Our appeal was not upheld

[Gymbob]

Hi All

This is my first post, so apologies if I was supposed to intro myself somewhere else first!

I'm hoping that someone out there can help us. Our appeal was rejected for our daughter's preferred secondary school. She has special needs, and is on the special needs register, but does not have an SEN. The school we appealed for is massively oversubscribed which was the reason for us not being successful. They also said that our daughter's needs can be met at our allocated school (we disagree), but half of them can be.

Since the appeal we have discovered that the chairman on the appeal panel is also a governor at our allocated school. We know that nobody connected with the school we are appealing for is allowed to sit on the panel, but is someone connected to the allocated school allowed to sit? I'm having trouble finding the answer.

Thanks so much for any replies, they will be so welcome.

Gymbob x x

Hi Bourboncreme

Thanks, and yes you are very fortunate to be able to privately educate your child. He sounds like he is doing very well. Brilliant.

xx

Appeal not upheld due to prejudice on class size. Something really really needs to be done to help our SN children that aren't statemented. I'm seething.

MsDav - Was yours a primary school admissions case? If it was for a secondary school they shouldn't be talking about class size prejudice. Can you tell us some more about your case?

My sympathies MsDav. We can seethe together. Are you saying that your appeal was not upheld? Are you going to the LGO?

G x

It was a secondary school appeal, its a small C of E school with only a 4 form entry. The appeal was not upheld as the panel agreed that going over PAN would have a prejudice to existing students with regards to having to share equipment etc.

I don't think we will go to the LGO, I feel pretty deflated right now. We have an appeal for the grammer school next week but I'm not filled with much hope there either although the basis for that is different, this one is over a failure of agreed procedure for my son on the day of the tests.

MsDav - The panel should have looked at whether the prejudice to your child from not being admitted outweighed the prejudice to the school. The decision should therefore talk about "balance of prejudice" or something like that. If they simply decided that admitting your child would cause prejudice to the school and stopped at that point they failed to follow the correct process, giving you a good reason to go to the LGO.

Balance of prejudice was the exact term used in the letter. They say they did take into consideration my son's conditions but on balance found the prejudice to the school to be greater than the benefit to my child of admitting him there.

I'm totally gutted, on the day of the appeal we felt we'd made our case very well, the school representative agreed that my son has a disability and the panel were nodding and agreeing with us that he needs a smaller school .... grrrr

The way they deal with non statemented SEN children is nothing short of disgraceful. The system needs a total overhaul.

You have nothing to lose by going to the LGO.

G x