Appealing daughters first school place - any tips?

silvercar

If someone is caught using a false address before the child has started school their place can be withdrawn. If the child has started school (even the first morning) then it is considered not in the best interests of the child to do move them and they can keep their place. This is a ruling from the Department of Education.

A very worrying time over the summer holidays if you do this. The risk being that if you are found out the only schools likely to have places left are not going to be the ones at the top of your list.

TIGs

Get in contact witht he school and make it clear you still want a place for your daughter there. Its a long time till September and people can move which will make spaces or people who have been offered a place at the school you want may either change there mind of not want the place.


Do you have relations near the school as if they pick your daughter up sometimes this can be taken into account as a reason you chose the school.

When you get a place at another school accept it as a back up incase nothing comes up at the school you want, it could be the week before they start in September that they contact you to say theres a space if peoples circumstances change in the summer holidays.

impy78

pandas66 wrote:

whether they did the SATS test or were boycotting them. Which incidently they did do (did the exams and then boycotted the hand in of results)

a little off topic..but exams...IN PRIMARY SCHOOL?!


Wow, they don't half start pigeon holing them early these days!

As if exams matter anyway...

sara2323

salli9 wrote:

Yes, maximum of 30 in a class, and schools can't afford extra staff for a few children, especially if there are places at other local schools.

I think this only applies at reception and nursery classes as according to the Education website:

Infant classes
For infant classes the number of pupils is limited by law to a maximum of 30. Admission applications can be refused because an infant class has reached its legal limit. In this type of appeal, the panel is only allowed to look at two things:

whether the local authority’s admission department has stuck to its published admission arrangements - your appeal can only succeed if your child would have been accepted if the rules had been applied properly
whether the local authority has acted unreasonably - by law a decision or action is ‘unreasonable’ if it is completely irrational or not based on the facts of the case


My little boy is currently in reception and was refused a place at our chosen school although my sisters children who live on the same road all attend the school. I was told to appeal near September where he may be likely to get a place as the criteria for appeals is wider.

pandas66

they do year 6 SATS then (which is the last year of primary) they are meant to be for streaming purposes when they go into secondary.
As it happened my son enjoyed exams ( strange I know) but the headmaster of this primary school took great delight in showing me the huge pile of exam papers completed that he was now not forwarding for marking, which was in my view ridiculous as the children had done their bit also the parents for help with revision and even the teaching staff to work through the exam papers and set work accordingly to it. Then on his part (or this is how it seemed to be) he had then decided it was beaurocratic nonscence and was to sit in his office as a protest, only his part was the protest that I could see though all other parties had filled their obligations!
Sorry OP just telling it as I saw it, 10 years ago.

impy78

I quite agree panda, how could you send your child to a school where the headmaster clearly has a brain the size of a shrimp.

That is the most stupid piece of drivel I have ever heard - how was he boycotting them if he was still making the kids sit them? This sounds like he was just a lazy !!!!!!.

But seriously, don't you guys think that we should be letting children be children a bit longer before they get saddled with crap like exams and studying, really?

Imagine being at the bottom of the "streaming" - a failure at 11 years old. Holy crap - no wonder there's so many teenage goths about, it really is truely depressing!

salli9

It's 30 children per class in Key Stage 1, however should a child in catchment join mid year taking it to 31 you are ok, But the next term you must either have two classes, or split the class some some stay in the class for another year, obviously not doing the same work again.

Savvy_Sue

it is worth doing a search for school appeals, as there were a couple of threads a few months back, either here or on Discussion time I would think.

AFAIK, you can't produce 'new' evidence in your appeal if you were in a position to give it at the time you applied. So, if you decide to appeal on the grounds that your child's medical condition means they should go to X rather than Y school, their argument is that you should have said this in the first place. Of course, if a child's medical condition is diagnosed or worsens after application, then you could give it a whirl.

Appealing can be quite daunting: I did it at secondary level (we were about to move, didn't have an address, and that school would consider us without an address whereas others wouldn't!) and it was DH and I with about 6 panel members.

One primary I looked at said if I applied there I would have to appeal, and I didn't because a) I didn't want to worsen an already overcrowded situation and b) the head got so far up my nose with her assumption that I would definitely want to do this and c) there was a far friendlier school with spaces where my children did extremely well, despite its poor reputation!

salli9

From my experience my LEA will only take childs circumstances into concideration, ie medical conditions, serious family promlems, death of sibling/mother, if a child has been bullied. Also bear in mind they read dozens and dozens of appeals all the time. My DD was refused a place at secondary, out of catchment school. I found another one, meant me driving 20 mins each way, twice a day, but it turned out far better school.

Spendless

My SIL didn't get neice in the secondary school she wished to start off with. (out of catchment). She appealled stating that neice had always been in feeder junior school (SIL had moved out of catchment during these years) and that she worked full-time and that her mum (who did live in catchment area of school) helped with childcare, and that neice could catch school bus to her mums after school, something she couldn't do otherwise.(2 bus rides) Anyway she got in on appeal but a few years down the line neice was unhappy. One of the reasons she didn't know the local kids in her streets (cos they were at the nearest school), she couldn't call on her school friends after school cos she lived in another area 2 bus rides away. Anyway SIL applied and got her a place in the very school she had once dismissed and neice has been a lot happier there.