In-year school application to oversubscribed school

[Ediham]

Does anyone have experience with in-year school applications? My child has started Year 7 and is struggling badly with anxiety. He has a history of anxiety and motor/verbal tics, which have intensified since starting secondary school. He has no friends, is very withdrawn, avoids talking to us or peers, and has even been refusing lunch at school.

At another (oversubscribed) school, he has many friends and I feel peer support would really help him. He’s on the waiting list there, but it’s unlikely he’ll get a place this year. The school said we can appeal through the council. Has anyone been through this process, and would peer support be considered a strong enough reason to win an appeal? His paediatrician is willing to write a letter confirming his anxiety and tic disorder

@Ediham don't pin your hopes too firmly on this. Thousands of children have anxiety and tics, or a myriad of other conditions, and they can't all be given their preferred choice of school. You are on the waiting list because your preferred school is full. To win an appeal you'd have to convince the panel that your son's needs outweigh the harm to the school of going over its planned numbers. Unless the school has a very weak case, your case will need to be very strong.

There is no guarantee that going to a school with a few more friends will cure your DC's condition, and his paediatrician is unlikely to say otherwise, therefore your case will not be very strong.

Was the oversubscribed school your first preference and the school your child is at, the one you were offered?

Where are you on the waiting list?

I agree that the case isn’t strong and the authority will say that all schools will offer the pastoral care that will help him.

Will the letter day that only the appealed-for school can help your DS overcome his anxiety? I doubt it will but unless it does, it won’t really have much weight, sorry.

Agree, the LA will take the view that any school can offer the pastoral support he needs. I am sorry he is having such a tough time. By all means appeal, but you also I think need to plan for how he will start to cope better at hi current school. Can the GP advise on ways to support? What about the pastoral staff at his current school? Are there clubs that he can join to help – when I taught in school there were a lot of lunchtime clubs that were really supportive. Or is there somewhere safe he can go at breaks and lunch – SEN hub, library?

This sounds very difficult and stressful.

It is worth bearing in mind that your ds may be at a stage where he wouldn't be able to take advantage of the place even if our did get it and it sounds as though you really need to prioritise immediate support/therapy and strategies for him over school places. If he's not able to talk to you at home then the problems are not solely related to/contained within school etc. Is he managing to eat more normally at home? How is his sleep?

Secondary really is so different to primary in that even if he knows others at the other school, they may not be in the same lessons/groups or even have the same break times or timetables. My DC were at the same high school as their cousins and it wasn't until GCSE year that they had a single lesson together, despite being in the same year one was "school A timetable" and one "school B."

I would try to redirect your energy right now as you may be pinning your hopes on a solution that a) isn't realistically achievable b) may not fix things for him. By all means go through the administrative processes and remain on the wait list but it sounds like there's a lot you can/should do in the here and now to help him too.

Good luck.

Honestly I don't think that's really an answerable question!

It depends who else is on the waiting list and why they are there. There are clearly some compelling reasons for your child to be moved, but you have no idea what other children are on the list or what reasons there are for them to be moved!

At this stage in the year it is unlikely that the school you want is under their PAN (Published Admission Number) for the year. In rare cases the local authority can make a school exceed their PAN if they physically can and their is a child without an appropriate school place, but your child is not. This means that even if you appeal and your child's situation means he trumps everyone else on the list, you still have to wait for a child to leave the right year group in that school before he gets a place.

I guess overall I would say that an appeal doesn't guarantee a place even if the reasons are compelling. Whether it is worth you putting the effort into appealing with no guarantees of winning, only you can decide.

WL position has no relevance to an appeal tho. If the OP wins an appeal, her ds gets a place. Waiting list doesn't come into it. And if she wins, no she doesn't have to wait fir someone to leave. If she wins an appeal that means her ds's need to go to the school overrides the school's refusal to offer a place.

Firstly, the paediatrician letter would need to explicitly state that the appeal school is the only one that can meet his needs otherwise it will carry very little weight. Unfortunately peer support is something many children would benefit from.
The only route is to appeal but it doesn't sound like you have a particularly strong case as your son is already placed.
If you win the appeal then you are awarded the place , theres no such thing as remaining on a list until a place comes up, otherwise there would be no point in appeals full stop.
Also remember that you can only appeal once in each academic year.
As your son is placed, if there are no spaces in the school you want then you'll receive a refusal letter giving you a 'right of appeal' and then be placed on the waiting list if you aren't already on it with the information that he should remain at his current school.

