Preparing for appeal hearing this week

[Swim23]

We have our appeal hearing this week - the stage 2 has been set as 20 minutes via zoom. With such a short time to answer questions and present our case, I'm looking for advice on how to prepare our statement and what to expect. I know lots of people have already had appeals, so any feedback on how they went, how you prepared and anything you'd recommend we do in advance.

Our appeal is based on social, medical and sensory needs which need to be seen in combination, so it's not one thing that the school offers that we can highlight, it's several things together which will have a big impact . I have read the schools appeal statement which puts forward a strong case, and we are not too hopeful but will try our hardest to argue our case. Thanks for any advice.

In my experience I would include things that your child can only achieve if they go to that school. Such as particular subjects or sports for example. I felt that things such as your personal logistics for example served more to annoy than help. GL.

I agree. Don't talk about friends or how you can't get them there.

I wrote my statement and read it like I was in court as I knew it just blather on or miss something out otherwise.

I felt far more emotional that I thought I would. It's quite odd reading facts about your own child while strangers listen earnestly.

Everyone was lovely at mine and I didn't feel rushed.

Remember that the appeal panel has read your document, so you only need to add things that will help them to get a better picture of your situation. You could focus on the combined impact rather than 'one thing', which will help them to see that you even if individual aspects are well matched between the school, there is a greater impact when they are all together.

Thank you. It feels hard to write the statement without repeating myself, bearing in mind we wrote a 2 page appeal letter and supplied 11 supporting documents as evidence which I assume the panel will have read.

Thanks, we will need to include travel as whilst I know this is often disregarded, the journey really needs to be walkable for SEN reasons and the evidence we have provided does support this.

how did your part 1 go - did you (anyone else assuming it was grouped) ask any questions?

The stage one hasn't happened yet, its on the same day as stage 2. The school have sent a written statement, and they have a strong case which is not surprising given they are very over subscribed and have had 20+ appeals for the past few years

If its 20+ appeals do they read your statement just before you go in? how do they remember what was written in 20+ appeals?

If you don't think you have anything to add, you can simply say that your written case covers everything you want to say and ask for questions.

Is it a strong case? Often what seems like a strong case to the parent is just LA speak for 'we're full and we really don't want to take any more kids.'

Could you just say 'You have seen our written evidence, so I would like to stress here that due to X, Y, Z it is the combination of A, B and C that are needed for our DC and this is the only school that offers them'.

I think so, but it’s the first appeal we’ve done so I don’t have any experience or comparison. It’s a new build school which took years to get planning permission for a specific amount of students , it’s got a very high % of SEN students compared to the local average. So their main arguments are they are full, they are already over capacity for SEN etc. I did pick up on lots of ‘May cause problems with xyz’ in their statement which made me wonder if we can question if that’s ever actually happened. Appeals have been won in the past, but they are usually back at PAN due to movement.

I don’t know, in did wonder how much of the info will be remembered with so much to plough through.

Thanks yes this might be the best way to approach it

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if they expected us to explain in more detail, or if it was more a case of briefly summing up our appeal and asking if they have questions. I don’t know how much info people usually provide ahead of the hearing but we provided all the reports and reasons for the appeal in the first instance and I figured the supporting documents are the most important thing in getting across our reasons.

Also, I have read often that we should focus on what the appealed for school can offer, rather than what the allocated school can't - however I assume its ok to discuss both in comparision as we need to show that the appealed for school can offer something others cannot? We have visited both schools more than once, and asked many questions, so can relate that the provision/facilities at one are xxx which meets need, but at the other is xxx which doesn't meet need.

All the best Swim23 we have our Stage 2 on Friday for grammar school on oversubscripiton basis.

The responses you got have been helpful to me too as we have prepared our statement that had already been submitted in evidence bundle. So we weren't sure how to start our case either.

Wishing everyone all the best for their respective appeals

Thank you

Good luck to you too Priyak1. The panel were very nice, asked lots of questions and glad I’d done lots of research. We won’t find out until next week but I feel like we did everything we could to prepare based on the advice from on here.

Thank you so much Swim 23. I'm really glad to hear yours went well.

Will be very glad when this is all over

All the best for the outcome 😁

Does the school have a social/medical needs admissions category? Are you arguing your DC was placed in the wrong category? Or just that this is the only school that meets their needs?

Have you tried going down the echp route? I know this is hard.

Do you have any evidence from medical professionals?

If you are willing to share details of the school's case, people can look at it and advise. Are they at PAN in the year group? Are they at or over PAN in other years? What is their actual percentage of SEN students?