School appeals - help offered

hayleyjg

Please ignore previous post - cut and paste wrong thing!!

Christmasshopper –What should happen is that any building works should be surveyed and included in the schools Net Capacity calculation which should be re-calculated on that basis. However it is possible that the capacity and the PAN will not increase as a result of building works particularly if there were mobile classrooms on site that have now been removed. Also the Net Capacity calculation gives a maximum capacity for the school but allows for the final figure to set within 10% differential from the maximum figure so although the maximum capacity may change, the PAN can remain the same.

A couple of questions worth asking at stage one of the appeal are:
The PAN for 2007 entrance would have been set in Spring 2006 – did the school take the new music suite in consideration when setting it?
Does the Net Capacity calculation include the music suite and has the school been re-surveyed to include the music suite. Has the overall capacity of the school increased as a result?


As for your daughter’s class attending once a week for gymnastics – I wouldn’t make that point. Secondary schools do not timetable their rooms to be used all of the time in any event. The DfES recommends that rooms in secondary schools should be timetabled for 78% of the time although many schools have a much higher room usage than that.

Donny etc – I do have a soft spot of Donny as the first album I ever bought was by him and this was the first pin-up type picture I ever had on my wall. Although this soft spot was sorely stretched when my daughter was young and she become obsessed with a film version of Joseph, which starred Donny as Joseph. He was very good but when you’ve watched as many times as I had too, it all became a bit much.

Anyway back to the serious stuff, I’ve checked out Tiffin’s admission criteria and it is, as you know, an entirely selective school. There is a section in the School Admission Appeals Code of Practice about appeals for selective schools (paragraphs 4.62 to 4.65) and the relevant bit is paragraph 4.65 which says

“4.65 Panels may take account of parents’ arguments as to why their child did not perform their best on the day of the test, or of any evidence to support their contention that the child is suitable for admission to a grammar school or to a 6th form. However, the panel’s role, as for appeals to other schools, is to consider an appeal against the decision to refuse admission and to determine whether the child should be admitted to the school. The panel should not attempt to make its own assessment of a child’s ability, but may need to decide whether the original decision that the child was not of the required standard was reasonable. In doing so, it may want to consider whether any review process (see paragraph 4.62) was carried out in a consistent and objective way, and whether testing arrangements were fair e.g. reasonable adjustments made for children with disabilities (see paragraph 2.13).”

So you can make an appeal on the basis that your son did not perform his best on the day of the test. Your arguments will be much stronger if you can produce some evidence of the possibility of Aspergers ect. Possibly a letter from his current teacher or the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) at his current school. You would also need to persuade the Panel that he could cope in very academic school. I feel that it’s always worth appealing as what have you go to lose!

In any event you need to look into the possibility of getting him a proper diagnosis so that he can get extra help at whatever school he goes to.

hayleyjg

Karrie - the reason why your son was refused a place should have been in the letter you got on 1st March regarding your applciation. You should also receive a copy of the school's detailed written case at least days before the hearing. Although is is useful to go to both stagesof the hearing, the crucial one for you to attend is stage two as that is when you put your individual case to the panel.

I would suggest you start keeping a diary of incidents involving your son and these bullies to use as evidence at the hearing. Also have you involved or considered involving the police? Letters form the police are always good evidnece to produce at an appeal. Finally I would strongly suggest that you get your doctor to write a letter in support of your appeal. I know it's difficult but remember that other parents' will do anything to get an advantage so you need to use whatever you can.

Karrie

Thanks Hayley. I realised I jumped the gun in posting here. I just read that book and you are right. I just panicked I guess. So I won't be penalised for not attending the session on 23rd? My private hearing is on 24th and I won't miss that one.

Yes I have thought of involving the police but I find the whole thing scarey and hate confrontation. I find it difficult to cope on a normal day to day basis at the minute let alone having to deal with the police. I did want to go and speak to one of the boys mums as I was so angry but a neighbour advised me not to as "she's a bit of a nutter." I can do without it.

I will make a note of any other incidences.

Thanks again.

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

thanks hayley that is great

HappySad

Thanks a lot for your information......

nazi_2

hey
i want to know about working inschool as teaching assistant.nowadays i m pregnent bt i still can work. can u guide me and help me as well

Karrie

Hayley - I have pm'd you :rolleyes:

mums_on_strike!

Hi all,
Have read all of your posts on this site with great interest - can't believe this has been here all this time that I have used the web site, and I didn't know!!

I am part way through the appeals process, having read lots and lots of government docs on the subject (boring or what?!). Now that I have heard from my local education authority that my hearing, along with several other parents (commonly known as a 'group hearing' - so much for privacy!) is to be held in just over a week!
I am undecided whether to challenge the fact that I have only received 9 days (5working days) notice, when the Schools Admission Code clearly states that I would receive "not less than 14 days (10 working days) notice".
It will be a struggle to get my additional info to them by their requested date - 2 days away - although not impossible.
Has anyone else challenged the admin process in these matters? Or am I just better off saying nothing and trying to hit their deadlines (being rather annoyed in the process!)?
My concern is that I fail my appeal because of time restraints - and I can only challenge the panels decision on Judicial Review, of which I sincerely doubt!!

Any advice please?
Many Thanks.

hayleyjg

It's funny but I have just had the same problem arise at work. An appeal was set giving less than 10days notice and a parent complained. Our solution was to move the appeal date. I would think that if you complain at the lack of notice, they will do one of three things: move the date of the appeal (difficult once you have found a date suitable for all the panel, the clerk, the lea rep and the headteacher), ask you to sign a waiver saying that you accept that you will note have the full notice period or say that you can have a separate appeal at a later date. I think that it is unreasonable for you to waive your right to the proper notice period as this is a large group transfer appeal and unless you have put your appeal in late, there isn’t a good reason for this. I would normally only expect to ask a parent to sign a waiver when they put in an appeal and we happened to be having an appeal for the same school already organised within the next two weeks. Also don’t accept a later appeal date as by then the first panel may have allowed some appeals which will increase the number in the year group you want thus increasing the prejudice to the school.

The other option is to say nothing and go to the appeal. If you are not successful you could complain to the Local Government Ombudsman that there was maladministration at the appeal. It’s unlikely though that the LGO would find maladministration on just the lack of notice period but there were other procedural mistakes, he may find in your favour. The LGO can only investigate maladministration – that the relevant procedures weren’t followed, which caused you injustice. The relevant procedures for school appeals are contained in the School Admission Appeals Code of Practice 2003. The LGO doesn’t look at whether the panel made the right decision and cannot over turn a panel’s decision. That can only be done by a judicial review, as you know. The LGO can order a fresh appeal, financial compensation and some rare circumstances that a place at the school is offered.

Hope this helps.

bsnw22

hayleyjg wrote: »

I work for an local authority in the school admissions team and have many years experience of school appeals (both admissions and exclusions) so if anyone has any questions I would be happy to help.

hi hayley we are in the process of appealing against the decision to send our daughter to the nearest single sex school. our daughter has been through a very rough time with bullying from local youths. she has also had a couple of berevements within four months of each other for who she was very close and it has really affected her bad. our g.p has recommended councelling at the hospital because she is showing symptomes of stress due to the admissions procedure. she has been allocated a mixed school were the local boys who have been bullying her go. our g.p has supplied her with a letter strongly recommending that she attends a single sex school to help her develope emotionaly. we also have a letter from her current head teacher recomending she attends this school as this school has strong pastoral care. she even had an operation for plastic surgery to her ears (her own choice) because she was being targeted because of it. we feel so strongly about this that if the appeal is not succesful i will remortgage the house and pay private. we have sent our appeal in to the panel and await our daughters fate.