Secondary Appeal - physical and mental health wellbeing

[StrangerThingsFan]

Hello all,

I’m currently putting together an appeal for a secondary school on 3 grounds which are as follows:

1. we moved our daughter to a new school for year 4 due to unkindness from her classmates calling her slow etc, her school had also completely missed her dyslexia and she had extremely low self esteem. The school we want to appeal for wouldn’t have any of those pupils attending
2. mobility issues. She has coordination issues and a fear of falling going down the stairs and a lack of stability due to tip toe walking. The school she has been allocation has circa 1500 students and the one we’re appealing for has a capacity of 900 but is only at about 50% capacity as it’s fairly new. We feel she will be so much more comfortable and safer at the smaller school.
3. pastoral offering. She is very anxious and has very low self esteem - she benefits from talking therapy at her current school and the school we want has an outstanding pastoral offering but also dedicated pastoral leads for each house with an open door policy for students that need help.

i was just wondering if anyone could please help me and give me your thoughts on the above and if we stand any chance of being successful? Is there any way we can word this to be more successful/ have more impact please? I have a statement from her current school backing up the above.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give x

I’m not clear whether you are appealing for a primary place or against the allocation of a secondary one.

1. Unkind behaviour. Did you make a complaint of bullying that you can use?

how can you know that kids wont ve unkind in the other school?

1. If both schools have stairs then I can't see no 2 being viable. Does she actually have any medical evidence re problems with mobility?
2. Does the offered school have a pastoral team? Most do and the panel would probably expect any svhool to be able to support a child such as your dd.

I’m not sure I understand your question sorry! We have been allocated a place at a secondary school and we are appealing for a different secondary school based on the above criteria.

1. The school we want to appeal for wouldn’t have any of those pupils attending - I don’t think the panel can make a decision based on which other pupils may or may not attend (also, that was 2-3 years ago and those kids will have grown up somewhat!)

Do you have any doctors / consultants reports for her coordination?
A letter that says 'instability walking down stairs ...in my opinion less busy/crowded stairs and corridors will assist because....'

Unfortunately I don't think any of these are strong reasons.

Secondary schools are bigger cohorts and you can't guarantee that no child at the preferred school will ever be unkind to another.

Both schools have stairs.

All schools should be able to deal with children with mild issues that need emotional or SEN support.

If you had clear documentation of serious bullying from specific children that resulted in you removing your child and who will be attending the allocated school that might help. But 3 years on and diluted in a large cohort...

Medical evidence regarding problems with stairs.

For the third you'd probably need EHCP qualifying levels of documentation as every other child now needs support for anxiety or emotional issues so all schools will have support systems.

For 2 - I assume the school you want will get more and more crowded each year, as the shortfall is because there are currently only 3-4 full year groups?

Where are you on the waiting list for other school?

Thanks so much all, it’s good to have honest feedback. Even at max capacity it’s a much smaller school. I have a podiatrist letter about the toe walking and her current school has written a report about her mobility issues. She is 50 on the waiting list so not looking too positive at the moment 😢

You moved your child in year 4 due to unkindness and the school you’ve been allocated may have some of those pupils attending, but the school you’ve want is unlikely to. The school has a roll of around 1500 pupils, so it should be entirely possible that your daughter will not be in forms or groups with those pupils. You could express those concerns to the school and ask for her to be put into different bands.

I think the panel would expect that the allocated school would make every effort to ensure an effective mix of abilities and personalities.

I don’t know of a secondary school that has only one floor. Your concern about safety on stairs may well apply to any secondary school, so I don’t think that would be a convincing reason for a panel.

All schools will be expected to cater for the pastoral needs of their pupils and that might be something you would wish to make them aware of early, so that your daughter knows where she can go if she is feeling anxious.

The reasons for appeal centre on what a preferred school can offer that the allocated one can’t. For example, if your daughter was an accomplished musician and the preferred school had a focus on the instrument she plays and the other doesn’t, that would be a notable argument. That applies to specialisms like sports, music etc.

The panel may decide that the advantage to your daughter of attending the preferred school is outweighed by the disadvantage to the school of taking over numbers.

Theres nothing to stop you putting forward your appeal though.

You could ask for an adjustment from whichever school that she be let out 3 mins early from lessons to give her time to navigate stairs before the rush. Need only be the lessons just before another lesson as before break she can just wait for the rush to die down.

Yes, that’s something that I have experience of and is easy to organise and can be very helpful.

My DD also has difficulties with stairs, needs a bannister. She just went slowly.

There are guidelines on space in schools so the school with a higher number on roll may not necessarily be more densely populated then the smaller school once it reaches capacity.

On the mobility issues, is the allocated school closer to your home?

You need medical professional letters outlining why the school you want is the only one to meet her needs. Is it one one level? Soes it offe rspecific support for her issues? Does the target school have social and medical admissions criteria? If so, why did that not apply when you submitted your application. Presumably she does not have an ehcp.

Can you show that the eligibility criteria were wrongly applied? If not you are unlikely to win an appeal.

That's not the case actually; there are a number of possible factors that can help to win an appeal once the ICS factor is passed. This seems to be especially true in secondary where factors such as specialist offer may come to the fore.

That said, I agree with others that your case doesn't seem very strong @StrangerThingsFan. If the appealed school were all on one level, or had lifts that were available for pupils to use (both unusual IME) then that would make the stairs issue a stronger argument. Also a letter from a medical professional that says "In my opinion school A is better" (not "in the mother's opinion") would help.

I think the factor of some bullying (is it well documented?) a few years ago is not going to help really as the panel will consider that the allocated school should be able to separate students and deal with bullying.

The smaller school factor feels like a red herring anyway; IME schools with a smaller intake have a smaller building so it will be just as crowded and busy and crossover times. I agree with others, try to negotiate early leaving for your DD at relevant lessons (could be just two a day tbh - we had two lessons, break, two lessons, lunch, one lesson, end of day, where I taught, so she would only need to leave L1 and L3 early).

If they’re at 50% capacity then what was their reasoning for not allocating you your first choice? Is it that because it’s a new school they don’t yet have the full complement of year groups do with the ones they have they are at capacity?

I don't understand why the school you want doesn't have a place to offer if it is at 50% capacity? Is her year full?

Assume it only has 50% of the year groups thus far. If school is recent it may be intaking only into its second year so have year 7 & 8, 12&13 for September. Year7 may therefore be full. Which means the argument about it being smaller and easier to navigate would lose impact over time.

1. Won't carry any weight. The pupils that were unkind to your daughter may not be unkind now. Even if they are, the school may deal with it and put a stop to it. And there is no guarantee that the pupils at the school you want will be kind.
2. Better but, if the reason the school is half full is that it is a new school, it is likely to fill up over the next 2 or 3 years. This advantage will, therefore, only be temporary, so although the panel may give it some weight, it isn't terribly strong as an argument.
3. This is the best of your 3 arguments. You have identified something that is available at the appeal school and missing at the allocated school, and you can show that it is relevant to your daughter. You can strengthen your appeal by finding other factors like this - extra-curricular activities, for example, that are relevant to your daughter and not available at the allocated school.