Secondary Appeal Meeting - Sibling refused place

[Panthers89]

Hi

After some guidance.

We believe we have built a very strong appeal going into our hearing later in May.

We have evidence of maladministration, potential address fraud, PAN Errors amongst other things across 5 grounds.

I have submitted everything to the panel, and it is all in the pack.

Just after some advice/feedback on whether it is as strong as we think or if we are in dreamland?

Have considered lawyers/schools appeal service but have seen mixed reviews on whether that is needed based on the expertise here!

Any help gladly received

Thanks

Have you actually submitted why your child would be disadvantaged by not having a place at this school?

You don't win appeals on the basis of attacking the decision to give somebody's else's child a place.

You do if there was an error... if the OPs child was placed in the wrong category, or other people lied on their application, and this cost the child a place, then they are supposedto be given the place.

Secondary appeals have two sections. One is to see if they have capacity, the second is on an individual child’s needs.
if there was maladministration then your child should be admitted automatically (increasing the numbers).
But you would be foolish not to prepare arguments for why this school is the one to meet your DC’s needs e.g. music provision or special interests.
Problems of transportation or siblings are irrelevant except where covered in the admission criteria.

They wont kick out those who have used a fraudulent address.

You need to prove the system messed up or, your child will be severely negatively impacted.

Someone not using actual address isn't a system error. They allocated by address they were given. The procedure was followed, people played the system. Not sure how you could prove it.
Happened to us with infant school, people got in that lived in a different area, our walk was 10 min. DC got in off the waiting list.

We need a lot more detail

What sort of maladministration and PAN errors? Is the school year full or not?

Did the school/admission authorities know about the address fraud (if not, it’s not an error)?

Basically the panel looks at 2 bases for appeal:

1. was there an admissions illegality or error. (Errors/illegality are rare but sounds like may exist in your case.) If so - would your child definitely have got a place without that illegality or error. If so you can win an appeal on this basis.

however note if there are multiple children affected by the error, who would have got a place without it, they don’t all necessarily win their appeals. The panel will determine how many the school can take without being too overstretched and give those places (if any) to those who have demonstrated the greatest need for that school.

So even if you are relying on error/illegality, you should still have a case about why your child needs this school.

2. if no illegality or error - the panel balances the disadvantage to the school of an extra child, vs the disadvantage to the child of not going to that school. Generally you need some very specific reasons why your child must go to that particular school in order to win on this basis (unless the school has not really demonstrated why they can’t take more).

As others have said it's impossible to tell just from what you have said here. I've had appellants turn up with what they think are rock solid errors, but actually, aren't when you dig into them - They are convinced for example the distances are measured incorrectly, but they're going from Google maps rather than the GIS system used to calculate straight line distances.

Maladministration would've had to result in your child specifically not getting a place, not just a general error. Same with a fraudulent address - if somebody had got a place that your child should have got, Then that can be used, but just having evidence that somebody used a fraudulent address won't help you.

if it transpires the school has made a major mistake that affects a lot of children, The panel will have to decide how many the school can actually take - It may not be the case that everybody affected by the error gets a place.

What do you mean by PAN errors? A school can offer over PAN If it wishes.

happy to help but would need a lot more information!

Hi

Yes apologies have kept some of the precise information vague. The school has admitted an error in their appeals statement that led to an extra child being admitted in the oversubscription criteria our child is 1st palce for.

Even if the pupil admitted erroneously under a specific criterion shoukd have been ranked lower than your DC, if that took the number admitted under that criterion over the maximum that should have been admitted, then that didn't directly deprive your DC of a place because admissions under the criterion should have stopped before either your DC or the other were offered. (I'm assuming an 'a maximum of 25 pupils will be admitted on the outcome of a test of musical ability' type criterion and somehow 26 were allocated - ?). They directly deprived your DC of a place if your DC should have had the final place available (25th of 25 in my example) under that criterion and they were erroneously ranked above your DC.

If you have evidence of address fraud, then the place to take this now, not waiting for your appeal, is the admissions team at school / the school's LA / the home LA of the person you suspect of fraud. It is not true that 'they won't kick out' a pupil whose place has been obtained fraudulently- this is one of the few specific grounds on which the offer of a place can be withdrawn.

People you pay to go with you to the appeal usually only annoy the panel ime.