The panel will likely ask you about your interactions at the present school and what support you have sought and any impact.

they are likely to ask what discussions you have had with the new school and what they can offer.

Then you need to overcome the prejudice argument which is specific to that school. If your child needs more support than usual this will put more pressure on the school.

I would phone admissions and ask what evidence is needed to be considered under medical or social criterion if they have it.

At a minimum evidence from professionals must name the school and provide their reason for the school. Not the parents of child's thoughts or feelings about what may be better for that child.

That's right, the oversubscribed school was our first choice and the current school was the one we were offered. Does that mean anything?

DS was 4th on the waiting list in July based on aptitude test, now with the new academic year there is only distance list and he's currently 9th

It doesn't mean anything very significant (though would have looked a bit odd if you hadn't previously put it as a high preference, unless circumstances had demonstrably changed).

The panel will not be allowed to take your waiting list position into account.

The only thing being is that if he's started year 7 and you're now applying for the school he didn't get into, did you appeal at the normal point of allocation. Each appeal is 'new' obviously as you can only appeal once in each academic year but you're unlikely to win a Year 7 appeal without significant new information.
Also, there are many schools that don't have medical or exceptional admissions criteria anymore.

I'm afraid this poster has got it completely incorrect.

If you win an appeal, your child has a place at the school, regardless of whether they are on the waiting list, and how many other people are on the waiting list. A place will be made for at any child who wins an appeal in a year group even if it's full (Which of course it will be if you have to go to appeal)

The waiting list and the appeal process are completely separate. We as panellists don't get told where you are on the list, and shouldn't do.

To win an appeal you would need to show that the detriment of the school taking other pupil into a full year is less than the detriment to the child of not going to that particular school.

The evidence would need to be very specific to this school, so any letter from a professional that said it was imperative for your son to go to this particular school (and why) would be useful.

It may still not be enough to win the appeal, as you are being weighed against the case for the school, and we don't know how strong that might be; if the School is already significantly oversubscribed, Particularly in that year group, perhaps because of previously won Appeals or other children being allocated places on EHCPs etc.

Ideally, you identify some other things about the school that will make it very suitable for your son - for example specific clubs or subjects that it offers.

you have nothing to lose by making an appeal, and you can remain on the waiting list while you do so.

Thanks @PatriciaHolmfor confirming my thought that the pp was quite wrong re appeals and WLs. As ever your advice is clear and hopefully helpful to @Ediham

A lot of people get very confused about in year admissions, appeals, fair access etc etc. If in doubt give the team a call in most local authorities we're very friendly , happy to help (can't necessarily give you the answer you want!) and we don't bite.

I'd be surprised if that's true of "most" local authorities. Ours doesn't take incoming calls at all, and the auto-reply on their inbox says that they will only respond if the question isn't already covered on their website. Their team is simply too small and too busy to act as a call centre.

That's true of phone lines etc but it's normally easy enough to email and someone will ring you back, the actual admissions teams are normally very busy but the peripheral teams whilst small will try to assist

We won an Appeal to get our son into the school we wanted him to go to, due to his severe mental health problems at the other school.

Our evidence for the Appeal included:

• A and E report,
• GP record,
• therapist letter,
• letter from current headteacher,
• youth worker letter.

The letters argued that his mental health would not improve unless he attended the school we were appealing to. I was particularly grateful to the headteacher of his (at the time) school for ringing me one desperate afternoon and offering to write a letter of support.

good luck OP, it’s a hard time, I hope you are ok. We are nearly a yearly on now, and my son is doing much better surrounded by his friends.

Oh I'm so sorry that it got to that point with your son but glad it worked out and his doing better. Very hard seeing your child struggling and not being able to help.
Thank you for explaining how you did it.

Another thing to consider OP is the size of the school - is it a very small school? If not then he may not be in classes with his existing friends.

While there’s nothing to lose by appealing I think there’d be a lot more value in pushing his current school to support more.

Are you working with his current school to put measures in to support him? By all means appeal but these things take time and there is no guarantee of success. I feel for you, year 7 is very tricky.