Secondary School Appeal

[Moraine1978]

Hello, I’d like some advice please. My daughter did not get any of our secondary school choices due to them being over subscribed. We have been allocated a “requires improvement” school which is totally in the wrong direction and as she is out of catchment is not eligible for transport. She can get a normal bus from the centre of town but as we live in a rural village there is no way she can get a bus home, so we would have to take/pick her up from the bus stop. The buses that she will have to get are really very unreliable - they’re either late or don’t turn up. How can we rely on them getting her to school on time?

There was a closer school to one she that was allocated, which still has no waiting list so why was she not given that school?

I have read several threads that you cannot win an appeal on the grounds of transport - can it not be a factor at all? I know we’re not the only parents who have this issue.

Also my daughter is a budding pianist and is currently studying her grade 2. The school she has been allocated does not cater music wise, drumline and medieval dance in year 7. Where as our preferred school as a great curriculum for music - rhythm and pitch, students perform, compose and notate music patterns etc, I could go on so much more suited to her. English and Maths are also better. She is currently in the top sets at primary school. Can we appeal on these grounds?

We have also put a second round application in with our preferred choice still top, the next closet school which in theory she should have been allocated and the school we’ve been allocated as 3rd choice - this was advised by the Admissions Team. We are currently 7th on the waiting list for our preferred school.

Any help, advice and tips would be so much appreciated.

Why are you not on the waiting list for the closer school? If it has no waiting list you would be number 1!

Very good question, we asked to be put on the waiting list but the Admissions Team said as they hadn’t got one we couldn’t be put on it! They cannot tell me whether they are full, under subscribed or just don’t have a waiting list. We have been round in circles with it, hence the second round application.

Why don't you qualify for transport? If you were allocated an out of catchment school as closer schools were full, then being out of catchment is irrelevant

Have you called the nearer school? They may handle their own admissions. If there is a space and no wl then you should be given a place.

Some LEAs have a policy with transport that they will only pay if you put down your catchment or nearest school in your preferences.
It sounds like you didn’t put the closer school down as a preference, and it has been filled with people who did put it as a preference. If you didn’t qualify for any of your preferences, then you get what is left over. That’s why everyone always says to put a banker down which is a school even if it’s not great that you’re more or less certain to get in to as it’s better to have a not great school on your doorstep than one miles away,

The music argument is weak, all music schemes of work will include composition and performance - it’s on the National curriculum, just a different choice of units. Try looking at extra-curricular that she might want to take part in that the allocated school doesn’t have although as a pianist that’s more tricky. Or anything else e.g. enrichment, subjects, pastoral care efc. the school you are appealing for offers that the other school doesn’t.

I'm sure you have checked, but is the school an academy, which administers its own waiting list? (In which case, if going on the waiting list isn't automatic where the school was a higher preferene than the one offered, requests would need to be made directly to the school, not to your LA. Tbh, I find it totally bizarre that the LA's admissions team doesn't know anything about the waiting list arrangements, unless...

...is this school actually in your LA? If it really was still undersubscribed once all those actually naming it as a preference had been offered (plus all late applicants and non ranked applications nearer than you), then the main reason that your LA didn't allocate you a place there would be that it isn't 'their' place to allocate.

Are there any other schools which would have been logistically possible, but that you didn't name on your CAF? Appeal panels can be sympathetic to.transport issues (and if the school's case turns out to be very weak, you may be lucky), but having ended up with a situation which could have been foreseen,, if that is the case, will not help.

@Moraine1978 did you apply to the closer school you were not allocated?

You need to find out if that school is full. If so, who administers the WL?

If you applied to your nearest school and were allocated a school that is more than 3 miles away from home by the shortest safe walking route, you are entitled to free transport for your daughter. If the LA says otherwise, they are wrong.

There is clearly an issue around the nearer school. The admissions team is quite wrong to say it doesn't have a waiting list. It is required to have one until at least the end of this year. It may be that the school manages its own waiting list rather than the LA, but there must be a waiting list somewhere. The fact the LA don't know if the school is full suggests it is an academy or in a neighbouring LA. Assuming it is in your LA, I would expect the admissions team to know the status even if it is an academy. You need to talk to the school and find out what the situation is. There may have been a mistake here, but it isn't clear.

Transport issues are not a factor at appeals unless there is professional evidence that the child has SEN, a disability or similar that means it is impossible for them to attend the allocated school.

The preferred school's additional musical activities are a good point for appeal. It isn't clear whether the English and Maths are also helpful. You talk about your daughter being in the top sets at primary school. You don't want to come across as saying your child is clever so needs better English/Maths provision. You can, however, say that the preferred school has these additional things for students who enjoy/are good at Maths, that your daughter enjoys/is good at it and that she won't be able to access these things at the allocated school.

@prh47bridge we applied to our nearest school but got a lower preference that is over 3 miles walking distance. My LEA has told me my son is not eligible for free transport as there was another school closer than our lower preference that we were given. This ‘closer’ school is only 0.8km closer than the one we were given (though I’m sure the distances change every time I look them up!) is also over 3 miles safe walking distance away, so had we gone there he would have qualified for free transport. It seems like a total cop out by the LEA and just an opportunity to save money.

@SuperSue77 I'm assuming you didn't name this other school as one of your preferences. If you did, the LA hasn't got a leg to stand on. Even if you didn't, you have a good argument to appeal this decision to refuse transport, particularly if your daughter wouldn't have got a place at this school even if you had named it as a preference.

No we didn’t name it. It wasn’t really on our radar to be honest. we have quite a few schools around us and live close to a number of neighbouring districts so we only chose the schools closest to us that were within the two districts we are familiar with.

We would have got a place at the ‘closer’ school as they had quite a few centrally placed pupils that year. My neighbour over the road only named 3 schools out of a choice of 6 and her son was placed there. We had put the same 3 schools on our form but the school my son was placed in was our fourth choice and my neighbour hadn’t included it on her form. We only named 5 schools out of 6 choices, so we could have put this school as our 6th but didn’t bother as we felt sure we’d get fourth choice as although quite a bit further away than our first 3 choices we knew they centrally placed pupils there too.

I suspect if we had put the ‘closer’ school as 6th they still would have refused our transport request because it was closer than our 4th choice - even though the bus costs the same amount! I’m not even sure if there is a bus to that school, it would probably involve a few changes, so maybe it would in fact cost more to that school!

The LA said we are not eligible for free transport and she is out of the 3 mile radius for this. The school we have been allocated is 6 miles away. We have been told she would have to get public transport. We did not choose this school due to the issues of getting her there.

As per my first post, if you applied to your nearest school your daughter is entitled to free transport. This could be a bus pass, for example, so that she can use public transport for free, but they cannot refuse to provide free transport. Saying she is not eligible because you are more than 3 miles from the school is the reverse of the truth. This is the law. Your LA has no choice.