Hi all,
I wanted to post an update to confirm what happened in the appeal and the outcome, in case it helps anyone in future. Poeple often don't close things off but I felt that many of you are owed this. Sorry its so long, I hope it reads well for the knowledgeable but is here to help someone who isn't.
We went to appeal on two fronts, the first one was by putting the case across that the school was the best fit for her. This was the most important to me because the appeal was all about my child. We used several examples, prepared thoroughly and essentially created a presentation.
However, the second part was relevant too. I had raised the argument that the school and the LA appeared to be legally incorrect, demonstrating that they had not followed the process that they are required by law to follow ie the admissions code, in particular. Because I had pursued them hard for answers back in March, they had demonstrated their failures in email by failing to produce information which I had requested they supply - importantly, the document that ought to have been sent from school to LA by May of the prior year to confirm the process the school wanted the LA to follow.
A explained in the thread, the oversubscription criteria on the school website was incorrect and was not what was applied by the LA. The application of the "nearest school" criteria meant that it was impossible for anyone living to the west of the town to get into the school, because of the existence of another school slightly closer.
Prior to the appeal hearing, Ofsted paid a visit to the school my child had been offered a place for. Around the same time, I was contacted by the LA and asked to supply the legal arguments, which I did. This led to a legal representative being present at the hearing.
In part 1 of the hearing (where youre only allowed to speak generally and not in terms of your childs specific situation), I asked the school representative, who said he had been there 20 years, how many years had the school been oversubscribed and he told me every year it was. I asked him did he expect the school to be oversubscribed this time and he said yes. This allowed me to query their practice of inviting everyone to apply, and operating open days with Q&As that did not address the extreme likelihood that kids could be attending who had no chance of getting into the school.
At the end of part 1, the LA representative sought to summarise and said that she wished to add that all processes had been correctly followed and all appeals ought to be rejected. I objected and asked if i was able to say why i objected to that statement, because the legal argument could theoretically apply for everyone. They asked me not to elaborate until part 2, and ended the meeting at that point.
In part 2, the legal representative was there again. I made it clear that the appeal was about my child and not a legal argument, and focussed on a number of areas, linking positives on the school website to how that suits my child, in terms of values, extra curricular activities, location in relation to other facilities in the town my child uses, I also brought up friendships (despite people saying dont) becasue i felt i could create a good case. I felt that the appeals panel were engaged, I did make a strong case and would love to know if the case had won without the following. I genuinely think it would have.
I then raised the argument that there was a "reasonable expectation of a place" (which is that had the website policy been applied, as it was legally required to be, then she would have been admitted) and was a bit surprised at the forcefulness of the response from the LA representative. That said, the representative was the same person who i had been repeatedly disagreeing with by phone and email so perhaps I could have expected it. Eventually she accepted that the school had got it wrong in their website publication but insisted the LA were not at fault. I explained that the LA absolutely were also at fault because the school didnt supply the relevant policy at the correct time, so the LA should have chased the school for it rather than rely on a vague email from 3 years previously saying which process to use (amazingly they had supplied me this email, dated 3 years ago. I was therefore also able to use it to suggest that this error had been in existence for 3 years. I got this through constantly chasing for evidence of what they had used in determining what policy they would apply - so be persisitent. Hound them for information, they have to give you it and if they dont you can demonstrate your emails went ignored - which theyre also not allowed to do).
The LA rep then said the policy that was applied was the policy the school sought to apply and on that basis the only error was that the school didnt put it on the website. She asked me that if, on that basis, I accepted that it actually made no material difference anyway and I was going to repeat that the policy that must be applied must be the one on the website but before i could speak she said "what difference would it have made if you knew beforehand whether your child would be offered a place or not". A gift which allowed me to blindside everyone and say "we'd have moved house, we could have been 3x the distance from the school but at the other side of town and she'd have been offered a place. Thats correct isnt it?" The answer of course was yes.
The last bit.
What i deliberately omitted throughout the thread above, for obvious reasons, is that from the outset my daughter had wanted to go to the school that is nearest us and not the one i wanted her to go to. The place she was offered was the one she wanted. It was the second choice on her application because we'd talked her into choosing the one I wanted her to go to as the first. My biggest concern over supporting her preference was the disastrous Ofsted of 2019. All the noises were that the school had turned the corner but I just felt that perhaps my child was choosing the near one for fear that she wouldnt get into the one she "really" wanted to go to, the one where most of her friends were going. I needed to give her the option in order that we could really understand what she wanted.
The appeal also came about because I am a stickler for people casually not following proper procedures through laziness and with no consequences. I strongly believe that the reality is, had the school followed their published criteria as they are required by law to do, the names list on the intake would have been massively different. I think that's appalling. I wanted to force them to have to do things properly in future, especially as they had handled the matter abysmally as well, so pushing this all the way was what I felt I had to do.
I could be more explicit and specific but I won't be, although suffice to say that by the time we'd got to appeal, let alone gone through the appeals process, we had genuine concerns about the direction of travel of the school. I hope they address it.
Anyway, the appeal won, we discussed it and she rejected it. Then later, as if to vindicate everything, the Ofsted report came back as Good with some outstanding elements.
She started a few days ago and she is very happy with her choice, as are we. Thanks again to everyone for their help, what an amazing force this site is. I strongly believe that any appeal can be won if you commit to win it and explore all angles.
:)