PLEASE HELP! Appealing Childs Primary School Place

Spendless

simsimmy wrote: »

I'll do that tomorrow morning as I'm becoming more and more disheartened about the whole thing. Our second choice school was undersubscribed and its likely they will still have places available come September. I think i'll look into other schools as well as its becoming increasingly clear that i don't really stand much of a chance at appeal.

Thank you for all your comments and advice. Its been really useful.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Why have you been allocated a diff school if your 2nd choice is undersubscribed? Why wasn't you just allocated your 2nd choice?

NBirdy

I understood it that the poster HAD been offered a place at their 2nd choice, but has since declined it. However as it's undersubscribed then they may be able to get that back to ensure their child has at least got a place somewhere whilst they do their best to get a place at their 1st choice instead?

Dustykitten

I am not sure the advice that you would have to go through the whole process again next year is correct. AFAIK you cannot reapply next year as you will be applying out of year group. You would need to apply for an 'in year' place. You say you are on the waiting list, do you know where you are on the list? The lists are often not set in stone, ie people can move into the area and go above you but it would give you an idea of your chance of this school.

Good luck, see if you can visit some other schools too. If you are going to have to travel it may be that you would prefer to travel to a different school.

daska

pollys wrote: »

I think I am correct in saying that children have to start school in the term they make 5, so he wouldn't miss the whole reception year.

pollys

This is incorrect, he doesn't have to start at all, there is no legal requirement for a child to attend school.

gadgeteer_2

The other thing which hasn't been mentioned yet is that if the first choice school is full (which it pretty much will be short of someone being offered a place and declining/moving out of area etc) then the infant class size rule will kick in.

This makes it practically impossible to get a reception aged child into a class which is full.

daska

gadgeteer wrote: »

The other thing which hasn't been mentioned yet is that if the first choice school is full (which it pretty much will be short of someone being offered a place and declining/moving out of area etc) then the infant class size rule will kick in.

This makes it practically impossible to get a reception aged child into a class which is full.

Except via appeal which can override it and force the school to employ additional teachers/assistants. (As mentioned earlier, DS2's Reception class had 32 children assigned to it by July of last year - it caused horrendous problems with the parents of children not assigned a place complaining that the staff : pupil ratio was sufficient for them to offer 28 additional places to those turned down - that didn't happen of course!)

Incidentally, it's the same if the child has a Statement of SEN, the school can be forced to take them and increase staffing to cope.

gadgeteer_2

And the chances of winning an appeal when the LEA defends it on the grounds of the infant class size rule is not good.

A friend of mine a few years back employed the services of a professional who specialised in school appeals. Despite a mountain of evidence that admitting his DS would not adversely affect the others education, that the school grounds and classrooms were big enough etc. The LEA defended their decision based on the infant class size rule. Appeal denied.

Yes an appeals panel can overturn the decision. It's just in my experience and from what I've heard very unlikely to.

daska

gadgeteer wrote: »

And the chances of winning an appeal when the LEA defends it on the grounds of the infant class size rule is not good.

A friend of mine a few years back employed the services of a professional who specialised in school appeals. Despite a mountain of evidence that admitting his DS would not adversely affect the others education, that the school grounds and classrooms were big enough etc. The LEA defended their decision based on the infant class size rule. Appeal denied.

Yes an appeals panel can overturn the decision. It's just in my experience and from what I've heard very unlikely to.

I'd agree that the chances of winning an appeal are very unlikely, especially if the only obvious reason appeal is convenience, but it can happen. As I understand it our local council actually breached it's own admission procedures which meant the parents had very good cases.

simsimmy

Hi - I've had some sound advice from this thread recently and am now back with more questions.

We have rejected our allocated infant school placeand are planning on appealing for our first choice school. We know this is going to be really hard to do and win but we have to try. I just wanted to check if anyone knew anything about the qualifying measures argument. Our school of choice has 9 classes of 30 children but a qualified teacher ratio of 23:9. The department of Education states that they have 11.3 Qualified full time equivalent teachers. Does that mean they have the capacity teaching wise to add another 7 children per class?

Also we've been told that as we've rejected the place offered our LEA do not have a duty of care to provide education for our son and we'd have to home school him. That is not a feasible option as we both work . We have a private school within walking distance but financially there is no way we could afford this even with the bursary offered. Does anybody know of any organisations which help financially towards education costs in this instance. Its not ideal but We're trying to look at all options.

This whole situation is affecting us all so much as we only have the one little one and feel as though despite moving into catchments, sending him to the linked pre school and becoming commitee members we have managed to fail our little one somehow.:(

balletshoes

by all means appeal, but realistically the only way you'll win the appeal is if the LEA hasn't applied their admission policy correctly with regard to your child.

As I understand it, you have declined the place your child has been given at your 2nd choice school? Have you visited the 2nd choice school, spoken to the teachers, observed the kids in class?
I understand the issues with getting your son to the 2nd choice school, have you looked into a childminder who can drop off/pick up in the area? How you get your child to school on time is not the LEA's concern at all, and they won't be remotely interested in any problems this causes you.

If you can't afford to send your child to private school, you can't get him into your first choice LEA school, and you can't homeschool, what other options do you have but to accept the 2nd choice school and keep your son on the waiting list for the 1st choice?

In your shoes, I'd accept the 2nd choice (after visiting it and spending time with the staff there), make sure my son was on the first choice school waiting list (and find out how high up he is on the list), and spend from now until September sourcing a childminder in the area who is prepared to do the drop-off and/or pick-up for you.
Nothing wrong at all in appealing to the first choice school, but as I said, you have to focus on whether the LEA has applied their admission criteria correctly, they are not concerned with why the 2nd choice is not suitable.