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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Unsuccessful appeal

44 replies

bags0455 · 20/05/2023 15:47

Please please help me with any advice.

I was not given the secondary school I put as my first and only choice. My son and 2 younger children currently attend the feeder school however the criteria is catchment and feeder and I'm out the feeder due to moving in COVID. I went to plea my case with multiple reasons for my appeal being out entire support network is were the school is
We have no one in our new area. He plays for both the local football teams. All his friends are there and I will be dropping his siblings there for 5 more years so distance will not matter due to me driving. I'm also the only driver in my house. There was a few more personal reasons however I won't go into them. I have found out we was not successful and I am truly devastated. My son has cried for 2 days. What can I do now to try and get more help to get the school
Has anyone ever contacted there local MP.

Thank you

OP posts:
TeenDivided · 20/05/2023 16:05

I think that is very unfortunate, but if you really appealed based on 'support network' then I'm not surprised as that isn't really grounds for appeal.

Did you ask for advice here?

Usually you have to find things about the preferred school that are important to your DC that aren't provided at the offered school. For example extra curricular activities or curriculum enhancement that particularly benefit your DC.

I don't really see from what you have written why your MP should put themselves out for your child? It seems you just live too far away. You chose to move (or were forced to?), you maybe need to put effort in to helping your DC find roots in your new area? For example move football teams, move schools for the youngest etc?

Sorry if this seems harsh. Maybe there is a back story that you haven't shared that changes things such as reasons why your DC really needs to be at school with friends.

CatsOnTheChair · 20/05/2023 16:06

You need to be looking at reasons why your son needs that school more than any of the schools local to you. Your logistics and convenience at getting the kids to school won't count, I don't think.

I'd also be looking at schools that are accessible from your new address without you having to drive.

Have you been given a school place at all?

TeenDivided · 20/05/2023 16:07

You can only appeal once per academic year for each school. So a place may come up on the waiting list. Otherwise you need to focus on the positives of the offered school to your DS.

redskylight · 20/05/2023 16:07

I think you would do better to start focusing your son on getting used to the idea of his new school (I assume you have been allocated one?) rather than being fixated on the other one.

I appreciate it's disappointing not to get in to the school you wanted, but perhaps see this as an opportunity to build up a support network in a new area, and for your son to make more local friends.

Unless you feel the appeal was conducted unfairly, I'm not sure that it's worth you continuing down this path. Having friends and knowing people locally are not compelling reasons to get into a school. Most secondary school children make new friends and make their own way to school.

TorviShieldMaiden · 20/05/2023 16:09

You can only appeal on the basis that they have applied the criteria incorrectly. Which they haven’t. All manner of personal issues are irrelevant. Your MP won’t be able to help.

TeenDivided · 20/05/2023 16:11

TorviShieldMaiden · 20/05/2023 16:09

You can only appeal on the basis that they have applied the criteria incorrectly. Which they haven’t. All manner of personal issues are irrelevant. Your MP won’t be able to help.

For secondary you can appeal on a wide range of things. You just have to show the disadvantage to your child by not going there is bigger than the disadvantage to the school taking an extra child.

However as the appeal has failed, unless the appeal was incorrectly conducted or the result unreasonable I'm not sure there is much more the OP can do. An appeals expert will be along soon I'm sure.

eddiemairswife · 20/05/2023 16:17

You can only have one appeal during each academic year, unless there is a material change of circumstances, such as moving house(again) .

Lougle · 20/05/2023 16:20

Why did you put only one school on your form?

Unfortunately, if you have been to appeal and lost, that's the end of the road for this year, unless you think that the appeal wasn't conducted properly.

GladysHeeler · 20/05/2023 16:20

Have you got a place at another school? That's where I would start. He will soon make friends. And if it's your local school he ends up at then that's a advantage as he will be able to get there under his own steam.

I'd start joining him up to things in the area you live now so that he meets people that might be at the new school.

I'd focus on the new school now rather than trying to get into the other one. Go on the waiting list but I wouldn't give him hope that he might get in.

CurlewKate · 20/05/2023 16:26

Too late now-but for anyone else's benefit, only putting one school on the form is insanely risky. It means you could literally be given any school at all that has places left when everyone else has been allocated.

CurlewKate · 20/05/2023 16:28

@bags0455 You have accepted the school you were given, haven't you? Tell me you have!

ThickSkinnedSoWhat · 20/05/2023 16:29

I don't understand why you think the reasons you've provided would make a good argument above any other child. At the end of the day you chose to put one school down. If you think this is unfair, you should see how children with SEN are treated when it comes to school places 🙄

clary · 20/05/2023 16:31

Hi @bags0455 sorry you were not successful in your appeal but as others say, it would need to be stronger than support networks and transport. Ideally you needed to show that the appeal school offered vital things such as orchestra and your son plays, or German which he has studied etc.

