School appeals - help offered

sheramber

You can only appeal against the decision if there was an error in the appeal process. 

Savvy_Sue

kconnell82 said:

My daughter attends a catholic school. We applied for secondary school places and was offered a school 18 miles from home. Meaning my daughter would have to leave the house at 6.15 am to then endure 2.5 hours on 3 different buses and a 20 min walk to school. 

We have appealed to the school where all of the children in her class was offered a place. 

They declined the appeal. 

My daughter is in remission from a brain tumour and her main symptoms are seizures. 

This information was attached to the appeal and yet they have still declined it! What do you advise? 

First, you ask to have her put on the waiting list. Then you ask where she is on the waiting list: if she's in the top 10, there's a much better chance that she'll get in than if she is 100, because families move, change their priorities etc. But bear in mind that that your position on the list isn't the only thing that matters: for example, if a Looked After Child moves into the area, then they may be given higher priority. 

Then, you check the admissions policy for your chosen school, and see if it has been properly applied. For example, when I moved my son to a catholic primary school, the priority was something like

• baptised catholic children of practising catholic parents
• baptised catholic children of non-practising catholic parents
• baptised children of parents practising other christian traditions

and so on through those with siblings of various faith positions, until finally we had

• the unbaptised

Which was unfortunate, as our christian tradition does not baptise babies, which technically made us lowest priority of all in a popular school. And when it came time to move to secondary school, there was little priority placed on 'feeder schools' - ie no guarantee that he would get into the catholic secondary school, just because he'd been at the primary school. 

So, if you are practising Catholics, and your daughter was baptised, then your position is likely to be stronger than if you are NOT practising Catholics but just preferred a catholic school. What does the policy say? 

I think your next question would be, is my daughter safe to make that journey unaccompanied? And if she is not - because of the seizures - then you would ask the local authority to make transport arrangements for her. That might concentrate their minds, although it may not get you a place at the school of your choice. 

I would also look at what other schools are accessible. You can ask to go on the waiting list of any of them as well. 

pinkshoes

kconnell82 said:

My daughter is in remission from a brain tumour and her main symptoms are seizures. 

This information was attached to the appeal and yet they have still declined it! What do you advise? 

If you haven't already done so, make sure her name is on the waiting list and find out how far up she is (as mentioned above).

I would then focus on her medical issue. You need to contact your local authority and state that given the distance and public transport not being direct, it is not possible for your daughter to travel to this school due to the risk of her having seizures, so as they have placed her somewhere so far away, can they please arrange a taxi to take her directly to school daily. 

They cannot possibly expect an 11 year old to travel for over 2 hours with multiple bus changes with a medical condition involving seizures. 

Are there any other nearer schools that you can put her name down for?

sheramber

Have you checked your LA’s criteria for school transport? Surely 18 miles is bound to qualify.

Savvy_Sue

sheramber said:

Have you checked your LA’s criteria for school transport? Surely 18 miles is bound to qualify.

Of course it's possible that there are 'school buses' if a lot of children have to travel from out of area. At that distance the LA would certainly have had to pay for transport in the past, I am not sure if it is still a legal obligation to do so.

It is definitely worth looking into, although depending on the severity of the seizures it still may not be safe or practical for the OP's DD. 

happyandcontented

kconnell82 said:

Hi I know this is an old thread but praying that you reply. 

My daughter attends a catholic school. We applied for secondary school places and was offered a school 18 miles from home. Meaning my daughter would have to leave the house at 6.15 am to then endure 2.5 hours on 3 different buses and a 20 min walk to school. 

We have appealed to the school where all of the children in her class was offered a place. 

They declined the appeal. 

My daughter is in remission from a brain tumour and her main symptoms are seizures. 

This information was attached to the appeal and yet they have still declined it! What do you advise? 

Do you know why your daughter did not get a place when all her classmates did? Are you in the catchment of this school? Were you in the catchment of the feeder Primary? On what grounds was the appeal denied?

Not aimed at you, but generally, I have seen parents move house during the time a child is in a specific feeder Primary school catchment area and then wonder why the Secondary school place does not materialise. Sadly, if you have reasons for wanting or needing a specific school you need to factor those into any move.

silvercar

Savvy_Sue said:

sheramber said:

Have you checked your LA’s criteria for school transport? Surely 18 miles is bound to qualify.

Of course it's possible that there are 'school buses' if a lot of children have to travel from out of area. At that distance the LA would certainly have had to pay for transport in the past, I am not sure if it is still a legal obligation to do so.

It is definitely worth looking into, although depending on the severity of the seizures it still may not be safe or practical for the OP's DD. 

There is a legal obligation on councils to provide transport when the nearest suitable school (with a place) is over 3 miles.
If this school at 18 miles away is the nearest one with a place, then the council should be paying for transport. That can take any form - coach/ bus pass/ shared taxi/ petrol allowance. If there is a nearer school but the parents don't want it for whatever reason, the obligation goes away.
If however you are choosing this school as the nearest catholic school then the likelihood of the council paying for transport is lower. You wouldn't qualify if there was a nearer school that wasn't catholic. This is because the council are only obliged to pay for you to travel to a faith school if you are on low income and the school is less than 15 miles away. Full rules here:
https://www.gov.uk/free-school-transport

Savvy_Sue

That's useful from Silvercar. 

When DS1 was at a Catholic secondary school, there were buses: you had to book a place if you wanted to use these. The diocese paid for the Catholic children, and empty spaces were available to the non-Catholics for a fee. We were always warned that there was no guarantee of a space each year if more Catholic children started using that route. 

It never occurred to me when we moved that the new LA would pay for transport, as we did not choose the nearest school. But because it was a faith school and we'd said that was important in our appeal, it was deemed to be the nearest suitable school. This was for a Year 8 entry. 

I don't think they are still that generous, but I could be wrong. It was a CofE school, and we're no more CofE than we were Catholic ...

silvercar

The rules did change. At one point you were eligible for free transport to your nearest faith school, then it changed to only those on a low income and only if the school was less than 15 miles away. The rules changed at the same time to allow help with transport to schools any of the 3 nearest free schools for those on a low income. This was a deliberate move to prevent places being denied to low income families, as they couldn’t afford the transport costs, just because they couldn’t afford to live near good schools.

Fraz800

hayleyjg said:

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, 
I know this is a old post but I was wondering if you could offer some advice. I have two girls, my eldest daughter wasn’t initially offered her first choice place at school, but one week before the schools began we received a letter from the first choice school offering a place for my daughter which we accepted. Now its the time for my youngest daughter to start reception school and we applied to the same school to which we have not been offered a place. Doesn’t siblings have a priority in school placements? As its near impossible for then to attend different schools. We have appealed this and still waiting to hear back. Can you offer some advice on what steps to take in regards to this. Thanks again.