School appeals - help offered

thebaileys

Thanks for your advice, I have went ahead and called the local education, who advised me that the breakdown of allocation numbers came from the school.

I told the clerk that the head states the numbers are wrong.

The LEA are calling me back, once they have contact the school.

To be honest I just feel like I am being fobbed of, but Im not going to be.

I have started reading Ben Rooney's book, and it is very good.

Fingers crossed I can start getting some answers.

bonty44

Good luck, thebaileys, something somewhere isn't adding up and you need those figures from the LEA.
If you have to go to Appeal, pm me if you want
Does that mean your son is now 2nd on the waiting list? Also when is the school's deadline for acceptance of places? You may well find that some parents have hedged their bets and applied across county to different schools (if so, is there a neighbouring county with a later deadline?)

thebaileys

Thanks Bonty44, the head says my son is 2nd on the list, but I have nothing in writing.

There is something up, I honestly feel like the head is attempting a cover up, and that they have let in 10 people from other faiths.

The nursery has children from different faiths, and I am all for children growing up and respecting other faiths, what I can't get my head round is how catholic children have been turned away when the admission's critrea states priority is given to catholic children.

Also the deadline for acceptance is the 14th March, however I think all of the parents will accept there places.

bunty109

thebaileys wrote: »

Thanks Bonty44, the head says my son is 2nd on the list, but I have nothing in writing.

There is something up, I honestly feel like the head is attempting a cover up, and that they have let in 10 people from other faiths.

The nursery has children from different faiths, and I am all for children growing up and respecting other faiths, what I can't get my head round is how catholic children have been turned away when the admission's critrea states priority is given to catholic children.

Also the deadline for acceptance is the 14th March, however I think all of the parents will accept there places.

Please don't give up and make sure you go on the registered for continued interest: even in 6 months til September people do move out of the area, especially when children are still young and they are a bit more mobile than when they are doing GCSEs. In my son's year, twins were admitted but then later didn't take up the places, leaving 2 spaces, so by all means appeal, but make sure you go on the waiting list! Good luck!

thebaileys

Hello,

Thanks for your support it means a lot.

Im not going to give up, this seems to be taking over my life, but all I keep thinking about is my son, and how much I have to fight this for him.

bonty44

Yes, it will take over your life, but as you have said, you have to do this for your son.
I hope I never have to go to Appeal ever again, it is not a walk in the park, but I am glad I fought with my all for DS2.
You're absolutely right, if their admissions policy clearly puts Catholic children in categories 1,2, 3, then only when they have admitted all applicants from these categories can they start to admit children from lower down the list. If they have more applicants than places for Categories 1/2/3, then they need to start applying 'distance from the school to home' rules, and the LEA will have available a copy of the map used - you may want to check that they have calculated your home-school distance correctly and that they haven't missed an alternative and shorter route
GOOD LUCK
Just out of interest, what is their rule for siblings?

thebaileys

Hi,

Sibling Link is Cat 3 on the admissions list, if you live within the parish or Cat 6 if you live outside of the parish.

There is a little boy who is in cat 6 like ourselves, he has 2 sisters at the school and did not gain a place at the school. I can understand it will be much worse for them, as my son is an only child.

We live 1.4 miles from the school, so I will check the map.

My main aim at the minute is to find out why the admissions critrea has not been applied correctly. As if it had my son would have most certaintly have a place.

Thanks

Liili

Please could anyone help. I used to live in a catchment that is oversubscriped, and this is where my Year 3 daughter attends. I now live out of the catchment and my younger daughter is due to start school in Sept and criteria 3 (sibling) applied to her. The school has only one class per year and I am terrified that she will not go to the same school as her sister.

My youngest daughter has a medical condition that is stress related could I argue this at the appeal, or am I just fighting a losing battle. My two daughters are very close and the eldest understands her sisters illness and comforts her when you needs it. I realise that my youngest will not get into the school on the criteria 3 but surely the appeal panel must take serious consideration of her illness and the impact it on her health over local children in the area. I will have medical evidence of this. Am I kidding my self because the class with have already 30 pupils why would they take my daughter over local children. I also have my sister available to look after my daughter if she becomes ill and she is in the school catchment. I work therefore cannot get to school very quickly. Any help would be appreciated

Fly_Baby

Liili wrote: »

Please could anyone help. I used to live in a catchment that is oversubscriped, and this is where my Year 3 daughter attends. I now live out of the catchment and my younger daughter is due to start school in Sept and criteria 3 (sibling) applied to her. The school has only one class per year and I am terrified that she will not go to the same school as her sister.

Siblings are usually placed higher in the priority list than any other criteria (after children with SEN and looked-after children). So does it mean that all 30 children who did get a place at this school were siblings too but live closer to the school than you are?

Did you ask the school for information about their allocation of places for next year - it could well be a mix-up.

Savvy_Sue

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Siblings are usually placed higher in the priority list than any other criteria (after children with SEN and looked-after children). So does it mean that all 30 children who did get a place at this school were siblings too but live closer to the school than you are?

Not necessarily true any more. In fact if you look at the criteria in this post (again), there's no mention of siblings at all.

Am I right in thinking you are going to appeal now? Did you include medical evidence with the original application? My understanding is that you can't normally introduce new evidence at appeal, but I could be wrong about that.