Have you accepted the offered school? Talk it up to your son and get him excited about going there.

And for the future, it’s a good idea to use all three choices on your form; just putting one school doesn’t make getting that school a given.

Remember you can go on waiting lists for any other school you like.

PatriciaHolm · 20/05/2023 16:32

TorviShieldMaiden · 20/05/2023 16:09

You can only appeal on the basis that they have applied the criteria incorrectly. Which they haven’t. All manner of personal issues are irrelevant. Your MP won’t be able to help.

This is, as it is every time it is trotted out, untrue, especially at secondary level.

However, if OP has appealed and lost, then assuming the appeal was run correctly and there were no procedural errors, then further appeals are not possible for this academic year, unless there is a significant change in circumstances. You can appeal for Year 8 when that comes around if you wish.

Your MP won't be able to get you a place in a full school. There are circumstances where a pupil can be placed in a full school in preference to the waiting list, but they are limited and do not seem to apply here (hard to place children for example, EHCPs, etc.)

Make sure you are on the waiting list, and also for any other school you would accept.

WheelsUp · 20/05/2023 16:33

Have you gone to see the school that you've been assigned? Putting one school down was insanely risky .

If the school that you've been assigned is too risky then you need to get onto the waiting list of any acceptable school and wait it out or homeschool.

If I were you , I'd be moving the younger kids now too or you'll find yourself in the same situation when they apply for secondary. You have moved to a new area so should try and make the best of it and get to know more people. It will be sad moving a year 1 child but if they go to a new school in your new area then they hopefully go up to secondary with their new classmates.

SheilaFentiman · 20/05/2023 16:35

OP, just to clarify - all three of your children are currently in one of the feeder primaries for this secondary school, but you no longer live in catchment for the secondary?

I do sympathise with you having to move in covid, but like others have said, this doesn’t mean that you have strong grounds for appeal.

Is the secondary you have been allocated near to your home? Can your oldest child walk there?

SheilaFentiman · 20/05/2023 16:35

And I would agree with @WheelsUp, at least investigate if you can move primary school for your younger ones

Floralnomad · 20/05/2023 16:40

Unfortunately unless the reasons you are not wanting to disclose were better grounds for appeal you were doomed to fail as ‘ support network ‘ and your ability to drop off / pick up are not usually valid reasons for an appeal . You need to really be talking up the school you have been allocated as putting all your hopes onto one school hasn’t really helped your son .

LIZS · 20/05/2023 16:43

Why only list one school? Are you on wl for this and others nearby? Is the allocated school within a walk/bus rideof home?

TorviShieldMaiden · 20/05/2023 16:58

Oops sorry I wasn’t aware it was different for secondaries. I withdraw my comment in favour of more experienced posters.

mycoffeecup · 20/05/2023 17:10

Why on earth did you only put one school down?

Itmakesnosense · 20/05/2023 18:05

ThickSkinnedSoWhat · 20/05/2023 16:29

I don't understand why you think the reasons you've provided would make a good argument above any other child. At the end of the day you chose to put one school down. If you think this is unfair, you should see how children with SEN are treated when it comes to school places 🙄

@ThickSkinnedSoWhat how are SEN children treated? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but l genuinely don't know.

ThickSkinnedSoWhat · 20/05/2023 18:29

Itmakesnosense · 20/05/2023 18:05

@ThickSkinnedSoWhat how are SEN children treated? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but l genuinely don't know.

Show quote history

Like second-class citizens basically. In my own experience, my child’s peers found out their school for primary weeks ago, mine still has no place and may not gain one. In which case I will then have to home school as mainstream is not an option with their needs. Alternatively, by the time I am finally told where, I will likely need to drop out of uni or certainly try and defer because trying to get childcare for children with SEN/severe learning disabilities is next to impossible as it is, without it being left this late. But unfortunately, I cannot find any childcare until I know her school, as the nearest are miles away from each other meaning no childcare is likely to travel to collect unless nearby. I wish my biggest problem trying to find my child a place was being entitled and therefore placing one choice on a form then whinging when I didn’t get it and using the excuses provided in this post as to why it is unsuitable. People don’t know they are living.

TallerThanAverage · 20/05/2023 18:39

You were either naive or foolish to just put one school down (and I predict that it’s the most oversubscribed school in your area)

This is what I was told at an appeal:

The local authority has as obligation to provide a school place. The logistics of how you get your child to and from school is not their problem.

CurlewKate · 20/05/2023 18:43

@bags0455 Just in case you missed my earlier post-you have accepted the school you were offered, haven't you?