAN due to a late EHCP claim naming the school and a multiple birth place allocated on distance.