Secondary admission process and appeal

[Eclipse10]

Hi all,

After lots of stalking on here for helpful advise I had my secondary admission appeal panel hearing today.

The panel noted that it was evident I'd put a lot of time and research into my paper (it was quite long). I am now waiting the outcome.

What surprised me is that after starting to question the school / admission authority on their claims the school was full (they struggled to answer my questions incidentally and provided little evidence). They turned round and said they'd already upped intake this year from the 300 PAN to allow another 5 in? This was not mentioned in their paper to me / the panel last week and the breakdown of those offered places added upto 300?!

Apparently as they had done this before the appeal it means those extra 5 are allocated via the waiting list (as we're no. 100 we have no hope). I did still suggest that if they can add 5 more to a 10 form entry than why can't they add another 5 to make it 310 but not sure it will get me very far.

It seems to me that they have gamed the system as they have let 305 in the last couple of years between the initial admission and the appeals being heard but not changed their PAN and there's no appeals that have been upheld in the past 3 years🤷🏻‍♀️

Is this normal, anyone else ever experienced this?

Did they say whose decision this was? Has the LEA been asking schools to admit beyond PAN, to cope with a shortage of school places? Or was this on the school’s initiative?

Depends who the 5 are. If EHCP named school, these DC are admitted. If they are looked after Dc, they are admitted. Some of these Dc apply and sit on a waiting list pending final decision. Pan is 30x number of classes. So 180, 240 etc. 5 is neither here nor there and they can admit over pan with suitable reason.

They were not clear. The person speaking was from the LEA admissions team representing the school. She just read off a script and couldn't answer any of my questions. It all just felt very pre-determined.

They said it was just another 5 over PAN and would be allocated according to the admissions priority order.

@Eclipse10 when you say your appeals was quite long, how long was it?

The main body was about 8 pages probably evenly split between reasons for by son needing to attend that school and reasons why the school could accept him. Plus then a bunch of evidence appendices so over 20 pages in total. I did pull the key points out of the evidence in the main text so the panel didn't have to fully digest the evidence part.

I got the impression that other parents perhaps just focused on why their child school get a place rather than the other part of evidencing the impact on the school / other pupils.

Sometimes this happens because of a shortage of places in the local area and the school are asked to take over PAN, but the presenting officer should have known that.

On the face of it, your question is very valid

• if they are happy to have 5 forms of 31 and 5 of 30, why not 10 of 31?

Yes, it’s odd that the presenting officer couldn’t explain how this happened. It does sound as if the LEA might have asked the school to admit additional pupils (especially as this is said to be the second year it’s happened). I wouldn’t describe it as gaming the system, if it’s part of a plan to deal with a shortage of places but, as PatriciaHolm says, it does raise questions about how much farther beyond PAN the school could manage.

Ok thanks, reassuring to know it's a normal part of the process.

Our LEA can be less than helpful. They're not the easiest to extract information from, unless it's past appeals info to demonstrate how rare it is for an appeal to be upheld, and do try to deter parents from bothering to appeal. I guess that's made me less trusting.

I had to research many different sources to gather capacity data as it wasn't forthcoming directly.

I had lots of arguements and evidence to suggest they could admit beyond PAN but it kind of took the rug from under me when they just turned round and agreed part way through. The presenting officer also had an unsettling grin on her face at that point. I may be seeing shadows but I'll be anxiously waiting the outcome (due the end of next week).

You shouldn't have needed to search for capacity data. The admission authority is required to answer any reasonable questions you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. If the school is its own admission authority, the LA should have directed you to them rather than failing to answer your questions at all.

The response I had back from them was:

"The admissions authority are not required to include details of net capacity. Net capacity isn't used for an academy to form its PAN. Their published admission number is agreed with the secretary of state and forms part of the schools funding agreement"

What the LA has said is simply wrong. The funding agreement does NOT include PAN. It includes the net capacity. It will typically say something like, "The planned capacity of the Academy is net 805 and max 875". Whoever responded to your query needs to read the School Capacity Survey Guide for Local Authorities - see School Capacity (SCAP) Survey 2022: Guide for local authorities (publishing.service.gov.uk) - page 7 in particular. Since the LA has to complete the School Capacity Survey for all schools including academies, they must know the academy's net capacity.

The LA could have referred you to the school for this information. As this is an academy, they are required to answer your questions, not the LA. But they really shouldn't have told you something that is clearly untrue.

@Eclipse10 clause 1.4 of the School Admissions Code allows schools to admit above their PAN so long as they notify the Local Authority.

As others have said, LA's sometimes ask schools to do this, and sometimes it is the school's decision (if it is an academy). It's more reasonable to do it before the appeals than after, for the obvious reason that the new places can then be allocated via the waiting list.

It may have happened after the school submitted their appeal statement, but the presenting officer should have mentioned it when presenting her case. If they didn't know about it, I imagine they will be a bit embarassed about that, and probably quite cross that the Head didn't tell them. But it doesn't mean your appeal is more likely to succeed. In fact it is probably less likely to succeed, because the school has already accepted more students than they were planning for.

@prh47bridge thanks for clarifying. I did think it wasn't right but had so little time to prepare for my appeal just cracked on without it and sourced the information elsewhere rather than taking the time to validate that statement.

@tribyoot that is certainly my feeling that I have less of a chance of getting a spot as they've already conceded and offered more spaces so harder to justify a few more. I knew my chances were slim when I saw that no appeals have been upheld in the past 3 years but had to give it a try!

How did you find out how many appeals have been upheld in the past 3 years? Is that public info?

@Hye000 that's one of the questions I asked the admissions office and they actually answered for me.

Ahh ok, might give them a call and see if they give me a straight answer.

Did the panel ask you any questions about your case??

Could that be enough for OP to force another appeal?

I believe you can only appeal for the same academic year. The panel members will correct this if am wrong.

meant to say can only appeal once for the same academic year* . You can't go back to the same school and re-appeal.

You can only appeal once per academic year, unless there is a significant change in circumstances, but I think what titchy is referring to is the possibility of complaining to the Secretary of State about the conduct of an appeal - you can complain if you doubt that either -

a) the panel was correctly constituted by the admission authority;
b) the admission authority has acted reasonably in exercising functions in respect of the appeals process or failed to discharge a duty in relation to that process.

All the SoS can do is order another appeal, not overturn the result of the first one.

Honestly I can't see another appeal being ordered just because the Academy got this wrong, especially if OP managed to source it anyway, but I'm not an expert on this element of appeals - it happens rarely. I think my LA had 2 such complaints last year.

You can if the appeal was carried out incorrectly.

I don't think so in this case. Maybe if the information involved had a significant bearing on the outcome of the appeal and OP hadn't been able to find it, but that isn't the case here.

@Hye000 not really, they just said as I'd already provided a comprehensive pack for the panel was there anything else I wanted to add in summary. I didn't get any questions from the presenting officer either. I was all geared up for responses to possible challenges but no-one came. I did do a LOT of research in advance and provided a comprehensive account backing up all my points with evidence so there wasn't much to add or counter really.

If it's a relatively new academy, in temporary accommodation pending a move, or on a permanent site that is being gradually developed as the school grows, then the DfE can restrict the PAN year on year, despite what is written in the funding agreement.

This happened to a school in my area. Their funding agreement gave capacity figures implying a certain PAN but the actual PAN was restricted to a lower figure for the first few years of the school being open, until their permanent accommodation was ready, because the temporary site had restricted space.