Secondary school appeals

[dogoncouch]

I know it's early but this is my situation and wondered if anyone knows what a likely outcome to this appeal might be.

So I've just applied for secondary schools for my grandson whom I parent. We have applied for 3 schools. School 2 is literally across the road and under subscribed. We will get it. School 3 is a token gesture as gsons friends are going there so to keep him happy I put it down as number 3 knowing he will go to number 2. Now number 1 is interesting. It is an outstanding school and grandson really wants a stab at it which is why we've put it as 1 as we know we will get 2.

School number 1 is 3.3km away and furthest distance offered last year was 1.7km so we have precious little chance of securing a place.

However we have a rather interesting special circumstance and wondered whether it will be worth a stab at appeal next March...

I have parented my grandson since he was a baby and he was put into my care by children's services. They insisted I applied for a court order - I refused a special guardianship order but have a child arrangement order with residency for him. He was never a looked after child as he and his mum were living with me when he was born. His mum no longer lives with us (and hasn't since he was 3) though he sees her often. It is only by this quirk of circumstance that means he was never a looked after child and therefore does not have looked after child priority in school admissions. Do you think I could successfully appeal on the grounds that he should be treated as though he is a looked after child in terms of school priority. Any help would be gratefully received?

I think you should have a shot if you can evidence SS involvement.

But suggest you also write a list of why school 1 would be particularly good for your GS, eg extra curricular, pastoral care etc. It is balance of detriment.

Thanks - yes I'd definitely appeal by finding every reason why he needs that school over every other but just wondered whether the looked after angle would be a compelling reason. I thought I'd start thinking about it early to give myself plenty of time to gather evidence

Does the school have a focus on a subject or a sport or arts, that your grandson has an affinity for or talent for? That would be a reason for appeal.

i see what you’re saying about him not being a looked after child in the sense that would fit the criteria, but I think it’s worth marshalling support from everyone who has been involved, because it’s something of a special circumstance really.

You have nothing to loose. LAC status is about trying to even up their life start disadvantage. You could argue that the same applies in reality. Not all adopted children for example do end up disadvantaged more than many others but a lot have deep routed issues that come out in teen years around their situations.
Use that plus the reasons school 1 better suits and give it a go?

Admissions experts will be along shortly, but there was a recent thread where a poster had taken in the school age children of a deceased relative (sibling IIRC) and they could not have LAC status as it had gone straight to family care,

ETA I believe she was trying to get the middle of the three children into a full local school - the other two had got places already

@dogoncouch does the school have an exceptional circumstances clause in its admissions policy? If so, you should use that before using the appeal system, and make sure you read the notes carefully about what evidence will be needed to support the claim. It may not be successful (the bar is usually higher than for appeal because it is decided on evidence against strict criteria, not balance of arguments), but if you don't try then the appeal panel may wonder why.

Has your gchild been disadvantaged by their circumstances in a way that can be proven, and can you get a letter from a professional to support that? If so, it will add considerable weight to your case because LACs are obviously prioritised in order to compensate for disadvantage.

Forgive my ignorance: is being a looked after child sufficient reason to get any school you want? Or would you need to prove in some way why the school you want is better for the child?
Or is it one of those cases where in theory you need to prove it, but in practice the standard of proof required is fairly low?

Is this for next September? So you applied on time before the deadline? As someone that has recently been through this, I dont think you've got any realistic chance of school 1 with the distance and they offer him a perfectly good place at school 2. I care for my nieces whose mother died last Christmas and like you I only have a CAO with residency that grants me parental responsibility. Like you, they were never LAC because apparently we volunteered to take them in when we picked them up from the hosue where they'd found their mother dead before school and we didnt let them go to a group home for a couple of weeks until SS asked us to for all take them so we are merely 'kinship carers not foster carers and receive no support or status from them.

This meant that they had no official LAC status under school admission criteria where we are, just the normal distance criteria. However, I did fill out the exceptional social/medical form and that was granted (discretionary but they had a compelling backstory which the LEA rightly recognised, which was appreciated) which meant they went higher up the list than just distance, but still below any actual LAC children. My situation was more complicated as it was an in year admission as their mother died after the deadline for a school place for September, but I think the same would apply here. There is no way to force them to 'consider him' a LAC, even though, like my nieces, he really is.

