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Secondary education

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Original poster

Appeal Advice

5 replies

Purplewisteria9 · 27/03/2025 14:06

Hi,

I am looking to appeal my dd’s secondary school place. I have my reason for why I feel it would be detrimental to her not to be at the school but wondered if anyone can steer me in the direction of where I would look to build an argument that going over PAN would not be detrimental to the school? Do I need to ask the school about classroom sizes, fire regulations etc? Are there places I can go online to check stats etc?

Thanks in advance for any help offered 😊

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 27/03/2025 15:54

You won't succeed with arguing that going over PAN won't be detrimental. You may be able to minimise it a little, but it is highly unlikely you will persuade the appeal panel there will be no detriment at all.

You can ask the school for any information you need. They must answer any reasonable question you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. At this stage, I would ask for the school's net capacity calculation (if there is one) and whether they have been over PAN in the last 5 years. It won't do any harm to ask for classroom sizes and it may help if they haven't got a calculated net capacity figure. I can't see how fire regulations would be relevant.

Original poster
Purplewisteria9 · 27/03/2025 20:16

prh47bridge · 27/03/2025 15:54

You won't succeed with arguing that going over PAN won't be detrimental. You may be able to minimise it a little, but it is highly unlikely you will persuade the appeal panel there will be no detriment at all.

You can ask the school for any information you need. They must answer any reasonable question you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. At this stage, I would ask for the school's net capacity calculation (if there is one) and whether they have been over PAN in the last 5 years. It won't do any harm to ask for classroom sizes and it may help if they haven't got a calculated net capacity figure. I can't see how fire regulations would be relevant.

Thank you for responding. I am trying to understand what the schools arguments for not taking an extra child will be. Other than the obvious of taking away resources and teaching from other children (which is a totally valid point!)

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 27/03/2025 21:04

There is no way of knowing for certain at this stage, but arguments about limited amount of teaching space, lack of resources, overcrowding in the corridors and so on are common. You don't need to tackle this in your written case. You will get the case to refuse admission a few days before the hearing. You can then ask questions of the admission authority in the hearing, or incorporate comments on their arguments in your spoken case.

Original poster
Purplewisteria9 · 27/03/2025 21:35

prh47bridge · 27/03/2025 21:04

There is no way of knowing for certain at this stage, but arguments about limited amount of teaching space, lack of resources, overcrowding in the corridors and so on are common. You don't need to tackle this in your written case. You will get the case to refuse admission a few days before the hearing. You can then ask questions of the admission authority in the hearing, or incorporate comments on their arguments in your spoken case.

Ahh ok thank you for explaining the process to me! You have been so helpful. If you would be happy for me to pm you my appeal reason I would love to know if you think I have a case or wasting peoples time 😬

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 27/03/2025 22:23

I will be happy to take a look.

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