Expert needed - Notice of appeal; is this a good basis of appeal?

[Switchy111]

Submitting 3 notices of appeal - this is the first; more detail and evidence will be provided later, at the next deadline.

what are people’s thoughts on this? Do we have a stronger appeal?

it’s a long one…

1. Illness Impact on Common Ability Test

A* was diagnosed with tonsillitis by his GP on 7 November 2025, the day before the Common Ability Test. Despite attending the test on 8 November, he experienced throat pain, fatigue, and reduced concentration. His resulting norm-referenced band does not reflect his usual academic standard, as confirmed by his current school assessment data. If he had not been unwell—or if alternative evidence had been considered—he would likely have had a substantially higher chance of securing a place. GP notes are included to support this claim, with further evidence to follow.

1. Extracurricular Talent and Alignment with School Provision

A* ranked in the top 18.5% in Xxx School’s drama aptitude assessment, demonstrating clear potential despite no formal Drama lessons or clubs. He is also an accomplished sportsman, having played rugby for five years and participated in football at academy level, showing commitment, teamwork, and discipline. Xxx School’s specialist provision in both performing arts and sport makes it well suited to nurture his abilities, and A* would both benefit from and positively contribute to the school’s extracurricular community. Supporting letters from his school are included.

1. Family and Logistical Circumstances

A’s father is the primary caregiver for A, his 6-year-old brother, and a registered carer for A’s grandfather, who has advanced heart disease, with A providing daily support. A’s mother works full-time in London, limiting her ability to assist with daily care. The allocated school is 12.6 miles from the grandparents’ home with no direct bus route, creating practical difficulties and extended periods of unsupervised time for A*. A* has experienced symptoms of stress and anxiety since learning that he would not be attending his preferred school, due to the allocated school being such a distance from his grandparents. Xxx School, just 0.4 miles and a 9 minute walk from his grandparents, would ensure consistent support, reduce stress and anxiety, and provide a smoother transition due to its smaller student population (A’s current school has only 62 pupils).

1. School Capacity

Xxx School, currently Years 7–9 and expanding to Year 10 in 2026, has the capacity to admit an additional pupil without prejudice to efficient education or resources. Admission of A* would not impact the school’s operations but would align with both his academic potential and practical needs.

there is just one test date, and he was at the doctors 16 hours before test time, he was prescribed 10 day course of antibiotics.
the school admission policy states if child is unwell they can miss the test, and their school assessment data can be used.
I didn’t know this at the time and didn’t want him to be disadvantaged by not attending.
my point was that if his school assessment data places him in a different band, with higher availability of spaces, then there is a prejudice/ disadvantage about

You really are clutching at straws.

The school assessment data surely only kicks in if you don’t do the test due to illness, otherwise bands are allocated on the test data. There was a system and you not using it because you didn’t know/didn’t read the info/didn’t call to say “my son’s too ill for the test, what happens?” feels like a(nother) weak angle. If he was disadvantaged, and it’s only an if not knowing what difference if any the alt data would’ve made, then it was by not following the procedure for being ill on test day. You can plead the ignorance angle and see if they take pity, but you can’t make out that the system disadvantaged him if you didn’t use it.

He saw the gp at 5pm on Friday, and his test was 8:40 Saturday morning - so there was a window to allow me to speak to anyone at the school

Even if the argument that he should have been in another band is accepted, unless everyone in that band did get in, you cannot prove that your son would have. And letting him in and not the others in that band would be unfair.

4 choices? 🤔

Someone is telling porkies.

the school admission policy states if child is unwell they can miss the test, and their school assessment data can be used.
I didn’t know this at the time and didn’t want him to be disadvantaged by not attending.

So your argument here is that you didn't read the admissions policy? Yet you managed to find out that there was a banding test and what the arrangements were for s pupil to sit it (whether 'register in advance', or 'just turn up on the day')

Seriously, that one is going to fly like a dodo with the average independent appeal panel.

By all means appeal OP but reading your OP it just reads very wishy washy and a bit meh. If I was on the appeals panel, non of it would jump out to me that we’ve made a mistake. Your son sounds great but the reasons given are just normal things. He isn’t particularly talented and your personal reasons with location and your son feeling anxious are your problems, not schools.

Definitely change the way it’s written too as it looks very ChatGPT.

Best of luck (ex school leadership)

Not in this case. It's impossible to know. The reality is that the distribution of places is likely to be very similar, the allocation of distance places is random, so it's impossible to know if he would have been awarded one of 7 places or one of 6 places or one of 9 places.

The example given above uses random allocation to select 16 places out of 64. So that's a 25% chance of a distance applicant getting a place. You're effectively arguing that he might have had a 30% chance if a different band had, say 20 places left. It's still a very low chance.

You also don't know that tonsillitis would meet the criteria for missing the test. A 10 day course of antibiotics is a red herring because many GPs will err on the side of caution and give antibiotics for tonsillitis, and 10 days is the standard course, so it doesn't indicate severity, just that he was observed to have tonsillitis.

Did the school have a sports aptitude? If so, is there any reason why he didn't take that test? It won't help appeal, but you mentioned his sporting ability and many schools that have aptitude tests include sport.

You might find that the next Band up had fewer places available to be allocated at random.

In any event, it doesn’t matter - unless there is a Band in which there are fewer out of catchment applicants than there are random places, there’s no way of knowing who the randomiser would have picked.