In our case we got school 1 at secondary under the exceptional social/medical criteria (even though was second nearest) but for primary we got school 3, after a 3 week delayed start with no school place, which wasnt great. She only got to number 1 and number 4 on the WL for schools 1 and 2 and so far no place has come up (she is fine at school 3 now). You can only apply under exceptional social/medical for one school here, so that's presumably why she got to number 1 on WL at school 1. School 2 must have had 3 kids closer under distance.

I'd fill out the exceptional social form for School 1 if you have one which might bump him up enough places (if they grant it, might not if you've had him from birth and he is settled with you but original SS involvement might be taken into account) but I wouldn't get yours or his hopes up too high. If he gets School 2 you can appeal but your basis for appeal has to be that School 1 offers something he needs that School 2 can't offer and it can't be 'we like school 1 better or 'it has better results'. Without additional medical or educational needs I dont think you'd be successful.

Yes. LAC/Adopted from care are top of the priority list (behind EHCPs which have a different process anyway.) (Unless faith when faith can trump non-fail LAC).

In the OPs case, it may be that the child doesn't officially count but an appeals panel may feel the child has similar disadvantage.

Schools are required to give first priority in their admission criteria to looked after and formerly looked after children. There is no need for the parents to prove the school is better for their child.

@dogoncouch - I wouldn't rely on this as your only argument at appeal. If the panel follows the rules, it is not clear that it would win your case. The questions the appeal panel will consider are:

• have admissions been administered correctly? The answer would be that they have been - your grandson is not a formerly LAC and therefore does not qualify for that category
• does the disadvantage to your child from not being admitted outweigh any problems the school will face from having to cope with another child? Your argument around your grandson just missing out on being an LAC does not directly address that question. You may, however, be able to persuade the appeal panel that your grandson suffers similar disadvantages to an LAC, but that depends on the panel you get.

I would include this argument in your case, but I wouldn't rely on it as your only argument. You need to identify things your grandson will miss out on if he is not admitted to this school and build your case around those.

This was me I think and, as above, no LAC but we did receive Exceptional Circumstance criteria over just distance which was appreciated (and right, I feel). This was successful in one case, not the other.

To answer the PP, LAC status children, rightly, can get pretty much any desired school because SS are placing them there outside of the standard admissions procedure. In conjunction with the LEA. Children in care or who have been rightly need every advantage going to try and compensate for what has happened to them. What isn't right is that kinship carers aren't given the same status as foster carers (some of who are doing 'fostering as a business', I was outraged to discover). Clearly my nieces have been similarly disadvantaged and traumatised with a shock sudden bereavement and absent father due to addiction. However as it stands, SS has no 'duty of care' in conjunction with the LEA because, essentially, they are not paying for them, they've palmed that off to the family who voluntarily stepped forward (wrong, but understandable with scant resources I guess) This charity is lobbying to give them the same status for things like school admissions which I think should be the case, even if SS aren't paying anything toward their upbringing kinship.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/

It was you I meant @mysodapop - I am glad things have settled down for you all with schools

Thank you, they have a bit and both girls seem happy at school, which is such a relief x

@mysodapop thanks for sharing your story. Sounds like a very harrowing time for you all. I'm not actively involved in kinship.org but know of them.

I need to investigate this all more thoroughly, I was hoping for a state boarding school place for him as he's very keen on sport and competes at a national level but I wasn't eligible to apply for a bursary as a I own our house. Anyway as I had spent time going down that rabbit hole, I sort of took my eyes off the local options. We applied on time and I am quite happy with school 2 BUT the teacher bit of me thinks that we should be applying for a more academic school - he's quite bright and should get greater depth in maths and reading but has adhd for which he is medicated. In fact he has every conceivable disadvantage it is possible for one child to have - including late summer born boy and I just feel that he deserves the opportunity to go to a really good school after all that life has thrown at him.

Does the school you want have an exceptional social/medical criteria? You could presumably still fill out that form and attach it to the in-progress application still? For a large secondary that might be enough to get him into the initial sift and overcome the fact that school 2 is much nearer. With just distance criteria you will surely get that I feel (certainly would be the case where I am, just outside London).