School has a very strong case

[Hye000]

As the title says… we have just received the school case against anymore pupils being admitted and it appears they have a strong case. Any tips or ideas of arguments to put forward to weaken their argument not to admit further…

to be honest, i appreciate the argument they have but I’m not asking them to admit anymore than one child so to me it’s hard to read it as being stronger than my argument for my child.

they were originally admitting 252 and have increased pan to 280. They say that they have 10 forms of 28 students and all classrooms are at full capacity, SEN areas and provisions are stretched and financially they are stretched etc etc.

can I argue that the receive extra funding for SEN pupils and that this should cover those children and the one 2 one teaching that is required?? I don’t know what else I can argue as I’m more conscious of the impact the my child if they were not to be admitted. They also argue about the narrow road that the school is on and that more people coming would add to health and safety, but my child would be walking so can I add that in to my speech, I don’t know.. feel like I’m clutching at straws!

any ideas please please please?

You could ask to see their Net Capacity Assessment. I wouldn’t leave it until the appeal, ask now.

I’ve just had an email to say my appeals pack was posted out on Tuesday. I’m out at work so don’t know if we’ve received it or not. I can’t believe the info has been available all this time but I’ve not had sight of it. Got until next Friday to submit final paperwork. It’s happening across 3 days. Is it reasonable for me to ask how many appeals are being heard? I’m actually shaking!!

Yes, that's a reasonable question.

Thank you @prh47bridge Unfortunately the papers have not been delivered, my husband has just checked our postbox. ☹️ Fortunately the e-mail had a phone number so I will call them now.

can I argue that the receive extra funding for SEN pupils and that this should cover those children and the one 2 one teaching that is required??

The SEN budget doesn’t increase if more pupils on SEN support join-it’s based on a generic formula for your area and you are just expected to make do. Pupils not on SEN Support but with EHCPs don’t always have funding attached. If they do, it’s rarely full time and barely ever adequate.

The general consensus is that at appeal you just have to prove that it is more detrimental to your child not to attend the preferred school than it is to the school to go over PAN. How does this work if there are lots of appeals, because surely those with an earlier appeal date are more likely to be successful i.e. if several parents have argued they should go over PAN before you even get there, eventually the school's case will be upheld, because they are already over PAN having made told to admit x number of extra children?

@DietrichandDiMaggio
Wd used to hear them all together for each school. Frequently over several days. No immediate decisions. Not spread out. That’s why there are deadlines for appealing.

So then you have to decide which of the children will be disadvantaged most? Depending on the number of appeals a child that might have been successful at appeal one year wouldn't be the next, because others 'deserved' the place more?

Yes, appeals are decided on the balance of prejudice, ie does the detriment to the child if they don’t get a place outweigh the detriment to the school in having to accommodate another pupil?

Decisions aren’t made until all the appeals for that school have been heard, so all decisions are made at the same time. If the panel considers that the number of appeals it is minded to allow is more than the school can cope with, it has to decide how many appeals can be allowed and then identify the strongest appeals to take those places.

Thank you.

My DD appeal is 12th May and I am aware of a family that had their appeal on the 3rd. I thought they had to give them an answer within 7days. Going by what you have said, it will be more than 7days wait for them and I could potentially get an answer the same day as they would need to let that family know at the latest by next Friday when I assume my appeal will be the last for that particular school??

No. It’s as I said before. Decisions on appeals for any school can’t be taken until the last appeal for that school has been heard (because, as I explained before, if the panel has to whittle down the number of successful appeals, by identifying the strongest, it can only do so once it has heard them all and can compare them). So that does mean that, if there are lots of appeals for a school, those whose appeals are heard first will be waiting longer for the outcome. The clock for releasing results only starts when the last appeal is heard.

And there is no penalty for missing the notification deadline. The Appeals Code specifically allows the deadline to be missed if there is a good reason (which clearly applies when there are more appeals to be heard). But, even if it is missed without good reason, that won't give unsuccessful appellants an argument for a fresh hearing.