Secondary school appeal

[Grizwold09]

Im new to all this and could really do with some help. We are going to apply our child’s school as non of our preferred places we’re offered due to being over subscribed (this is what admissions have said).
My questions are how am I able to see if there is a place for my child available as I was advised by an appeals Clark that I don’t need to worry about questioning PAN or capacity as the school will do this and provide this information at the appeal hearing. Is this correct? or do I need to contact admissions to find this out?
I feel we are going to have to go down the prejudice route due to the school places we selected specialising in STEM, the school we have been allocated does not. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

I contacted the school directly and asked them for the numbers in each year group for our appeal.

They were over PAN in every year, bar 2 years where they were 1 and 2 kids under it. They were considerably over PAN in 2 other years, and slightly over in the other year group.

We appealed on similar grounds to you, but it made no difference and we lost the appeal. Depends how popular the school is tho and you may well get lucky. Good luck.

You need to accept the place you were offered as well.

I didn't realise schools still had specialisms like STEM tbh. But if the appeal school does, and your DC has a demonstrable interest, then that would be worth a mention. You would need evidence of interest tho - I am thinking attendance at holiday science clubs or events or science days at local museums, that kind of thing.

If you were refused a school place, that is because the school is full. You then need to show that the detriment to your child of not attending that school is greater than the detriment to the school of going over PAN.

As above, useful things might be clubs, subjects or other offers from the appeal school that you can evidence interest in.

For example - a child who has done lots of drama and music in primary and can show evidence of ability and interest, and a school which has a strong offering in drama and music, offers music GCSE, offers drama GCSE, while allocated school does not.

Factors like transport, friends going there, convenience for you, good Ofsted, good results unfortunately are not taken into account.