School appeals - help offered

blibyp

Hi, Can anyone help, ?
Primary School Admissions,
My Daughter has just been turned down from our only choice school, her brother is in year 2, it is a CofE school, she has been on the 'list' forever, We live 0.2 miles away, It was our only choice as using selection criteria we were in unless there were sixty other children with siblings at school who lived closer (impossible we back on to the playingfield). The wife compleated application online (big Mistake!) we then did not worry about it untill we got email say we had not been sucessful! It appears that , although the wife is sure she compleated online application correctly ,including that we were choosing school because it is a faith school,when it was processed it did not contain this info, as the school is a Church school this is their top priority for selection and therefore we ere put to the back of the line.
Firstly any one have similar experiance this year with online application,
Secondly the more I look into it the more i feel like there is little chance of sucsess from appeal, due to max 30 in class, I know there has been more than this in previous years due to appeals , so I guess that may help.
Any advise on how to approcah appeal, anyone been sucesful over religon criterea? apparently there are 4 children in total in the same situation, we would all have been accepted if the box was ticked! Any help most welcome, Thank you

iwantoneplease

Could someone please help me write an appeal letter. My daughter is due to go to infants in September I put down 2 school but she hasn't got my first choice.

I'm useless at writing letters so was hoping someone would help.

My reasons for appeal are,

Practicality
I'm a single working parent the first school choice has a breakfast club facilities which would mean I could drop my daughter off then go to work. the school allocated does not have this so I would have to employ a child minder to take her to school.

Also working so close to her school would mean that if anything was to happen to her I could be there within a matter of minutes.

Distance
The first choice school is at the back of where I work and approx 0.69m from home the allocated school is 1.34m with a main road to cross.

Results
The first choice school has far better Ofsted and SATs reults than the allocated one.

Behaviour
My child is an only child and is quite easily led, speaking to other members of the community behaviour is an issue at the allocated school and I'm concerned that my child would be brought into this and not supported.


I have contact my first choice school who said they were full but some children may not want to come now so the best thing to do is to appeal.


My Child is 6th on the list if a place becomes available will it go to the child in first place or a child that has appealed?

If anyone has any past experences of school appeals or is good at writing letters I would appriciate some help.

Kind Regards

sal-ad_daze

iwantoneplease wrote: »

Could someone please help me write an appeal letter. My daughter is due to go to infants in September I put down 2 school but she hasn't got my first choice.

I'm useless at writing letters so was hoping someone would help.

My reasons for appeal are,

Practicality
I'm a single working parent the first school choice has a breakfast club facilities which would mean I could drop my daughter off then go to work. the school allocated does not have this so I would have to employ a child minder to take her to school.

Also working so close to her school would mean that if anything was to happen to her I could be there within a matter of minutes.

Distance
The first choice school is at the back of where I work and approx 0.69m from home the allocated school is 1.34m with a main road to cross.

Results
The first choice school has far better Ofsted and SATs reults than the allocated one.

Behaviour
My child is an only child and is quite easily led, speaking to other members of the community behaviour is an issue at the allocated school and I'm concerned that my child would be brought into this and not supported.


I have contact my first choice school who said they were full but some children may not want to come now so the best thing to do is to appeal.


My Child is 6th on the list if a place becomes available will it go to the child in first place or a child that has appealed?

If anyone has any past experences of school appeals or is good at writing letters I would appriciate some help.

Kind Regards

Hi there,

I hate this time of year on appeals panels, 'qualifying measures' which is the rule they use to limit infant class sizes to 30 is a b*gg*r
I will pm you later with ideas for a letter, it needs thinking about but honestly I wouldn't hold my breath unless you can get the LA on maladministration, can you prove that a child allocated a place lives further away from the school than you do? It will be your home address that they use and that will determine which is your 'in zone' school', if that is the 2nd school then you will have been given priority for that one above your 1st preference school if you were an 'out of zone' application there.
As for being on the waiting list, a place will not be offered at the school until it goes under the Planned Admission Number, if by some miracle appeals are granted and the number goes above the PAN then the LA will not offer a place until the number goes under the PAN, confused yet?
The Appeal panel will try and help you all they can but unfortunately their hands are tied by the law.

Sorry I couldn't give you good news

Blipyp sorry I can't really help you, I don't sit on VA or VC appeals where the rules are slightly different due to the nature of the school.

sal-ad_daze

slindac wrote: »

following advice from our GP we are appealing for our most local all girl school on medical grounds. it's just horrible for the children, having to feel this much stress at such a young age. the general problem isn't just that there aren't enough good schools for our kids, its that there simply aren't enough school places at all in some cases.

You will find, unfortunately that advice from a GP is not enough for an admission to be considered on medical grounds. There needs to be an SEN statement specifically naming said school.
I have sat on a number of appeals where children with medical conditions put a particular school as first preference but didn't get a place because the school wasn't names on a statement.
Being honest, going to appeal is the only way a particular school can be allocated without statements.
Make sure you have a really good case as to why no other school will be able to deal with your daughters medical needs, they may argue that as long as a school is well informed they will be suitable for your daughter.

Good luck.

sal

Tracymae

Hi there Sal,

We live in Scotland so I guess although the rules may be slightly different, the appeals process and panels should work the same way?

