School appeals - help offered

Sarah_Dylan

Hello,
My name is Sarah and I am in need of some extra help
and guidance.
I recently purchased the book, 'How to win your
school appeal', whilst it has given me sum useful tips
and an in depth view of the laborious process of
appealing, I still can't help feeling completely out
of my depth as we are in a frustrating situation.
My son Dylan has just turned four and goes to our
catchment Primary school nursery .
At the time of application Dec 2006, we lived outside
of the catchment area roughly a mile out. Since then
we have moved into the catchment area (literally over
the road from the school). I have been completely
honest with the Admissions and Exclusions Team from
the start but was led to believe that a solicitors
letter stating we had purchased or new home would be
enough to help secure him a place. Not so.
This letter was sent to them in February this year and
we received our admissions letter rejecting him from
all three of our choices on 16th April. Two weeks
afterwards we moved into the catchment area. We had
been planning to do so for a while but couldn't sell
our house in time to put the new catchment address
down on our application form.
The reasons stated for our first, second and third
choices refusals were:
There were more applicants than places available at
this school and your application cannot be offered as
determined by the over-subscription criteria, and the
infant classes have already reached the legal limit of
30.
As soon as we moved into our new home I sent the
Admissions and Exclusions Team proof of residency.
Now we are in a very precarious situation as we have
not secured a school place for Dylan anywhere.
We really need him to get a place at our catchment
school as it offers an out of school care scheme which
means that I can get back to work.
I am a freelance Graphic Designer but have regular
work from a Design company based in Sheffield and will
need to go there at least twice a week which I will
not be able to do if I can't secure him a place. More
importantly as we knew our move was imminent I
specifically enrolled him in the nursery so that he
wouldn't have to suffer the horrible insecurities of
having to move to another school at reception age.
We have a large network of friends who all live close
by now who have been friends since University and
consequently our children have known each other since
birth most of whom now attend our catchment primary school:eek: or
have recently been given places at the school through
this years selection.
Virtually all his peers in his Nursery class have been
given places at the school and it seems really unfair
that he can't make the transition into Primary School
life with the friends he has always known.
I really need some advice as to what you think our
best approach is considering our particular case. Will
there be any leverage now that we live in the
catchment area (Just over the road from the school)?
Our appeal date is June 29th and we haven't submitted
any supporting documents yet.
Sorry to ramble on like a mad woman!!
It's just that it seems so unfair when some people
have been offered a place who live out of catchment
and don't have siblings at the school.
Please help, any advice will be gratefully received.

Christmasshopper

Sarah Dylan - You are not under any legal obligation to send your son to school until he is five. Can't he stay at the nursery and you could apply for a place for him in the next admission year which starts in September?
Have the local authority made you an alternative offer to your first 3 choices?

Sarah_Dylan

Christmasshopper wrote: »

Sarah Dylan - You are not under any legal obligation to send your son to school until he is five. Can't he stay at the nursery and you could apply for a place for him in the next admission year which starts in September?
Have the local authority made you an alternative offer to your first 3 choices?

I may well have to do that!
He can stay at the nursery until he would be due to start reception which for him (being a summer baby) is after the Easter holidays 2008, so if the appeal fails he can stay on the waiting list until the 11th hour. As far as the waiting list goes he is 2nd on the list which is quite encouraging but obviously that could change at any point (he was 1st on the list but got bumped down last week)
The Local Authority haven't offered us any other choice at all which is slightly worrrying but maybe this will help at the appeal?!

Christmasshopper

Sarah_Dylan wrote: »

I may well have to do that!
He can stay at the nursery until he would be due to start reception which for him (being a summer baby) is after the Easter holidays 2008, so if the appeal fails he can stay on the waiting list until the 11th hour. As far as the waiting list goes he is 2nd on the list which is quite encouraging but obviously that could change at any point (he was 1st on the list but got bumped down last week)
The Local Authority haven't offered us any other choice at all which is slightly worrrying but maybe this will help at the appeal?!

I am not sure why you are appealing now when he isn't due to start school until Easter 2008. On what grounds are you basing your appeal?
Do you know why your son has moved down a place on the waiting list?

Sarah_Dylan

Christmasshopper wrote: »

I am not sure why you are appealing now when he isn't due to start school until Easter 2008. On what grounds are you basing your appeal?
Do you know why your son has moved down a place on the waiting list?

Our Loacl Authority (Nottingham) requires us to apply a year in advance. So for his school year everyone has already applied.
The reason he was bumped down a place is actually really annoyiny because when we moved to our now new address my husband was having a friendly chat with our new neighbours and told them about our situation, they then realised they hadn't applied for thier son (who is the same age as our son,but goes to aprivate nursery) so they put in a late application and got turned down. Our catchment school is over the road to the right of us and they live next door to our right so they are slightly nearer also they have an older son who is already at the school.
I am aware that my son doesn't legally have to start school until he is five, but he loves nursery and can't wait to get there everyday and wants to be with his firends.
We are basing our appeal on the fact that we told the Admissions and Exclusions team (via solicitors letter) that our move to our new address was iminent six weeks before we recieved our desicion letter and that they led us to believe that this would help with our application. Also we are going try to impresss upon them that not allowing him to stay with his friends would be detrimental to him as he has a large network of friends there as do we, that we also see socially on a regular basis.When he first started nursery he was horrendous for about three weeks and cryed everytime I left him but having his friends there helped him immensely and he now loves it. To move him out of that environment which he now thrives in would seriously affect his transition into Primary school life and cause him considerable and unnecessry upset. It would be awful for him knowing that all his friends that he has ever known can stay but he can't. Also, having these friends at the school is invaluable to me as I am going to need help with after school care which they have offered to give and I need to utilise the out of care scheme in order for me to be able to go to Sheffield for work. I don't drive so obviously that care needs to be close to home and on days where for whatever reason I can't get back to pick him up on time, I can call on these friends to get him for me as they are all living close by to us and school.
I am also looking into the schools PAN to see if there's anything to work on there.
Am I missing any tricks?
Thanks for replying, its so nice to have someone who's been in this situation to talk to about it with.

