Help with school admissions appeal

hjsmum

Hi

I know this isn't strictly a money saving topic (although I hope given the right school that my son will increase his earning potential in years to come ) I wonder if anyone has any advice.

My son attends a playgroup, based in but not attached to, a very good primary school about 10 mins walk away. It's under a different council to us, we're city council and the school is in the county council area. We applied for a place in september but were refused. We appealed and our hearing is on 7th July.

We based our appeal on a few issues. The first being obviously continuation of learning environment for our son. Proximity of the school to both us and his Grandma who cares for him when we are working. The fact that my son is quite shy and we were worried that to start a new school he would struggle to make new friends which may affect his learning. The last point was that the intake is for 40 pupils. As I understand it, primary schools can take up to but no more than 30 pupils per class. This being said, with an intake of 40 they must be spreading this over two classes - in which case why not take 60 and let my son have a place?

My son has been offered a place at another nearby school so does have a place if all goes pear shaped but I would really like him to go to our first choice of school.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can say at the hearing or has anyone had a similar experience and what was the outcome?

Thanks for reading

msb5262

Can you just clarify - is it a playgroup as opposed to a nursery your son is currently attending?

I am assuming your son will be entering reception in September - unless of course he will be entering nursery.

bunty109

There is an appeals thread and I realy suggest you read that. However, you need to read Ben Rooney's book (see Amazon) as that will help immensely. Continuation of learning and being shy are not something that is going to hold sway in an appeal and schools cannot just add another 20 pupils and go over their Published Admissions Numbers so that isn't really an argument either (don't mean to be negative, just honest!). Please take a look at the appeals thread as there's a lot of good advice on there and it will help you to prepare a case.

moneypanicker

I'll be honest - you have an extremely slim chance. You generally only have a chance at appeal if you can prove that places were given out against criteria. These days school places are at a premium and generally you don't get much of a choice unfortunately. I guess you've got nothing to loose by trying but its very unlikely. sorry...

go_cat

What were the admission criteria of the school and did you meet those?

Unfortunately the council takes no account of childcare needs

M_A_R_I_E

Hi.

Again not trying to be negative, but the reasons you have given are not grounds for appeal.

You would need evidence that someone has got their place unfairly and that it should have been yours. Do you know what the admissions criteria is for your area? I know it differs between counties.

City_Girl_2

You can get the Ben Rooney book from the Library, we ordered it to be delivered to our local Library and were going to collect on the day that we got a call from the LEA to say that we had a place:j
Good luck with your Appeal, I had three and a half weeks of no sleep worrying about Appealing and I don't wish that on anyone:(

CITY

gauly

hjsmum wrote: »

Hi
The last point was that the intake is for 40 pupils. As I understand it, primary schools can take up to but no more than 30 pupils per class. This being said, with an intake of 40 they must be spreading this over two classes - in which case why not take 60 and let my son have a place?

You need to find out how those 40 children are taught further up the school. There are two schools I know in my area with an intake of 40. One arranges the 40 children over 1 and a half classes. So, there are classes for year 1, year 1/2 and year 2 with 26 or 27 children in each class. The other school arranges the pupils with mixed classes in every year so that there are exactly 30 pupils per class (ie first class has 30 kids from year 1, next has 10 year 1 kids and 20 year 2 kids, etc).

If the school has the first arrangement with less than 30 children per class you might stand a chance of getting in because the limit of 30 children per class doesn't apply. Having said that, you will probably need some better arguments than the ones you have suggested. The appeals panel won't worry about a child changing school or being shy.

If the school has the second arrangement with 30 children per class then the rule saying no class can have more than 30 children applies (this is true I believe, even if the reception year has smaller classes but years 1 and 2 are 30 each). The only grounds for appeal are then that there was an error allocating the school places. It doesn't sound like there was an error so you would be wasting your time.

TeamLowe

as above, you need to ask the admissions department what happens in the later years, ie if in any year there will be 30 children in the class. if so, what is known as Infant Class Size Prejudice will come into effect, ie that it would be breaking the law to admit more pupils. if this is the case, then the appeal can only be won on two grounds:
1) that the published admissions process was not lawful and/or followed correctly in your case and if it had been lawful and followed correctly your child would have been offered a place
2) that the decision to refuse your child a place is not one which a reasonable person would make in the circumstances of your individual case. this is a very hard ground to win on, it would have to be a very strong case indeed.

if Infant Class Size Prejudice is *not* proven, for example, it was two classes of 20 til year 6, the appeal runs slightly differently and arguably is slightly easier to win. it will go in two main stages:
1) the school will present its case as to why admitting your child would cause prejudice to the education of the other children. for example, an extra child would mean hiring an extra teacher, building a bigger classroom etc. If they can not prove this prejudice exists, your appeal will be upheld at this first stage. if it is proved that admitting your child would prejudice the other children, then it will move on to the second stage.
2) that the personal circumstances of your child's need to attend the school outweigh the prejudice that admitting your child would cause.

about a week before your appeal you will be sent the school's case, which will show not only their argument as to why they cannot admit your child but also how the admission criteria has been applied to your child.

peachyprice

TeamLowe wrote: »

2) that the decision to refuse your child a place is not one which a reasonable person would make in the circumstances of your individual case. this is a very hard ground to win on, it would have to be a very strong case indeed.

Just to add to this point: You cannot introduce further information to be taken into account at the time of the appeal, the appeal will only be based on the information available to the LEA/school at the time of the application.

So, it's no use turning round and saying at appeal that you have mitigating circumstances that would have given you a higher priority had you made the LEA/school aware at the time of application.

TeamLowe

peachyprice wrote: »

Just to add to this point: You cannot introduce further information to be taken into account at the time of the appeal, the appeal will only be based on the information available to the LEA/school at the time of the application.

So, it's no use turning round and saying at appeal that you have mitigating circumstances that would have given you a higher priority had you made the LEA/school aware at the time of application.

part of my role is to clerk and administer the appeals panel and so far i haven't come across this, certainly people have appealed on the grounds that they have now moved closer to the school, but i don't know if those were successful. and certainly parents are allowed to submit as much information as they would like to be considered by the panel. one case was about 150 pages long, i really did feel for the panel having to consider that one!

Of course, it's up to the panel how much weight they give to the case and its evidence, we recommend to parents they give as much as possible as it can't really do any harm, but if a parents case is built on, for example, the child having medical issues which only that school can address, if that information was available at the time of application it would not do the parents' case any good if the admissions team was not made aware of that.