We have been told our daughter can't get into our local school on the basis the council "would have to employ an extra teacher".
Having checked with the head mistress of the school, the class we want our daughter to join (P1 class) has 25 pupils accepted already. In my initial appeal letter I stated I knew of a family who unfortunately couldn't take up their place (leaving a space free), I contact the school and informed the head of this and she confirmed with the parents this was indeed the case. It seems though that she might have given that place now to someone else :rolleyes:

Anyway thats neither here nor there really, as far as I can tell the only class size under law is via the 1999 education scotland act which states 30 pupils to a single teacher.
The council are working to guidelines from the Scottish Executive 2007 leaflet saying class sizes for P1 should be no more than 25.

So our arguement is going to be that the council should not be using a guidance leaflet as a legally binding document and over-ruling the legal ruling from 1999.

My questions to the spokesman are as follows-

1. Is it true that the The Education (Lower Primary Class Sizes) (Scotland) Regulations 1999 (SI1999 No. 1080) were made under the 1980 Act and are relevant in this regard? They establish that the maximum size for a primary one class conducted by a single qualified teacher is 30 pupils. It follows that when the maximum size is exceeded, an additional teacher must be employed by the education authority is this true ? (the answer to this is YES)
2. Do you believe that a guidance letter, or agreement between the Scottish Government and local authorities, can legally over-rule statutory regulations? (yes or no doesnt matter really)
3. Should the appeal committee decide today that K**** could attend G***** primary school would an additional teacher actually have to be employed? (the answer to this has to be NO because even the 2007 S.E.E.D. State that 'excepted' children do not count toward the class numbers, by gaining a place through appeal K**** would be classed as an 'excepted child'.)
4. Should the appeal committee decide today that K****would the council have to employ an additional teacher in future years? (again the answer to this is NO as the class sizes for P2 upward is 30 also)
5. Would K**** getting a place at G******school have an effect on the council budget for schooling?(again the answer to this is NO as an 'excepted' child she would have no effect on the official school figures)

I am certain we have a very good case (there have been a few cases in Scotland last year were this arguement has been fought and won in court).What would be helpful is an idea of the questions that may be asked of us. The school we are trying to get her into is the school her sister went to (she missed out on a sibling place because her sister left for high school August 2008), it's also a faith school and we are not religious but have a fairly good reason why the children are not baptised (my husband parents are both ministers of a different faith).
Any help or advise would be most welcomed.

red_fox

Hi

I feel really desperate I don’t know what to do next. I applied for 4 schools and was rejected by all of them. The council has offered us the worse school in the borough that has a lot of behavior problems and is a bus journey away. I have to work so I think it’s impossible to get my younger son to nursery, then get my older son on the bus to school then to get to work. I am on all the waiting lists for all the schools and would like to appeal but I don’t think I have a case. I wouldn’t mind if I had got one of the choices

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated

petesmith0071

can anyone help me please.

my son has`nt got into the same school as my daughter.

the school he got into starts and finishishes at the same time as my daughters and is quite a distance away from each other. this would make it imposiible to pick them up at the same time.
we are appealing against this decision. but we are just outside the catchment area of the school(credit crunch forced the move.enough said)

can someone just clarify the position on siblings. the school admissions code states that siblings should be given priority to ensure the stability of the child and the family.

were as the local government priority list puts siblings at number 4 on the list and catchment area in 3rd place.

the school list of admissions says that 0 siblings got into the school and 30 places were given to the catchment area.

surley they should put a few places for siblings. i know of 3 mothers at the school with 1 or 2 other children in the school which reside in the catchment area and have not got a place at the school.
PLEASE HElp i`m going crazy reading the schools admission code+the schools appeal admissions code and the SSFA 1998.

thanks

longbaygirl

Slightly diferent query, would be grateful for advice. Trying to get my ds into school nursery starting sept (he will be nearly 4) , but have been refused because it is an oversubscribed voluntary aided catholic school. (we are regular worshipers at local CofE church)

My ds has dyspraxia and his consultant at the hospital thinks going to nursery will help his development.

If consultant writes a letter saying this, and identifies the school nursery by name, will the school re-consider our application, or will it make no difference because we are not Catholics?

This school nursery is our nearest - within 3 minutes of our front door, and it offers high quality support for all children, including those with SEN.

bonty44

I don't think it will make a difference, longbaygirl; they tend to only take note of exceptional circumstances if the child concerned has a statement of SEN needs, in which case the LEA will name the appropriate school.

Yusra1973

:eek:

This is my first time posting, although I have read this thread many times. I have read the book, sought as much advice as possible and compiled our appeal. However, I still have a few last minute queries if anyone could help.

(1) Do I need to submit my appeal before the hearing or is it ok to just turn up with it on the day? My individual appeal is on Wednesday so what happens if I should have submitted it and now there is not enough time to do so?

(2) The LEA sent its case over 7 days ago but their reasons were somewhat vague. They listed that their facilities were under pressure etc etc but did not provide any evidence to support this. Should they have included their net capacity form? If so, are we within our rights to request this form? If so, can anyone tell me what particular legal right this comes under in the Appeals Code of Practice. I did request a month or so ago but the person I spoke to didnt really seem to be aware that we had a right to request it. What is the right way of obtaining this form?

Thanks