Technical Appeal points

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We are appealing to two schools.

We have drafted the appeal. Can someone with experience please clarify what happens when we submit the appeal?

Some of the appeal points are quite technical, having looked at net capacity etc and relate to prejudice (or lack thereof!) to the school.

My worry is that by setting all of that out in the appeal letter, we are giving the school a ‘heads up’ of our grounds and more time to put together their response.

I assume it is very much frowned upon to bring up additional grounds during the appeal hearing itself?

Will we receive a written letter from the school giving their replies to our points before the appeal hearing, or is each point just discussed at the hearing itself?

Yes, it is very much frowned on, and indeed your appeal might be adjourned to give time for late-introduced material to be considered.

Also remember that weakening the school's case that they are full isn't the whole story (though it may help, if the points are relevant to the size of the year group to which you are seeking admittance). If the panel finds that actually the school could cope with an additions eg 4 pupils(number plucked from thin air), then you need to be one of the 4 strongest appellants for the school. So you also need a compelling case why your DC really needs this school.

Thank you. We do have other points but it’s the process itself after submitting the appeal that I was asking for information on please.

You will receive the school's case before the day, but it won't be a point by point rebuttal of your case. I have seen schools refer to individual cases before but it would be something general in terms of "GCSEs can change from year to year and cannot be relied on", or "all schools can support dyslexia". Others just put in the same case for every appeal and respond to your individual case on the day.

Don't introduce any new evidence on the day, panel's don't have to allow it. We also don't appreciate appellants trying to sneak stuff in at the last minute in the hope the school won't have the data to hand to respond - we can, and do, allow adjournments for the school to get the required data if think it's relevant.

Is it a grouped appeal? In which case you need to bring up your points about the school's general case to be full in the first, shared part of the case - this is usually in front of all appellants. This because, as @meditrina refers to, these points relate to the overall case that the school can't take any more pupils.

I think you need to see it as a balancing scale. Your arguments go on one side and the admitting authority's on the other. If your point is strong, there will be no rebuttal for it, or limited rebuttal. But fairness dictates that each party should be able to respond to the other's case.

Contrary to belief, panels aren't there to 'see if the child can have a place'. They are there to decide:

-Is the school full?
-If so, how full?
-Could it take more students, or would doing so cause detriment to the school beyond the benefit to the extra pupils?
-If it could take more students, how many could it take before the detriment to the school outweighs the benefit to the extra students?
-If it can take more students, which appellants have the strongest case for appeal?

So once a school has established that it is 'full', the parent has to show that it would be worse to deny the child a place, than it would for the school to have to squeeze them in. Some appellants will have profound arguments for appeal, and even in a very full school the panel will think it would be worse to deny them a place. Some appellants will have a very weak case and unless they can convince the panel that the school isn't full, they won't win.

In short, there is no benefit in holding back information at all.

Thank you for your replies.

No, it isn’t a grouped appeal. We have just approached it following the School Standards and Frameworks Act 1998, so firstly presenting why we think there isn’t going to prejudice provision of efficient education or efficient use of resource by the school first, then secondly setting out reasons why DS will be more at detriment than the school would be, which I understand is at the discretion of the panel to balance.

At this stage, you're unlikely to know whether it is a grouped appeal or not. Do you have a date and time for it yet?

If the appeals deadline hasn't passed yet then appeals will still be coming in. If there is more than one appeal for the same school then stage 1 is likely to be grouped.

Thank you. That’s really helpful. No I don’t know then as appeal deadline isn’t until 15 April.

As others have said, no-one should be pulling rabbits out of the hat during an appeal hearing. You should submit your full case and the school will submit theirs.

Whilst appeal panels occasionally decide there will be no prejudice to the school if an additional pupil is admitted, this is rare. The best you are likely to achieve is to convince them that there won't be much prejudice.

At this stage, my advice would be to concentrate on the reasons your child will be disadvantaged if they aren't admitted. You don't yet know what arguments the school will make, so any arguments you make about prejudice to the school may miss the points they are making completely. You will get the school's case before the hearing. You can then figure out where the weak points are and attack them by asking questions of the school's representative in the hearing. That approach sits better with the structure of the hearing, particularly if it is a grouped appeal. In that case, the school will present its case with all appellants present and you will get a chance to question them. The panel will then consider whether there will be prejudice to the school from admitting additional pupils before going to stage 2, which is where you will present your case. Whilst arguments that the school won't be prejudiced as much as it claims can be made in stage 2, they sit better in stage 1.