Christmasshopper

I wish I could think of something to help you. From what I remember reading in Ben Rooney's book I think the number of children in a primary class is fixed and cannot be altered. So even if you make a good case that your son needs to go there, they cannot take an extra child.
I think you need to try to cast doubt on the fact that the school is actually full. To do this you will need to find out the facts and figures for how the PAN was assessed and check that they haven't made a mistake. Has any building work been completed at the school since the PAN was last set? Do they have room for an extra class? How many teachers do they have? How many children are there in each class already?
Unfortunately, I don't think it will matter how much you want your son to go there. If they don't have the space and they are not allowed to take an extra child you cannot win unless you show the school isn't actually full.
Luckily he is near the top of the waiting list and people do move away. There are 9 months to go before your son is due to start school so there must be a good chance he will reach the top of the waiting list before then.
I think my appeal was easier than yours because I was appealling to a secondary school. Even though the school was actually full we won because my daughter's need to go there was greater than the school's need to not take her. I don't think this counts for primary schools.

Sarah_Dylan

Christmasshopper wrote: »

I wish I could think of something to help you. From what I remember reading in Ben Rooney's book I think the number of children in a primary class is fixed and cannot be altered.

Hi Christmasshopper,
I got a bit of inside info today from the school secretary. She told me that at the moment 59 places have been accepted which means there is one remaining place, it's a shame were not 1st on the waiting list anymore. She also said that that number was fairly typical this time of the year and to just hang on and see who actally turns up in Sept. Also she told me that in year 1 there are 56 pupils (6o max intake)so room for 4 more, Year2 has 51 kids so 9 places free and roughly the same kind of numbers for Years 3,4,5,6. So the school is not at full capacity. I don't know how to utilise this info because it was very much off the record. Should I bring up the fact that kids who aren't in the catchment area got places and maybe ask them to explain why them over us? I sent an email to Ben Rooney to outline my situation at help@winyourschoolappeal.co.uk last week but unfortunately have had no reply. I'm sure I read on one of the previous messages on this thread that someone found his phone number through a website. I've googled him and only came up with the email link above.
I feel like I'm clutching at straws a bit.
Thanks again for reading my rambling messages!!

silvercar

robcar wrote: »

Hi firstly thank you for your help and time. I am in the position where my son has left his independent school through mutual agreement at the most inopportune moment, the end of year 10. The nearest school and the one where he would like to go to because he knows many of the pupils is less than 2.5 miles away.
We were informed that this school is full and we have been offered a school 19 miles away in another town where he knows no one.
What would your recomendations be

I do feel for you, this is such a difficult time. A friend had a similar problem and found that schools are very unwilling to take children at this point because they are in the middle of their GCSE courses. Trying to match the courses up to the ones the pupil has already started in subjects like history is very difficult. Schools with one eye on their league tables do not like taking pupils after the end of year 9 for this reason. I would ring the school yourself, befriend the secretary and try and find out about courses. Although schools can claim to be full, in Year 11 they are in subject groups for nearly all the lessons, so the chances of the history and geography and science etc all having exactly 30 in the class is small. You need to persuade the headmaster to give you the place in the interest of your child - after all you are only asking for the place for one year in the first instance.

My friend used the arguement that all schools have to take "problems" on and to take a child at the start of year 11 is a problem in itself therefore the head should take her son and use this next time the local authority tries to impose a "problem" child on him. In the end he accepted the arguement.

He did end up dropping two subjects because the courses didn't match up and he had missed a bit of school when he was between schools. There was a discussion on whether he should drop back a year - admission at the start of year 10 would open more doors, if you fell that may be appropriate.

Sarah_Dylan

Christmasshopper wrote: »

I wish I could think of something to help you. From what I remember reading in Ben Rooney's book I think the number of children in a primary class is fixed and cannot be altered.

Hi Christmasshopper,
:j :beer: :rotfl: :T :cheesy:
We got a letter in the post this morning offering my son his catchment school place!!!! HOORRAAYYY!! What a releif.
Thanks for your advice:T

bunty109

Sarah_Dylan wrote: »

Christmasshopper wrote: »

I wish I could think of something to help you. From what I remember reading in Ben Rooney's book I think the number of children in a primary class is fixed and cannot be altered.

Hi Christmasshopper,
:j :beer: :rotfl: :T :cheesy:
We got a letter in the post this morning offering my son his catchment school place!!!! HOORRAAYYY!! What a releif.
Thanks for your advice:T

Oooh that's brilliant news!! What a relief for you! :beer: