Won appeal but what happens now?

[Serazias]

Good morning!

A big thank you to the specialists on appeals whose consistent advice on every thread made sure we were really well prepared for our appeal last week.

We received an email late Friday saying we had been successful but we are now a bit unsure what we do. The email says we should contact the school directly to organise everything, but I am not sure how to phrase the email and to whom I should address it - do we sound excited and delighted (which we absolutely are) and risk annoying them as presumably taking more children being forced on them by an appeals panel isn't wonderful for them? Do we go boring and direct? Also do we get anything official from the LEA where we need to accept a place? And lastly is it our responsibility to let the currently allocated school know? (I have filled in and returned all the forms and they're already part way through the settling in process).

Sorry for all the questions, we had been told we had an incredibly strong case but you never dare to think you might win so I hadn't thought to investigate what happens if you do, and this week is transition week so the timeline is very squished.

That happened to me. I was thinking 'now what'???

Mine was primary. The lady in the office rang me the same day she got the email and asked me if we wanted to come and buy the jumper that was sold through the office and look around. So we did and went to get the other parts of the uniform on the way home and she started the next day.

I'd ring on Monday and ask for the details of the transition.

Thank you! I will call in the morning.

Congratulations! I can remember bursting into relieved tears when I got the letter. I didn’t do anything as the school contacted me really quickly confirming my son’s place for the September and then we were just in the general ‘loop’ with other parents and invited to the new intake events.

You don't need to do anything. The school will contact you. You'll probably be invited in with your DC for a visit shortly and get a New Starters pack which will confirm things like uniform and equipment needed. You should also get a formal start date, which is likely to be very quick, so start sourcing uniform immediately.

Many relieved tears here too! Right tomorrow it is and I shall wait a bit to give them a chance to contact me.

Definitely contact the school yourself. There's a limited time (usually 28 days) to do this. If you don't it can go back to panel. I'm sure they aren't unscrupulous but they could delay tactics if they were!

No, it can’t go back to panel.

The school should have been notified at the same time you were. They will probably contact you about transition days etc but there’s no harm in you contacting them, to ensure you’re getting all the information for new joiners.

I'd contact the school and make sure your child is included in the transition day this week as a minimum that they can do immediately. This is a really important day for the new cohort.

Congratulations on your win

Congratulations. I would let your child’s primary school know too, they might do handover meetings with Y7 tutors and will be able to make sure your child is on the right list.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. If anyone ends up in the same situation, I had to get in touch with the school - all they had was the name of my DS and no other contact details. They were incredibly kind and helpful, and I think we're pretty much caught up on the paperwork now. The County Council caught up at the end of last week, but I also had to contact our allocated school to let them know he wasn't coming and then they let the council know. Fortunately as I had called the school we managed to get DS in for transition day and it all worked out brilliantly.