Secondary School Appeal in Rochdale

[PunchYourJudy]

Hi,

Is anyone going through an appeal for a secondary school in Rochdale? My son didn’t get his first choice and the process seems very difficult and I am struggling to navigate the system.

There are loads of brilliant posters who can help but you'll need to give more detail.
Why did you not get your first preference? On what grounds are you hoping to appeal. What are the criteria for the school you wanted?.etc

Thanks for replying. Well we are out of the catchment area, and we applied for the feeder school where all of his friends will be going.

Are you on the waiting list for the school you want?

You have to show that there is greater detriment to your child not getting a place, than there is to the school taking additional pupils. If he is particularly skilled at drama, or music, or sport and the offered school doesn’t have his speciality, but the preferred one does, you have some grounds for appeal.

Difficulty getting there is not usually grounds, or friends going to the school, or parents transport arrangements.

He is number 70 on the waiting list. I’m just thinking if there is anyone who knows the process in Rochdale, or is it the same everywhere? We still have not had an appeal date, yet other areas in the UK have already had their hearing,

The appeal process is the same in England. Education is devolved so it differs for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Timings will differ per school and local authorities. Most will aim to do their appeals by June but it could be later. I am surprised they haven't as yet sent you a date. How long ago did you return the appeal pack with your case/documents?

We submitted out appeal literally on national offer day. The local authority has recieved our appeal but just havnt sent us anything about a hearing date.

Rochdale say that if you lodged your appeal by the deadline date (April 28th) your appeal will be heard by the end of June; so it's not really a problem that you haven't heard yet, though I might jog after half term (which is next week for Rochdale LA controlled schools). They need to give you at least 10 school days notice. If it's a school that is likely to have a lot of appeals, they may go over a few days, and they can be harder to sort a panel for.

What are your grounds for appeal @PunchYourJudy ?

Factors relating to friends don’t usually have any sway. The kinds of things that @Buscobel says are good; what was the reason for your wanting this school?

Hi my son is awaiting a diagnosis of ADHD and his school have also said he will struggle to make friends in secondary schools if his peers are not attending. His school senco has provided a supporting letter.

I'm not aware any Rochdale schools have catchment areas. The final admission category is usually distance from home to school but it is not a catchment. If you're 70th then you are presumably some way from the school.
The appeal process is the same everywhere. Are you struggling with the portal?

Which school are you appealing for and which have you been allocated. I live in Rochdale and went through secondary admissions last year

the above poster is correct Rochdale is ‘as the crow flies’ straight line radius for catchment areas. There’s a good tool to measure it https://schoolcatchmentchecker.co.uk/ here. It saves all the catchments to a database so others can use it.

Don't use the link below - it's "community sourced" data, so in many cases (including the school I am a governor of, so know the detail) is wrong, and in many cases there is no data for a school anyway.

its also misleading in terms of distance, as distance measurements don't go on postcode, they go on a unique identifier on your specific address to a specific part of the school grounds (sometimes the nearest gate for people to use, so not necessary at the same point for everybody) - it is entirely possible for one home in a postcode to get an offer, but another not to do so, as distance are measured to 3 decimal places.

Given the OP is already in the process, the best source of any "last distance offered" so far this round will be the LA (in fact that is likely to be on the letter they got with their allocation, along with their measured distance) and they will also be able to tell OP what the last distance offered by Sept 1 has been historically.

People looking for historical data for this or other LAs can normally find it on their local LA website, or ask the LA or admissions authority.

Hi thanks for your response. I wanted to check, are you saying I am abke to ask the Local Authority what the distance is of the last child to be admitted into the school?

his school have also said he will struggle to make friends in secondary schools if his peers are not attending

But primary school friendships often don't continue into secondary. It creates unrealistic expectations and is unfair to all the children to encourage a child to believe that his existing friendships will continue unchanged.

Which school did you want, and what did you get?

The admission authority (the LA if it is a community or a VC school, the school itself for any other type of school) is required to answer any reasonable questions you ask to help you prepare for your appeal. Even if the school is the admission authority, the LA will tell you the distance of the last child admitted if you ask them.

The appeals timetable should be on the school's or the LA's website. You should be notified personally of your appeal date at least 10 school days in advance.

Where we are, the standard template for schools to complete includes details of the last offer made on national offer day, but there's nothing to.stop you asking for this information in advance.

There’s a lot of data on that site that’s not accurate - don’t use it!

Hi I have contacted the admissions team and asked for the distance of the last admitted child - I am just wondering if anyone in Rochdale has a hearing date yet?