School appeal

[Sph17]

I had my appeal last week for dd secondary school. One of the reasons was that my dd wanted to do animal care in year 10 and this wasn't offered at allocated school. During my appeal interview the chair of governors told me they are no longer running this course from September. This course is still being offered on school website. Could I do anything regarding this as it will affect my outcome now as it was one of the reasons for the appeal

What other reasons did you have in your appeal? Did you ask the school to confirm the course would be running when you were preparing for the appeal?

I suspect it will have an impact unless you had other more compelling reasons in your appeal... its a bugger though, it doesn't feel fair that incorrect info on the school website meant you couldn't accurately prepare.

Other reasons were ethos of school, building resilience as this is something that has been mentioned throughout my dd primary years and the ethos of school is a can do attitude. Other aspect was girls only I know people have said that it's a preference however my daughter has a negative self image and has had comments on her appearance from male peer who is attending same allocated school as her and research all points to positive outcomes in these areas in girls school. Also her current role as a liturgy leader that she wants to continue in secondary.

Your other reasons seem sensible, though it depends on the strength of the school case.

If the website had been correct, what would you have done differently?

Not sure but I had wrote a lot in my statement regarding the animal care course so I just feel I should have been notified beforehand as the allocated school doesnt offer it.
I did mention the curriculum emphasis on reading also as my dd is a very keen reader.

The problem with any course is that 3 years later courses may change or not run due to change of staff or even numbers in any particular year group choosing a particular option. Not sure how it will affect as it is on the balance of benefit to your daughter and the impact on the rest of the school/cohort.

The course may be listed as part of the current curriculum, but no school can guarantee that such a niche course will be running indefinitely - probably the teacher has left, and can't be replaced, or take-up was so low that the course became non-viable. There's nothing you can do about this, and it would have been a weak case anyway.

Perhaps your daughter may be able to find some voluntary work at an animal rescue centre instead.

Why was the chair of governors in the hearing? Were they presenting the school's case?

As another poster says, wanting something that is currently offered in Y10 doesn't carry much weight as, even if it wasn't being withdrawn this year, there is no guarantee that it will still be on offer in 3 years time. So yes, this will have damaged your case a little, but not much as this was a weak point to start with.

Thr chair of governors was representing the schools case

If the school has been running animal care they may cease it from Sept but it continue being taught to an existing cohort until the qualification is taken. Hopefully you will hear the outcome soon,

Can I ask do the panel research the school beforehand? So they know what the school's ethos is, what they offer etc?

No, we don't. We rely on the school and the appellants.

Of course, if you have been sitting as a panelist for some years and are local, you do get to know schools. But we are not allowed to do our own research around appeals.

Also would you expect questions like have you accepted the allocated school? What do you think about the allocated school? Those are the questions that threw me

As PatriciaHolm says, we do not do our own research, beyond what we might already know from our local knowledge. We rely on what the admissions authority and the parent tell us.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask whether the parent has accepted the place in the allocated school. The panel wants to get a picture of what’s going on. Personally, I wouldn’t ask what the parent thinks of the allocated school, because I would take it as read that the reply would be something along the lines of “it’s ok but it won’t meet my child’s needs as well as the preferred school would”; after all, that’s the crux of almost any appeal.

Just had letter it was a no but we are number 2 on waiting list so still hoping for good news before September

Sorry to hear it is a no, but number 2 on the waiting list would very likely get a place in most areas.

Fingers crossed although they are already 1 over the PAN and that's without any appeals that may have won. Although Admissions did say there is a lot of movement between now and September, however I've been no 2 since end of March.