School appeals - help offered

DonnaHall

hi
there is another local school we are actively looking at - it is even further away though.

DonnaHall

oh also bubby - cannot use ofsted as we are in scotland - cannot see any listings for schools in scotland. we are going with the local council reports on the school.

anyone know where I can get better reports for scottish schools?

Bubby

It is good to have a back up plan. I know how stressful schooling can be but as long as you find another school that you are nearly as happy with then the blow won't be as bad if you lose at appeal.
If you look back on this thread you will see that there is someone who has written a book about appeals and he is highly regarded. Worth bearing in mind though that if they have acted in accordance with their admissions criteria and they are at their maximum capacity of 30 then no appeal will be successful:(

DonnaHall

Hi Have just found out that our council take the closest school as your catchment school (like many) but safety of children getting to the school is not taken into consideration. So crossing a busy 40mph road with no crossing surely must be grounds for an appeal?

silvercar

DonnaHall wrote: »

Hi Have just found out that our council take the closest school as your catchment school (like many) but safety of children getting to the school is not taken into consideration. So crossing a busy 40mph road with no crossing surely must be grounds for an appeal?

IS this secondary or primary school? For primary school parent would be expected to accompany the child to school and whether there is a crossing or not is irrelevant. Some authorities use "safe walking route", others use "as the crow flies", others use all normal roads and pathways.

DonnaHall

hi silvercar - this is a primary school. I know we would be taking him when he's little but other older kids from our area manage to walk to the schools at that end of town together because its safe.

dollydoodah

shaki02 wrote: »

Hi, Yes we are definitely in the catchment area and I have confirmed this with the school, we are halfway( .5miles) between the school and the boundary and on the same side of the school. So far I have not heard anything form the school even though I have requested for appeal application mid April.
Thanks..

In our school, the appeal forms are sent by the council and not by the school - on your letter where you were allocated a school there should be a telephone number. You need to contact them ASAP and get that form as appeal deadlines are coming up very soon.

dollydoodah

shaki02 wrote: »

Hi, Yes we are definitely in the catchment area and I have confirmed this with the school, we are halfway( .5miles) between the school and the boundary and on the same side of the school. So far I have not heard anything form the school even though I have requested for appeal application mid April.
Thanks..

Looking at the criteria on which they have refused you a place, no-one in category 3 or below should have got into that school. I don't think anyone at the school will tell you whether they have or not - we certainly wouldn't - but the school does have to declare the number of children admitted in each category to the appeals board. If they have admitted children from category 3 and below, you stand a very good chance of winning at appeal as they appear to have refused a category 2 place for your child.

If they haven't even got to category 3 as all places were allocated in Category 2, the chances of you winning at appeal are slim as it does state that preference will be given to nursery enrolled children in their criteria.

silvercar

DonnaHall wrote: »

hi silvercar - this is a primary school. I know we would be taking him when he's little but other older kids from our area manage to walk to the schools at that end of town together because its safe.

I doubt an appeal along the lines that older children from other areas can walk and your child can't. It is upto individual parents to judge when their child is old enough to walk the route they have to walk. Appealing on the grounds that he could walk to a different school at the age of 9 or 10 unsupervised but couldn't walk to the allocated school is unlikely to succeed.

That said, the school or the local authority must have a policy on how the route is measured, whatever that may be. So find out what it is and go from there. Your only grounds would be if they say it is measured by a safe walking route, then you can argue that your safe route is long because of the fast road. In my area people appealed on the safe route grounds and it resulted in them being eligible for council provided transport to school rather than a change of school place.

summer_born

hi there, we were told we're outside the catchment area of our school by 0.007 miles(nearly 10 meters).

also, we're not offered a place in the other 3 schools that were on our list, but instead offered a school which is 2.2 miles. as we both are working we've declined this offer and have decided to appeal.

any tips for a successful appeal will be much appreciated. we're going to argue that we should have been offered a place at a school within walking distance and that this is going to break our links with the local community. any other ideas? many thanks.