A reassessment of your son’s Band might move him to eg the Band A waiting list rather than the Band B waiting list, and that might help your waiting list chances - or it might not.

Yes, that would be a gamble, because every band waiting list will be allocated by random allocation, so you'll never know if being in one would have resulted in allocation. It's a bit like moving lanes in stationary traffic and then seeing the lane you moved out of start to move freely while you're still stuck!

Good analogy!

One wonders why ChatGPT is being relied on rather than the child’s father, who was a year 6 teacher for years before becoming a HT, and “knows all the processes”.

Having turned a RI school around himself, surely that offers some hope for the allocated school?

How often is your remote contract requiring you to travel?

To be honest, OP, you’re coming across as an entitled snob. We all want the best for our children but this is really rather unpleasant. Presumably DH is leaving you to sort this out - is he considerably less bothered than you are, perchance?

Surely your DH would know about the criteria relating to sick children given he works in Primary education? I appreciate he may not have many students apply to that particular school, but as a head teacher (and as a parent with a child that age), it’s not unreasonable to assume he would have researched the process - especially as his own son was ill in the day leading up to the test.

@Switchy111

I think you have to fundamentally accept that you don’t have a strong case.

If you are going into the appeal with a “might as well give it our best shot” mentality then that’s one thing. But no amount of phrase tinkering can give you a stellar case.

You live in an area that has catchments. You are not in catchment for your preferred school. You gave it your best try with drama aptitude tests etc but you weren’t lucky.

I would also recommend you think about what happens to your DS if the frailty of
his GPs increases (as seems all too possible) and they need to move to sheltered living or a care home. If his dad isn’t heading to the area every evening, how does DS get home from the preferred school if you are successful?

Good spot

OP now also claiming to have two catchment schools, rather than just the one (the RI) which she has been allocated

I agree. You might get lucky. If the school puts up no defence (I've been in appeals where the LA rep says 'and the school relies on modular buildings...', the panel says 'what difficulties do the modular buildings cause?' and the HT gushes 'oh none! They're lovely! All the staff fight over them.' Cue LA rep resting face in hands), or they say 'actually we'd be quite happy to have a bulge class....' then you might win.

However, even if there are spaces that could be made, if there are other appellants with stronger cases you will lose. So my advice would be to look at the school itself and see if you can find anything about the school that would benefit your DS.

Your argument boils down to 'he did fairly well in the drama aptitude test (but not well enough to get a place, and has no evidence that he has shown interest in drama out of school to date), he is bright, so should have been in a different band (but no evidence that it would have changed the outcome), and his Dad cares for his Father for two hours per day and it would be inconvenient for him to travel 7 miles to pick him up before heading to his Father's house.'

That is not a winning argument.

I think you need to evidence that his allocated school cannot / does not support these interests / aptitudes, but the appeal school does, so he would be disadvantaged by not being admitted

Likewise can you evidence that he would have been admitted in the higher band because it takes a wider distance, or the % success in a lottery is more favourable within that band (as appropriate to admission criteria within the bands)

But you knew he was ill, hence booking the GP appointment. Knowing that wasn't till 5pm with the test on Saturday, you could have called the school on Fri morn to say your son's ill, what's the process, or looked up the published info. I get what you're saying, but it's still that you didn't say anything and sent him to the test when he wasn't well enough in your opinion. If you'd even turned up on the Sat morn and said "he's ill, GP said xyz" then the mitigating circumstances and alt data would've kicked in. All you can say now is "I didn't do anything and didn't know that I had to, but am asking you to consider this now retrospectively." That might work for you, but it's still on you really, not a flaw in their system.

OP, you've received some tough replies on here. Some have been a bit out of pocket but there's also been some good advice, and I think it's worth being realistic with chances both for your own thinking and how you are talking to you DS and making plans. I'm fairly certain I know which school this is - I won't out it, but I'm going to assume I'm right. It's very oversubscribed, already agreed to admit well over PAN, and the 2025 numbers suggest that an appeal will need to be incredibly strong to be successful.

For the banding test, I understand the conundrum about not having a breakdown of places offered under each criteria within each band yet. This could be a fair argument if a) Your DS's banding score was close to the next band up b) you can show test results or school evidence that makes it clear his banding test was and anomaly and c) that next band up had significantly more places offered in the final random-allocation criteria. Unfortunately it could also be neutral or unhelpful if the numbers show something else. My initial thought was to suggest asking his primary to provide a letter advising on which band would be most appropriate (which is what would have happened if you had known to follow the procedure for him being too ill to test) and is probably still worth doing, but the fact that the head of his very small primary is his father may bring some extra skepticism of this evidence.

For the sports/drama aspect, I see two things I think you should be cautious about. The first is that your part about how your DS scored well on the drama test without any previous drama experience may backfire; when appealing based on a specific curricular or co-curricular offering you typically want to show that this offering is vital to your child because they have a demonstrated interest in it. Highlighting that your DS has never participated in any sort of drama club or similar could do the opposite. With sports you have a bit of the opposite happening - he can show sustained commitment but you haven't mentioned him taking the aptitude test for the sports places offered despite there being twice as many going as drama. I would be prepared to answer why he didn't do that if the sports offering is very important to him. And I'll echo the advice already given to remove any focus on how your DS will be an asset to the school through his participation because the panel can't consider that.