School appeals - help offered

bonty44

Hi; I wonder why the school places have dropped to 30? If they previously had capacity to teach 45 why is the number smaller now?
Also in the figures you have indicated, there are 31 places allocated, not 30.
If they are saying that they only have 30 places available, then unless one of those places was awarded to a Looked After Child, after the 30 were allocated, then this again is maladministration.

Attendance at Nursery won't make any difference (I was in that situation last year)

Did you fill in the schools' supplementary information form? As it is a church school, it is my understanding that you need to do so.

Did you provide proof of address? Did you ensure that your forms in their entirety were correctly filled in? Did you keep a copy of your form so that you can check?

Sorry to ask such questions but this might explain the non-allocation of a place; if however, everything was filled in correctly, then parents refused admission for their child(ren) may appeal against the decision of the Governing Body. Information on the Appeal Procedure together with an Appeal Form is available from the Clerk to the Governing Body. The school should be able to provide you with that address / contact details.

Also, I would speak to the Headteacher to find out when the deadline for parental responses is; you may find that one or two people decline the places.

thebaileys

Sorry, it was a mistype-the number of catholic children whose address is within the parish was 19.

The head said that when she put in the PAN 2 years ago that the number of applications from catholic children into the school had declined. That is the reason the number has dropped.

Another teacher said that the reason was because they are going to have a new school in the next 2 years, and that is why they numbers have dropped.

So it could be that they are going to have smaller school.

There are not making any teachers redundant, and they have the provision for 45 as that is what they have always taken in.

I filled out the supplementary form, to state why we wanted our son to attend etc...

They also had proof of address, all the forms were completed correctly and I have kept copies.

I have the appeal forms I went first thing yesterday. Just waiting for the arrival of the book to help me.

A lot of the parents are hoping that the head will open up the 15 places, but Im not so sure.

Thanks

bonty44

Sorry, is the PAN set at 30 or 45?

You can find out about the future of the school from the LEA

Good luck!

thebaileys

Hi,

The PAN is 30, they have lost 15 places this year.

I have spoken with the head this afternoon, and have a meeting tomorrow.

Will let you know how I get on, Thanks for your advice.

sal-ad_daze

Hayley, well done for offering this timely advice. This is one reason why I logged into this section as I too sit on Appeals panels as a laymember and helped a few people last 'season'.
If you don't mind I would offer a word of caution; each authority is different and therefore we can only offer general advice here. I know my own authority well and can offer detailed advice for them, but have no experience of say, Kent or the London Boroughs so can only offer general advice.
Good luck to everyone who is appealing, it is a very stressful time.

Savvy_Sue

Igol wrote: »

My GF and I are moving in together in the summer, the idea being to reduce the amount of disruption on the kids swapping schools.
She contacted the LA and told them the situation and that the choice of school originally stated was now totally inappropriate (different town, 50 miles away). Guess what came back yesterday, the local Academy is over subscribed so the youngest has been given the original choice.
Now we have all the fun of appealling or do I enquire if they'll be paying for a taxi each day?

I'm going to be putting the letter together at the weekend anyone got any tips, the urge to swear is quite strong

There may be a timing issue here: WHEN did you notify the change of address? It's possible that they can't just shuffle everything round when a late change of address comes through, but can only consider the information on the form as originally submitted.

However there must be procedures for those who move between applying and starting, so your best bet might be to find out what those are.

Spacehopper101

Hi, I hope someone can guide me a little. Left this far too late, but I have been struggling with getting it right. Basically I can only base my appeal for reception school on it being the closest by far. The offered place is at a school which has Ofsted scores that do not rise above 4, this school is at least twice the distance away. Is it wise to base appeal purely on location ? Any help much appreciated.

Savvy_Sue

Spacehopper101 wrote: »

Hi, I hope someone can guide me a little. Left this far too late, but I have been struggling with getting it right. Basically I can only base my appeal for reception school on it being the closest by far. The offered place is at a school which has Ofsted scores that do not rise above 4, this school is at least twice the distance away. Is it wise to base appeal purely on location ? Any help much appreciated.

AFAIK you can't base it purely on location, unless the school have not followed their own admissions policy.

See this post and the responses from the previous page: it appears that the school have admitted children from group 4, while not admitting a child from group 3 - have you been given similar information relating to how your chosen school has allocated places?

Another thing to bear in mind is that some schools don't have a 'catchment' area which covers the nearest areas. If schools are 'bunched' or widely spaced, School A may have to take children who actually live closer to School B, because if they didn't, then some of the children for whom there wasn't room at School B on distance grounds would have much longer journeys to get to the next nearest school.

Also do not judge a school purely on its Ofsted results - what matters is what the school will do for YOUR child. Mine all went to schools with poor Ofsted results and did exceedingly well - 6s in the days when you could get a 6!

and since 3 is the expected level (I believe), the time for concern is when no-one is getting that ...

thebaileys

Hi,

I have just returned from a meeting with the head.

She states that she had not seen the allocation numbers, and took a photocopy of them.

I challenged the fact that they had allowed in the 10 children from other faiths, over my son, and that the critrea had not been followed.

The head then stated that they had not let the 10 children from other faiths in, and all of the 30 children were Roman Cathlolic, and that the Local Authority had sent me the wrong information.

I came back with, then I will visit the education dept today and get the correct info, as I need this information for my appeal.

The head said there was no need for that and she would ring the LEA and get back to me by Monday with some answers.

I also asked would she go over the 30 places, as she has the space and staff.

She said she couldn't answer this question, and that my son was in the top 2 that were turned down.

I explained they have seen the batispm cert etc.

She also said that because I did the application online there could have been a mix up.

Im sure this is not the case as the details were emailed straight back to me verified and everything was correct.

The Ben Rooney book arrived this morning so I look forward to reading that.

I still don't know whether to call education myself, or wait for Heads response.

Thanks for you help.

yus786

thebaileys wrote: »

Hi,

I have just returned from a meeting with the head.

She states that she had not seen the allocation numbers, and took a photocopy of them.

I challenged the fact that they had allowed in the 10 children from other faiths, over my son, and that the critrea had not been followed.

The head then stated that they had not let the 10 children from other faiths in, and all of the 30 children were Roman Cathlolic, and that the Local Authority had sent me the wrong information.

I came back with, then I will visit the education dept today and get the correct info, as I need this information for my appeal.

The head said there was no need for that and she would ring the LEA and get back to me by Monday with some answers.

I also asked would she go over the 30 places, as she has the space and staff.

She said she couldn't answer this question, and that my son was in the top 2 that were turned down.

I explained they have seen the batispm cert etc.

She also said that because I did the application online there could have been a mix up.

Im sure this is not the case as the details were emailed straight back to me verified and everything was correct.

The Ben Rooney book arrived this morning so I look forward to reading that.

I still don't know whether to call education myself, or wait for Heads response.

Thanks for you help.

Call them yourself - that's what i would do.

We went through an appeal last year which turned out to be successful, so i know what you are going through right now.

All the best and start reading. I booked a couple of days off work to read Ben's book.