School appeals - help offered

MissA123

Sorry to keep banging on, however its just come to light that a parent emailed in to the school after their child didnt get a placle for the school, they queried how many children from outside the Borough were awarded a place and they were offered a place straight away. Isn't this going against the admissions criteria? 

silvercar

MissA123 said:

Sorry to keep banging on, however its just come to light that a parent emailed in to the school after their child didnt get a placle for the school, they queried how many children from outside the Borough were awarded a place and they were offered a place straight away. Isn't this going against the admissions criteria? 

Depends on the admission criteria. You would expect a query to be met with an answer, though I wouldn’t expect the answer to be relevant. Residence of a particular Borough was ruled unacceptable a long time ago. Google ‘Greenwich school admission ruling’ if you want to see the details.

silvercar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Judgement

You can have catchment areas but not borough restrictions. 

Wilaron

Dear all, I found this helpful discussion online. We are going through the appealing process for a place in year 5 (against a prejudice case) right now for in-year admission having just moved home. Basically we contacted 4 school closest to our new home but they are all full. We picked the nearest one to appeal which is also a very good school (converted to academy about 4 years ago).

I contacted the school today to request relevant information (such as number of pupils by year group and class size etc) to inform our preparation of the case but the school administrator replied that they are unable to provide any information to us. The school also asked us to contact the county council. I am puzzled as a blunt refusal to provide any info to appellant is against the guidelines in the 2012 Code of Practice and I assume the school must know better than me on this.  The only reason I can think of is that I am following up with the wrong contact (say the council is acting as the admission authority, not the school)?

I then contacted the Democratic Services of the council to confirm who is the right contact on behalf of the admission authority on this matter, but thought I would also ask for help here assuming someone can offer some thoughts or similar experience? Our hearing is on the 20th so there are only a few days left before I have to submit our case so any help or idea is appreciated.

Thanks

sheramber

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-admissions

 

Academy admission appeals complaints

Wilaron

Wilaron said:

Dear all, I found this helpful discussion online. We are going through the appealing process for a place in year 5 (against a prejudice case) right now for in-year admission having just moved home. Basically we contacted 4 school closest to our new home but they are all full. We picked the nearest one to appeal which is also a very good school (converted to academy about 4 years ago).

I contacted the school today to request relevant information (such as number of pupils by year group and class size etc) to inform our preparation of the case but the school administrator replied that they are unable to provide any information to us. The school also asked us to contact the county council. I am puzzled as a blunt refusal to provide any info to appellant is against the guidelines in the 2012 Code of Practice and I assume the school must know better than me on this.  The only reason I can think of is that I am following up with the wrong contact (say the council is acting as the admission authority, not the school)?

I then contacted the Democratic Services of the council to confirm who is the right contact on behalf of the admission authority on this matter, but thought I would also ask for help here assuming someone can offer some thoughts or similar experience? Our hearing is on the 20th so there are only a few days left before I have to submit our case so any help or idea is appreciated.

Thanks

I made some progress on getting information about the school by telling the council school appeals team that the school is not supplying anything I asked for. The appeals team agreed to give me the statement they prepared for the admission authority 3 days earlier than they planned which contains most of the information I asked for. I have two questions on the information received and wonder if any one can help.

1) we are appealing for a place in year 5 from Sep. The school currently have a PAN of 60 and only 59 pupils in year 5 from Sep. However, they have 61 in year 4 (from Sep) with one pupil on EHCP working a year below although has a place in year 5. This means their pupil number in year 5 is actually 59+1=60.  I wonder if there is any angle that I can argue for our case as I assume the individual working a year below would be taught with the year 4 hence whatever resources or teachers they have at year 5 only have 59 pupils to deal with, which is below the PAN. Does anyone know how this works or whether my argument stands?

2) the statement prepared by the council appeals team identified a number of schools with place available that are 2 to 2.5 miles away. For work / education purpose both parents are not able to accompany him to school regularly (work or study 40miles away). 2 miles are a long walk for a 9-y-o but I can't find a legal limit on the age from which a child can walk to school alone. There is a statutory walking distance (3miles for over 8) beyond which the council can provide transport so I can't use this to help.  How do I argue a case against this? Safety? crime? Our preferred school is only 200m walk. Really frustrating

Thanks in advance

Tina098

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 really do hope you (or anyone else ) will be able to advise. 

