Appeal content

[beanhunter]

Hello. We are appealing this week for our first choice secondary. We were late applicants due to moving but as part of this I feel their policy of running a reallocation round of offers before they accept any changes of address has meant my child has been disadvantaged and will explore this.

Therefore I am compiling a list differentiating features between schools relevant to my daughter

Gms has strong transition with local primaries - she has been part of several sports fixtures there already.

Dance as part of core pe and gcse and sport throughout as strong feature including the 'girls active programme' focusing on self confidence. DD dances to a high standard having performed with the English youth ballet.
Eco school - she's been eco council member at primary (tenuous i guess)
Offers maths challenge- ie a stretch option for more able children. dd is working at greater depth in all areas.

Everything says I have to appeal for this school rather than against. Other school does none of the above including no gcse pe. They also have inadequate safeguarding according to ofsted and limited learning due to disruption in lessons (how to I discuss this without it looking like I'm badmouthing the school)?

Then on top of that there is the location and move and how she's disadvantaged by their policy to delay updating addresses meaning 5 non catchment children had offers on 31st March

The fact they originally offered 237 on offers day to accommodate all local catchment means they cannot now reasonably say they can't accommodate more than 230 (every year has at least 232 so there is precident) they are now back at pan of 230. Additionally
The website says 3x houses of 78. That's 234 not 230.

Their paperwork refers to aspiring to be a truely local school and we live a mile away - catchment is up to 8 miles.

Any thoughts welcomed at this stage. In our letter we discussed the sports and pastoral care and location but I fear that this won't be enough.

The fact the other school doesn't offer things the appeal school does is factual. No problem with you saying that.

I would keep away from the inadequate safeguarding and disruption in lessons. That would clearly be appealing against the school you've got. At best it won't help your case. At worst it could make it harder for you to win.

I think your strongest point is that you missed out at the end of March because they refused to update your address. I can't see any justification for that.

Good luck.

I can't see anything either but they are clear that this is their policy and I don't know how to word that.
In terms of the safeguarding and pastoral care I am a little worried as I did put that in our papers. Is that a problem?

How you word that is straightforward. You moved on date x and notified the LA on date y. They did not take your new address into account for initial admissions, which is expected. However, they continued to use your old address for the second round of admissions. Since the second round of admissions is from the waiting list, they are required to order the list using the oversubscription criteria. However, their refusal to use your new address means they did not do so, unfairly disadvantaging you.

Without knowing what you said re safeguarding and pastoral care it is difficult to comment. In any event, it is too late to do anything about that now. All you can do is to avoid saying anything negative about the allocated school in the hearing. Remember that, although the panel will be independent from the appeal school, it is possible that one of them will have some association with the allocated school - a grandchild who attends, for example.

Thank you. I just quoted the ofsted and talked about the academic and pastoral care options of the preferred school by companion if that makes sense?