Should I appeal ? Really stuck.

[Cookiecats]

Our son didn’t get any of his secondary school options. And so he was allocated the nearest school with places, unfortunately it is the school that our eldest son had such a bad experience with that he had to eventually de register from school completely for a year. (we homeschooled until he got a spot elsewhere) the abuse was horrendous and violent and the school were useless and we ultimately ended up on awful terms.

Now our younger son finds out he is being sent there and got so upset he actually wet the bed(he has never done this before ever)

We didn’t expect to find ourselves in this position as he applied to three schools he had very decent odd of being accepted into.

we absolutely don’t want to send him to the allocated school but I’m not sure you can appeal at the schools he lost out on based on negative history with the allocated school…?

does anyone know where we stand here or how we should proceed?

Should add- I understand I’m supposed to appeal for the school we want, not against the school that we don’t. Which is why I’m in such a pickle

I’m sorry that happened to your child. Schools can be horrible places.

Can you appeal to the school your son goes too?

As there a local faith school? Often parents who want faith schools are offered two places. One faith, one not. There may be a chance yet. Get him on all the waiting lists.

No you only get offer!

Op, are there any other reasons your ds would benefit from the preferred school/s? Where are you in wl as there may yet be movement.

As there a local faith school? Often parents who want faith schools are offered two places. One faith, one not.

Yeh this is not the case – which is a good thing as it would be a bit complicated!

It would be unusual to win an appeal based on negatives relating to the allocated school, but I think I have seen some of the MN appeals experts suggest that in a case like yours @Cookiecats it might be relevant.

Remember you can go on any waiting list that would be better than the allocated school. What else would be beneficial to your DS about the schools you cold appeal for – that really needs to be the focus.

You can appeal against the school you have when it is bullying. What might make it harder here is it's not your younger son that is directly affected, although I appreciate it is impacting him mentally. The appeal panel may take the view that your younger son will have different classmates and won't automatically have issues there.

It's a tricky decision. I'm not sure this alone gives great odds for success, so it's whether you feel it's worth going through it all, balanced against your chance of getting a place off waiting lists somewhere else acceptable to you. Also whether there are other arguments you can add for the particular schools.

This is going to be dependent on the appeal panel you get. The general rule is that you are appealing for the school you want, not against the school you've got. If your son was already at the school, was being bullied and the school wasn't doing anything effective to stop it, that would be a decent case. Because your son isn't yet attending the school, that weakens your case.

Many parents appealing on the basis of bullying are arguing that their child was bullied in primary school, and they don't want them to go to the same school as their bullies. This is a little different. Here you have good reason to believe there will be problems at this school. An appeal panel may accept that as a good case, but it very much depends on the panel.

I would recommend strengthening your case by adding some positive arguments for the school for which you are appealing. Identify things offered by the appeal school that are not available at the allocated school and which you can show are particularly relevant to your son.

Thank you for the replies - sent off the appeal paperwork. As some of you suggested we included the reason why we actually picked our first option in the appeal. It was the language options, no other school in our town or surrounding towns offers the language we would like our son to study at school. It’s our second language at home and my husbands first language aswell as the only language spoken by our family abroad so it plays a big role in our everyday.

have included the issues with the allocated school in the appeal as a secondary point. However I have now seen the appeal stats for the area and they are 0.6 percent. Lady Luck is really not on our side with this one is she!

I would like this all to be resolved as he is very stressed atm. We are on waiting lists for three schools now, if we cannot find a resolution then he will have to be homeschooled come September, it’s a double edged sword though as I know once we de register him the council will suddenly bend over backwards to find him a suitable place. Would rather it not have to drag out that long though and get him started alongside his friends.

once we de register him the council will suddenly bend over backwards to find him a suitable place.

This is not my understanding – as a rule, once the LA has you off its hands so to speak it will not be worried about finding a school, AFAIK. However I do see that you have been through that situation before so I think your actual experience wins!

The language argument seems really strong to me – the fact that is his dad’s first language and no other local school offers it has surely got to work well in your favour on this one. Best of luck.

I know once we de register him the council will suddenly bend over backwards to find him a suitable place

Not true at all. From the council's point of view, they will have fulfilled their obligation to you by offering a place. Home schooling does not give them any obligation to find a new place and, if you apply again, they are entitled to simply offer a place at the same school if there is one available.

You don’t really lose anything by appealing other than your time and energy. Is your older son still at school? If so could you not get in with a sibling link? Are there other factors in an appeal like specialisms, particular subjects he wants to do, sports etc

What are your waiting list positions like? We got offered our first and second choice on the waiting lists (although not until September). We were 1st and 25th respectively in March.

Can’t be of any assistance but just wanted to say, what a horrid situation for your family and wishing you the best of luck with an appeal.

I was going off my experience from when we de registered our eldest son. Once we removed him from school they were very interested in helping, we didn’t have to approach them at all. They contacted us every few months to remind us they could help and when we agreed they found him a spot the same day at an oversubscribed school.

Are there other schools with places? Can you ask to be allocated one of those - appreciate they are probably not the most desirable schools but at least they aren’t the one you had all the problems with?

unfortunately not: every school in the area seems to be full. Even the less desired schools.

That wouldn't happen for your younger child if he just never starts at the nearby school. They will just categorise him as being home educated or privately educated and will not consider that they have any responsibility.

I think your language argument is strong. Don't forget that it's a balancing act for the panel, so you can add lots of little reasons why the school would be best for your DS, which wouldn't win alone, but together with all the other reasons might win.

Well if that’s the case, then so be it I guess. 🙂

we have already made enquiries with local tutors etc for September. I’m trying to just stay calm, however I know I would be doing him a disservice attempting to teach him maths and science 😬😅