I and my two boys (5 and 14)  are relocating to a different city. I have applied for the Y1 and Y10 school places in year transfer. Managed to get the space to the local primary school for the younger boy, but no space for Y10. I have had 3 high schools on the list and neither has accepted it. now the Leeds city council are extremely unsupportive and have not offered a place at ANY schools for Y10. 

There's a great school within 2 min walk from our new home - literally around 300 hundred yards. The school application came back saying there's no space and placed us on a waiting list. I am wanting to appeal the decision purely because the school is right next to the house, as well as it is one of the best ones in the area. 

I am seeking some help and guidance with the appeal process. 

The key point is that we currently do not have ANY school for him in the new city and the council suggesting to just wait until September, but this option to me sounds absolutely crazy! 

Please help. 

Spendless

Tina098 said:

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 really do hope you (or anyone else ) will be able to advise. 

I and my two boys (5 and 14)  are relocating to a different city. I have applied for the Y1 and Y10 school places in year transfer. Managed to get the space to the local primary school for the younger boy, but no space for Y10. I have had 3 high schools on the list and neither has accepted it. now the Leeds city council are extremely unsupportive and have not offered a place at ANY schools for Y10. 

There's a great school within 2 min walk from our new home - literally around 300 hundred yards. The school application came back saying there's no space and placed us on a waiting list. I am wanting to appeal the decision purely because the school is right next to the house, as well as it is one of the best ones in the area. 

I am seeking some help and guidance with the appeal process. 

The key point is that we currently do not have ANY school for him in the new city and the council suggesting to just wait until September, but this option to me sounds absolutely crazy! 

Please help. 

Hi, Hayley stopped posting on here many years ago. I am speaking as someone whose child had problems in the latter part of yr10 and into yr11 and can tell you it can be difficult to get a school to accept a new pupil after yr10 starts! I would get back onto the LA and ask which schools are not full for your older one's year group. Then look at those schools. Don't hold out for the 'perfect' school. 

Mrsn

You can only appeal once per school year so if you are planning on doing this then make sure you have everything set out in your appeal that will be relevant.

Have you been placed on the waiting list for the school that you originally applied for? I would encourage you to get that sorted if possible. 

In the meantime the council has a duty of care to place your child at a school for their education. Please note this does not have to be a school of your choosing just that they must fulfil their obligations to offer your child a place. 

You will need to keep onto the admissions team to find out where does have some spaces and work around that. If offered something I would take the place given because you are still able to go ahead with an appeal even if a place has been allocated. As for the actual appeal itself I’m assuming it will be based on the school being “full” the school will need to make their case as to why they cannot accept your child and what detriment it will be to the school if they were to accept an extra student. Your case will need to be made on why this particular school is the one that will meet your child’s needs (living close to it isn’t usually a strong enough reason to overturn the refusal) it would also be useful to find out how mid term applications are allocated to make sure due process has been followed.

Tina098

MrsnSpendless  thank you so much for your reply! I did not realise. I am working through the ages reading all of the messages others have left (finding it very useful). 

LCC did not offer any places at all and that is the biggest worry/problem that I currently face. I have spoken to a gentleman over the phone and his only suggestion was to ait for September and try calling schools again to see if any has any places. 

I have already contacted around 5 other schools in the area, and neither has had any spaces, obviously, it is a tricky situation with it being a school holiday. 

I was trying to find information about how many children are in the class currently and see if I could argue my case that way,  but I am unable to find any info other than the shools capacity. 

In terms of the school that is just around the corner from our home. I have sent another email to confirm my son is on their waiting list. Again, I am getting mixed messages as schools are telling me that the waiting lists are scrapped on 31 July and I would need to reapply again, but the LCC is telling me that my child will stay on the waiting list. 

I am most definitely will try and appeal their decision, but not even sure where to start with arguing my case? Other than it's just a no-brainer - the child lives yards away from school.  We are new to the area so obviously making friends that are living in the same area is also important. 

I genuinely thought that the only problem I will have will be packing and unpacking... gosh how wrong was I, I did not realise there's such a big issue with schools to a point where I am thinking if it's even worth moving at all!