School appeals - help offered

rhianna99

My DD has now been given a place. I had been speaking to the admissions team who asked me why I particularly wanted her to go to that school, I whilst going through my reasons, he picked up on the fact that I mentioned siblings at the school, he said he had no record of siblings, asked me their names and year group. He rang back half an hour later to tell me that had they been aware of the siblings my DD would have got a place and that the school should have made that link clear to them. ( I put the siblings on the form ). He has told the school that they have to give her a place even though it's going to put them over the legal limit per class and I will get my new offer letter in a few days.

I am assuming he knew I would win an appeal on these grounds, but I am so relieved I don't have to go through one.

So anyone who didn't get a place who has siblings at the school should double check that they have linked them. I rang last week and mentioned the siblings but they didn't pick up on it , so I would specifically ask the question!

Savvy_Sue

Note that siblings won't automatically give a place ... in this case it sounds as if the admissions procedure wasn't properly applied but if siblings are a low priority (and they are in some schools!) then it may not make a difference.

bellkat

Hi, I'm hoping that someone could give some advice or thoughts regarding a High School appeal.

My DGD has been declined a place at a Church of England High School. Most of the places at this school are allocated to children who attend church regularly.

We attend church every week, and have done for more years than is required. The church we attend is an evangelical church, but it is considered as part of the Church of England. About 10 years ago an agreement was made between the school and our church that they would accept our children to the school as Anglican applicants, which means they would be placed in the top box

Consequently, in previous years the applicants from our church have been accepted without question, 3 having gained a place last year.

We have since found out from the school that my DGDs application was taken out of the top box and placed in a much lower category, this is why her application was declined.

The school have asked for copies of our church documents to pass to the governors, with a view to moving her up the waiting list, she is currently number 92!!!

We supplied the documents the following day. This was 5 weeks ago and we are no further on!

In the meantime we have lodged an appeal which is due to be heard in May.

Our church has been very supportive, and have agreed to pay for a solicitor. We're not sure if we need one or not?

If anyone has any advice at all I would really appreciate it, sorry for the long ramble and thanks in advance

Kath

Spendless

bellkat - Does your Granddaughter live with you? I'm assuming that's what the acronym DGD (dear granddaughter) stands for. Otherwise I'm not sure why where Grandparents worship would be relevant or is it a typo and you mean DD (dear daughter)? If you could clarify that would be great.

Years ago when my DS had a church school place the application form had parents that worshipped at the church connected to the school as one of the top criterias and then people who worshipped at another CofE church as a category below and worshipping in a different faith might have been lower.Siblings and distance fitted in around these, though I can't remember the order. All the applications that were made using faith grounds had to be supported by a letter from the clergy that they worshipped regularly and I believe at the time regularly was defined as at least once a month for the last x amount of years.

Is it possible you can find the exact wording of the criteria for application under faith grounds for this school and see how much you have adhered to the policy and if the school has correctly followed it?

BTW - A lot of children didn't get in to this school though my son was offerered a place. At appeal it was discovered that the school hadn't stuck toit's own admission policy and people applying on faith grounds hadn't also included a letter from the clergy. When the school admitted the kids left out would have been allocated a place if they'd correctly applied the admission criteria the admissions team told the school they had to take the extra children and employ extra staff for them. Not that it's relevant but I ended up not taking my son's place as a school that couldn't stick to it's own rules didn't appeal to me - perhaps food for thought, depending on what you discover has happened.

Good luck.

bellkat

Hi Spendless, thanks for your reply.

No my granddaughter doesn't live with me. We all attend church together, so her application form related to just her attendance, sorry for any confusion.

Her form marked the top box for church attendance, so we expected her to be accepted for a place, as other children from our church have been in previous years.

It seems that the school have either changed their policy towards our church without informing us, or they have made a mistake by placing her in the wrong category.
It's really helpful to hear your experience, and I can understand why you didn't send your son to that school. We have thought along similar lines ourselves, due to poor communication from the school.

Many thanks again, and I'll let you know how we get on
Kath

emmatthews

If several parents appeal and one of them has found a different reason to the others, if that reason is accepted, would all the other affected parents benefit as well or would their appeal only be considered on the grounds that they themselves submitted?

e.g. If one parent found out the distance calculation was wrong and appealed on those grounds but other parents hadn't realised, would the discovery be applied to their appeals as well (assuming that theirs was also incorrect)?

ETA - Infant class size appeal so any appeal granted would create excepted pupils.

honeypop

bellkat wrote: »

It seems that the school have either changed their policy towards our church without informing us, or they have made a mistake by placing her in the wrong category.

You should be able to check their admissions policy, usually on their website. I don't think they have to notify you if it's changed from recent years, I know our school didn't when our admissions policy was updated so church attendance was given a different priority to previous years.

Spendless

honeypop wrote: »

You should be able to check their admissions policy, usually on their website. I don't think they have to notify you if it's changed from recent years, I know our school didn't when our admissions policy was updated so church attendance was given a different priority to previous years.

This is true. My son's Secondary school moved siblings down a category and children out of catchment but had attended a feeder Primary up (ie they switched the categories round) but there was no 'announcement' tp prospective parents that they had done so, it was up to whoever was filling in the admission form to check the school's current admissions policy.

FBaby

Something similar happened in my county. The CofE school in the next town became very popular as the local (and only non catholic secondary school) got put on remedial measures and remained so for a number of years. The CoE school accepted kids from different church affiliations in a wide geographical area. The school accepted 25% of local kids of any faith and 75% of faith. For many years, this wasn't an issue as the school wasn't very popular. However, this changed when a new Head came and turned the school around making it the best performing one in that town. Suddenly, more local kids wanted to go there whilst more kids from faith from other towns also chose it as first choice and it soon became very oversubscribed.

Most kids in my DD's year from an affiliated church got a place, including those who 'discovered' faith only in the previous year or so, but this changed the year after. Firstly they decided that applications should be 50% local kids as the area has seen a very large housing development and needed places, therefore reducing faith applications, with restrictions on affiliated churches. They argued that those from other churches still had a chance of a place within the 50% non faith, but realistically, all these were filled by students within the catchment area.

That year, only half of those who applied from DD's previous school got in, all CoE and on the 'right' side of town.

IAmWales

emmatthews wrote: »

If several parents appeal and one of them has found a different reason to the others, if that reason is accepted, would all the other affected parents benefit as well or would their appeal only be considered on the grounds that they themselves submitted?

e.g. If one parent found out the distance calculation was wrong and appealed on those grounds but other parents hadn't realised, would the discovery be applied to their appeals as well (assuming that theirs was also incorrect)?

ETA - Infant class size appeal so any appeal granted would create excepted pupils.

Appeals for the same school/ year should be heard by the same panel. If the panel become aware that distance calculations were incorrect this information would be considered for all appeals (and all on the waiting list).

A good appeals panel should be aware of any miscalculation without a parent raising the issue. Not all are that efficient though.