High school place appeal

[BlueGown13]

Hello,

Any experts about it this field?

We moved out of catchment by about 0.5 miles (2 years ago), son attends a primary school on the same grounds of the high school.

I received a email today off a different high school with a welcome letter and saying 'thanks for choosing us' so I strongly suspect he has been declined his above and chosen high school and given his local one.

I will obviously appeal this and just wondered about any pointers/help?

Things I think might work in favour.

1. Grandparents live pretty much behind the high school and help with pickups (they don't drive so wouldn't be able to go to a different school to pickup)

1. His doctors surgery is a couple of minutes from the high school (and not in our area), sometimes requires doctors appointments in school time for asthma related issues

1. Siblings attend the primary school next door

1. High school is actually only a 6-7 minute drive from our house

Any help much appreciated

Have you done a search on here for the hundreds of posts about appeals? So much useful information there. If it were me I would accept the place (although it’s weird because offers day is not here yet). Then get your name on the waiting list for your preferred school and hope that a place comes up. That’s easy to explain to your ds.

Yes you can submit an appeal but please do some research first before you go down that route. We won ours but had really good reasons and it consumed our life for months

It soundslike a large secondary.
About 30 kids dropped out of ours. And that was by mid july.
Now y7 feb and there seem to be 3 spaces already.
It sounds like he would still move into y7?
So just hope you are high up waitlist.

Prsonally i wish waitlists were held for several years in advance.
If so op may have been able to see moving there would mean the kid wouldnt get in.

Yes that's when national offer day is however in error today I received a email off a high school in my area which I did not apply for with a welcome letter so I'm assuming (given I didn't give them my email and they have no reason to have my email address) that I've been given this high school place instead of our chosen one.

Also not sure what the grounds of appeal are yet.

I hope this happens!

Ah right. Well someone has cocked up then! I’d be asking the school but I don’t suppose they will say much. I’d also be speaking to the school admissions office of my LEA.

Did you put the school you got the email from on your list at all? Did you use all your available choices?

It might just be an error and you've actually got into your first choice. If not hopefully you'll get in on the waiting list.

Does the school not give priority to the attached primary (our academy trust does for all primaries in the trust) after that it goes to a catchment area. I would check the admission policy to see and if so appeal on that grounds.

@TiptopTommy
No, they literally have no reason to have my email address other than from the local authority.

@sleepyscientist This was suppose to be happening this year (apparently) after a lot of appeals last year from what I've heard.

It will only change after a formal consultation. Has anyone you know had same email?

You need to re-read the admissions criteria to see what grounds you might have for appealing. I don't fancy your chances with what you've listed.

you said you didnt even apply for this school? So if you applied for 3-5 schools and got this, did you meet the criteria of any of the others? As if you did this sounds like an error.

i dont understand why you moved out of the catchment for the oversubscribed school you absolutely wanted???

Just because 'attends named feeder school' is one of the oversubscription criteria in a secondary school's admissions policy, attending one of the schools and not being offered a place is not necessarily indicative of fault; if the list of applicants was correctly ranked and the school reached its PAN before reaching his / her ranking, that's just how the system works.

If the OP really didn't name the school in question on their CAF and the school - in complete breach para 2.10 of the Admissions Code - has sent them a welcome letter, then either the school has been allocated as the nearest undersubscribed school, because none of the OP's ranked preferences could be met, or there has been an error in allocation on the part of the Admissions team at the LA.

Either way, I would be letting the Admissions team know what has happened.

None of your reasons will have any weight. You moved away so they don't care as it's all based strictly on admissions criteria. Maybe you got none of your preferences and got allocated the nearest with spaces.
In my area your exact circumstances would lead to that outcome. Near me - New primary and new high on same site. A trust of schools that claim very high academic standards. Over subscribed as less favoured high has less glossy marketing etc

I'd say every state high will have boys football provision. That won't sway anyone either. I'd doubt culture days either as all schools do different things. High school kids are expected to be able to walk home & look after themselves yes.

Yeh OP it is fine for him to be alone after school for a short while - I would certainly start to give him some independence now tbh.

I mean things like allowing him to walk to school now on his own, letting him go to the local shop, leaving him for 20-30 mins in an evening while you pop out.

Lots of secondary schools open their libraries for homework for a while after school which can break up the time too.

Sorry I only just read that you didn't list this school? How many choices did you have? Did you use them all? Were your other choices reasonable (ie fairly local?)

I agree btw there are lots of threads on here about appeals so have a search on those for some further ideas.

But yes, you should accept the school place you are offered. If it is local and in general acceptable then talk it up to your child for sure.

One near us talked about this but didn't do it. The issue was from the first intakes of the brand new primary when it was reception only & DC came in from big distance. Less so as time went on. They all then wanted the high next door but lived too far away

Well if this has changed it will be in the admissions criteria. Have you read them? You don’t need to go on heresay

a) a note on the medical grounds - does the school have an exceptional medical/social need category? Did you apply under it?

The bar is fairly high - I do know someone who got a place at the school more or less next to the hospital where one of her 3 DC spend a lot of time (we're talking about weeks at a stretch) and where the prospective pupil was also a frequent flyer. To back it up, they had letters from two consultants and hospital social worker and someone involved with the hospital school (about co-ordination with preferred school).

I'm afraid what you describe, unless there is a lot you are keeping private, doesn't really come close to the sorts of issues that do qualify as exceptional.

b) on applying, even if your case is weak, well there's no reason not to. You might get lucky even with a weak case. And you don't lose anything if the appeal fails. So things that this school has uniquely in the area or to a demonstrably far greater extent than any others might be the makings of a case - as long as you can show evidence (not just parental assertion) of his interest/aptitude. Availability of a footie club is however IMO unlikely to be persuasive as they're everywhere.

Have you contacted the school to see if it's an error?

We received a letter in the post saying that our daughter had been offered a Y7 place at our 3rd preference school a few years ago. We were actually offered a place at our first preference school.