School appeals - help offered

LIllylid

Hi,
My Son has not been offered the school of his choice and instead offered a school (which stupidly I put as last choice) as didn't think he would get it as other closer schools were awful. I'm appealing but it's a hugley over subscribed school do not sure what chance I have. Do you have any tips. My son will have to get a bus to his offered school but is terrified and anxious at the thought of this as we had an incident on a bus before christmas where a huge fight broke out and there were grown men fighting ... he's terrified and losing sleep already over going to this offered school. I'm beside myself.

Savvy_Sue

LIllylid wrote: »

Hi,
My Son has not been offered the school of his choice and instead offered a school (which stupidly I put as last choice) as didn't think he would get it as other closer schools were awful. I'm appealing but it's a hugley over subscribed school do not sure what chance I have. Do you have any tips. My son will have to get a bus to his offered school but is terrified and anxious at the thought of this as we had an incident on a bus before christmas where a huge fight broke out and there were grown men fighting ... he's terrified and losing sleep already over going to this offered school. I'm beside myself.

Secondary?

First, try to not to communicate your anxiety to your son as it won't help.

Second, get Ben Rooney's book (few posts up) and see if you have any grounds for appeal.

Spendless

MrsTandCo wrote: »

And I spoke to Max's headmistress today and she said that the allocated school is a feeder for the most awful secondary school, (there was an article recently where our council actually paid 6 families a grant to home educate, to save them having to send their children there). The Section 8 Ofsted report reads like every parent's worst nightmare, so not only will accepting our allocated school cause us significant hardship, but it could also negatively impact Max's education into secondary school too.

Well not necessarily. Again you need to know how Secondary school places are allocated in the area you're moving to. You may well find that catchment trumps feeder school and that you're in the catchment of the Secondary you''d like. I also wouldn't get too hung up on what you're reading about schools as things can change. Once you actually live there, make appointments and go and look round the schools. My youngest attends an Outstanding Secondary school, sounds fantastic doesn't it? If she wasn't already in yr10, I'd be thinking about pulling her out (long story, which I won't go into here)

Savvy_Sue

Spendless wrote: »

I also wouldn't get too hung up on what you're reading about schools as things can change. Once you actually live there, make appointments and go and look round the schools. My youngest attends an Outstanding Secondary school, sounds fantastic doesn't it? If she wasn't already in yr10, I'd be thinking about pulling her out (long story, which I won't go into here)

That's so true about the change, isn't it? At the primary stage, mine were all at schools which people were quite shocked I'd chosen, because of past reputation, but they were excellent for my three. And the schools people expected me to send them to were, as far as I could see, trading on past reputation too.

But I was glad we moved across the country when we did, because a new head was appointed just after we'd left. Let's just say children were moved elsewhere in droves, and from talking to friends who were still there I think mine would have been too.

Where we moved TO had a long-standing shortage of secondary school places: so many parents had historically chosen to go private or send their children out of area, and the secondary nearest to us was very much messed about and failing. It's now very popular, and doing very well, but it took a number of local parents committing to it plus a lot of new staff to make anything of it.

silvercar

MrsTandCo wrote:

At the start of his next school year in September, how does that application work, if all the children in the current year 4 group, just go up to year 5. Presumably, we'll be in the same boat in terms of there being no places?

Theoretically in the same boat. In practice a lot of people higher up the list would have sorted out places elsewhere or already been offered places at your favoured school.

By the time you get to year 5, there will be people who have remained on the list but if actually offered a place would decide it's too difficult/ unsettling to move schools for 2 years and will turn the place down. You will also get people like yourself who have moved into the area joining the list.

silvercar

LIllylid wrote: »

Hi,
My Son has not been offered the school of his choice and instead offered a school (which stupidly I put as last choice) as didn't think he would get it as other closer schools were awful. I'm appealing but it's a hugley over subscribed school do not sure what chance I have. Do you have any tips. My son will have to get a bus to his offered school but is terrified and anxious at the thought of this as we had an incident on a bus before christmas where a huge fight broke out and there were grown men fighting ... he's terrified and losing sleep already over going to this offered school. I'm beside myself.

