In-year transfer appeal help!

[LulaGolden]

Hi. I'm hoping for some advice about how to appeal the refusal of an in-year transfer.
We moved into the area 18 months ago and the local school in our catchment area was refused. We sent our DD to the school that was offered. Since (almost) day 1 she has been bullied and this is now starting to escalate. The school won't act unless she makes a formal complaint every time, but she is too scared to do so as it made it worse the first couple of times.
I applied to transfer to the nearer school on the basis of bullying and it was refused due to a 'full year'.
I want to appeal as I feel desperate to help her. She has made friends in our village who go to the school (I know not relevant for an appeal).
Since starting at the first school she has become withdrawn, won't participate in any extra-curricular activities and we have been to the GP about her eating/weight issues.
For the application to a transfer school I listed all of the above as a reason to transfer, so not sure if appealing will make any difference?
I've seen the Good Schools guide offer an appeal service for £390. Has anyone used this and has it helped?
Any guidance would be a great help!

You don't need to pay for help with appeals. You will get all the help you need on here.

If you have evidence that your daughter is being bullied and that the school is failing to do anything effective to deal with it, you have a good case. Evidence is essential - copies of any emails you have sent, for example.

Appealing can make a difference. The school you want can't admit your daughter the normal way unless there is a place available, and she is top of the waiting list. An appeal panel can admit her even if there isn't a place available and regardless of where she is on the waiting list. Your evidence about bullying will not have made any difference in the transfer process. It can make all the difference in an appeal.

@LulaGolden if every child who was bullied was able to move schools easily via the appeal process, the system would not cope, so the bar is high.

As the pp said, the key thing is to show that the current school is not following its anti-bullying policy to deal with the problem.

Have you considered any other schools in the area? There is no need to focus only on the very closest school in the village in this situation. There might be some other schools not too far away with a space.

Yes, as Letitgotoruin said, you may need to clearly demonstrate that the appeal school is the only one that can reasonably meet the need. (If there is another school within easy travelling distance that has spaces, it will be difficult to argue that the appeal school should go over PAN to accommodate an extra student).

You need proofs from specialists.ask your GP to refer you to pediatrician or mental health department. Talk to them about eating disorder. They will send you letter with diagnosis.
You need some correspondence emails with the head of pastoral care about bullying. Her response acknowledging it or confirming .