Appeal for Y7

[woodtiger]

Hi Ladies, I am looking for tips and pointers for when you are out of catchment but your child’s distance to the said school is less than the last child admitted? Looking for those who have had successful appeals, as we appealed the primary feeder school and where just put on a W/L for 3 yrs despite emotional upset ? Want to make this appeal count as 60% of her friends are going to this school so will impact ease of transition and wellbeing if she’s not accepted 🥺

Admissions aren’t all on distance though. That child could be adopted which means they were top of the list, or they could have a sibling etc.

You need to think about what the school you want has got to offer your child that the one you’ve been allocated hasn’t.

Friends going to the same school isn’t a particularly strong factor at a secondary appeal (depending on context and how strong the school’s case is). Hopefully you’ll get in on the waiting list - there is usually a lot of movement between now and the start of term.

Not an expert

So you have two strings to appeal:

1. They made a mistake. You were closer than the last distance admitted and therefore this is a mistake and you should be admitted.
2. Disadvantage to your child.

On point 1. Are you sure, what is your evidence? There are various criteria and distance is only used if they can't take all the children within that criteria.
So an extreme example, an adopted child who lives 10 miles away will get in before you even if you live next door.
The school should say what the final admitted category was and last distance in that category. How is distance measured, straight line or safe walking? Are you in that final category and your distance is less?
Or do you know a child living further out that you believe to be same criteria but got in ahead of you? Is it possible they lied about their address? If so you can 'report' them and it will be investigated, but that child losing their place won't necessarily mean you get it.

On point 2. Transition and wellbeing are unlikely to be good enough reasons unless your child is particularly vulnerable. However there may be other reasons such as specific extra curricular or subject provision that you may be able to argue your child would specifically benefit from.

When you say you are out of catchment, is there a fixed priority admissions area (which quite possibly is a funny shape, or with the school not in the centre of it) which you are not in - you live outside that area, but closer to the school than some people eg on the other side of the fixed area, who get priority in the policy because of that? And if it is not that, are you sure the last published admission relates to the category your child is in?

You need to be confident you understand the admissions policy of that school, which category your child is in, and how far down the criteria places were offered. Then you can work out if it is a mistake, or whether you need to have other grounds for appeal.

you are out of catchment but your child’s distance to the said school is less than the last child admitted

If there is a defined priority admissions area ('catchment '), then this is sometimes 'within a radius of x miles', but more likely to be an area bounded by certain roads or other geographical features. Is the school set squarely in the middle of its priority area? If not, it is perfectly possible for an IC address to be further from the school than an OOC one.
However, if you have been told officially that the last offer was under Criterion X at distance Y, and you have also been ranked under Criterion X and your official LA distance (not Google Maps or any other DIY tool) is less, than either there has been an error in ranking - or your application was counted as late - ?

we appealed the primary feeder school and where just put on a W/L for 3 yrs despite emotional upset

I assume you mean that your appeal was not upheld, as the outcome of an appeal is either 'upheld' (school directed to admit) or 'not upheld' (school not directed to admit, appellant’s position remains as it was for the duration of that academic year, unless a material change of circumstance means that they can appeal again); the panel cannot enter the decision, 'school must add name to waiting list'. And the appellant pupil being 'emotionally upset' is unlikely to outweigh any but the very weakest of a school case not to exceed its numbers (and absolutely won't be a reason for an independent appeal panel to uphold an appeal against the refusal of a place on the grounds of infant class size rules, if this appeal was in R /yr1 / yr2).

60% of her friends are going to this school so will impact ease of transition and wellbeing if she’s not accepted

Obvious response, What about the other 40%?

If you were an on-time applicant, and you genuinely believe that your DD should have been ranked above the last offered applicant, then you need to pursue this now with your LA, as this should be sorted out before getting to appeal. You can always withdraw your appeal if a place is offered.

Is this in the NW?

Living closer to the school than those in catchment is irrelevant - school catchments are generally not drawn as perfect circles round the school, so this often happens.

Friends are also irrelevant unless you can show via medical evidence that your child has a particular need to transition with friends.

You need to think about what the desired school offers that your allocated school does not. Does she have an aptitude for music and the desired school has lots of musical extra curricular activities, for example.

It depends. One school I know takes in kids from other councils deliberately. Its a legacy of former council boundaries. They priortise feeder primaries and then distance. The result is that if your child is out of area but in feeder primary you can get into the school ahead of a child who lived next to the school but wasn't in a feeder primary. If there are too many kids in the feeder primary its done on distance regardless of which council area you live it.

This won't the case everywhere - it highlights that there is a very wide range of entry criteria and many are unusual for various localised reasons.

The point is to make sure you know the entry priortisation system for the individual school. Us generalising here may not be correct.

The point is to make sure you know the entry priortisation system for the individual school. Us generalising here may not be correct.

For sure. But OP highlighted that they lived closer to school than some in catchment that had been given places. This is entirely irrelevant as an appeal point, as long as these others have been given their places because "being in catchment" is a higher admissions criteria than whatever basis OP is seeking a place. You can't argue an appeal based on your personal disagreement with the admissions criteria.

(I have assumed that "in catchment" is a higher admissions criteria, because OP has given no indication that she thinks a mistake has been made, which would be the main point of any appeal if this was the case).

The fact that some kids in previous years got in from further away than you doesn’t necessarily mean much.

There are multiple reasons this can happen - a sibling, a looked after child, child of staff, anyone else who gets priority on non distance grounds.

Also if there is a fixed catchment area with defined boundaries, children in catchment will take priority above yours even if they are further away (catchments are not a perfect circle so you could be nearer than some bits of the catchment area).

Where are you on the waiting list?

For appeal you will need to either show an error was made or that your child has strong reasons for needing this school, strong enough to outweigh the difficulties to the school in taking an extra child. Friends going there generally doesn’t count.

Do you have any reasons to believe there was an error? Do you have any other reasons why your child needs this particular school?