Assume this is secondary if you are considering your son getting a bus. Remember this is the first round of places being offered. There will be some movement in lists over the coming weeks.

LIllylid

Thanks for this ... I definitely have not passed on my anxiety to my son ... I was very aware of that. I have ordered the book .. thank you so much :-)

Savvy_Sue

MrsT (and others for whom this might be relevant): if the school / LEA won't tell you where you are on the waiting list, a better question might be "if no-one was added to the list with a higher priority than us, is it likely or unlikely that a place would become available?"

As already said, the list is fluid rather than set in stone. The question I've suggested might give you an idea of whether you've got a chance, or no chance via the waiting list. The school will know what their historical movement is each year, and whether they have a stable or unstable population.

I found this when asking about secondary schools years ago: the school wouldn't say I had no hope of getting my child in, and it was at a time when catchment areas weren't fixed, but the secretary did say "historically children who live north of this road and west of that road are unlikely to be admitted."

MrsTandCo

Thanks for that savvy sue,

Sorry, I'm on my phone and can't quote easily.
Yes, that definitely might be a better question. I'm still waiting to hear back from the school with my long list of answers to space, the meaning of life and everything. :rotfl:
They have been quite helpful so far though, so I'm sure I shall find out at some point where we find ourselves.
I have found out some quite useful snippets doing my detective work this week.

1. The Academy Trust have published their 2017 accounts and Funding Agreement, so I have learnt that the Academy has a Reserves Policy, whereby they will hold revenue funds back in reserve for any unforeseen eventualities like pupil number fluctuation, in order to protect the aim of the Trust to continue to provide for existing pupils. I thought this would help in case they claim they can't afford Max's place, because he's come in part way through the year after places have already been funded. The Funding Agreement also says when deciding the level of reserve funds held back, they've considered 'potential reduction in income due to fluctuation and variation of pupil numbers in the locality'. I could go on... there's so much info to take into account... :eek:

2. Also, the General Annual Grant, which is the Academy's main income, can be used to support additional school places and can be rolled over and amalgamated between academies if part of a multi academy trust. Our preferred school is run by a trust that runs two local schools and I can see from their accounts that this GAG balance is pretty healthy and more than cover the cost of educating my DS. They can't have spent it all, as it's paid once a month, in twelve equal installments. Also, there's an adjustment called PNA (Pupil Number Adjustment), that will pay an additional amount of grant money to cover an increase in pupil numbers that could not be taken into account with the previous year's census. Hoozah! :T

3. I've also found a LA document relating to maladministration in appeals cases and the number of complaints made in 2014, so I know historically what areas the LA have ballsed up on previously and can keep an eye out for any errors made with when dealing with our case.

4. The preferred school have twice been denied planning permission to add additional parking spaces to the school and as such, parking locally is an issue at school times. I've run through past correspondence and found a letter from the Head that states his disappointment that the general local perception is that there are a lot of cars due to a lot of pupils coming from out of catchment area. The letter says he's proud to take 100% of pupils naming them 1st preference that live within catchment and although he can't predict newcomers to the area, he'd always do what he can to maintain this position. So, that's promising too.

Tonight, I 'trapped' Max in the bath and asked him questions about what he likes/ dislikes at school, how he would feel about going to our allocated school, the facilities they and our preferred school have. Think I have a couple of nice quotes that convey who he is and how our preferred school would best fit him.

Did anyone visit their preferred and allocated school with their DC to see what each could offer? Can this be arranged during term time so that the child can have a look too, as Max is struggling to form an opinion on where he wants to go, having never set foot in either school. Fair enough.

Thanks if you read all that. Believe it or not, that's the shortened version!

Savvy_Sue

I honestly can't remember whether my visits were with or without DCen, but I'd have taken a dim view of any school which said no to a request to visit WITH them. I do remember that half-term was different here to what it was there, so we had a pre-move holiday here for a week and I definitely made visits then.

I am not sure how much weight (if any) would be given to a child's (alleged) quotes. I'm not saying you're making it up, but how do they know you're not making it up?