School appeals - help offered

go_cat

chrismal wrote: »

I was hoping to get some sound advice on school appeals and propose my case to you guys to get some opinions too.

Our son was declined a place in our preferred school, we're not sure on what grounds. We are disappointed, we feel they haven't even read our reasons for wanting to send our son there. I'll outline my argument below.


THE SCHOOL;

Our preferred school is a catholic faith school.

It is also the school of excellence in the Spanish language in our city. It's Spanish program is very comprehensive, with a full time Spanish teacher and other members of staff being bilingual. Other schools only offer 15 minute lessons a week. (We know this as my wife is primary school Spanish teacher, she gives these lessons personally.)

It is in walking distance of all my family members, we live a little further, one and a half miles away.


OUR SON;

Our son was christened in the local parish associated with the school.! We attend the church service on Sundays and out sun the Sunday morning preschool session.

He is also mixed race, British - Hispanic, his mum is South American, I am British. No other school in the area can cater for his language and culture needs. Children of other ethnicities have their needs catered for, why not mine?

We only live one and a half miles away from the school, and both have cars. Taking him in the morning will be no problem, but picking him up will be as we both work until 5:30pm. We will be relying on my family members to collect him from school 3 nights a week until we find a property in the area, we're currently looking.

They are our main reasons, religion, language studies and having someone to collect him.

Any help or honest opinions would be appreciated. !

Chrismal

What is the schools admission criteria - do you meet all of that ? If not then regardless of why you want him to go its going to be a lot harder to win an appeal

chrismal

They have to be of catholic faith, children baptised in the local parish stand a better chance. They do take non catholic children too.

go_cat

What order priority do these come they will be numbered in order of importance

Are siblings a higher priority than the faith element?

Have you looked if the school is over subbscribed?

chrismal

Where can I find out if the school is over subscribed? I wasn't aware this was available information.?

go_cat

If you search for your local councils admission policy for this years intake it should give last years applications v acceptance plus appeal numbers + success

flea72

chrismal wrote: »

Where can I find out if the school is over subscribed? I wasn't aware this was available information.?

your declination letter, will state the reason for not being allocated a place

if it was due to the school being oversubscribed, then you need to start playing detective to see who has been allocated a place and then working out if you should have come higher up the list than them

as for appealing, your reasons are not grounds for appeal. however, until you confirm the selection criteria and how you fulfil them, we cannot help you further

F

flea72

chrismal wrote: »

we feel they haven't even read our reasons for wanting to send our son there. I'll outline my argument below

your reasons arent taken into account. its all based on how you fulfil the selection criteria


THE SCHOOL

It is also the school of excellence in the Spanish language in our city. It's Spanish program is very comprehensive, with a full time Spanish teacher and other members of staff being bilingual. Other schools only offer 15 minute lessons a week. (We know this as my wife is primary school Spanish teacher, she gives these lessons personally.)

just because a school has a badge of excellence, does not mean other schools in the area are lacking. a funding review, could alter this from one year to the next, as could a change of staffing. one could argue your family environment is more than enough multi-culturalism for your child

It is in walking distance of all my family members, we live a little further, one and a half miles away

childcare arrangements are of no concern to the school, but the distance is so small, that the school could argue its not impossible for your relatives to travel the 1.5miles to your sons given school


OUR SON;

Our son was christened in the local parish associated with the school.! We attend the church service on Sundays and out sun the Sunday morning preschool session.

so if this is part of the selection criteria, then you must see how many other 4yr olds there are in your church, and why you probably didnt get a place?

No other school in the area can cater for his language and culture needs. Children of other ethnicities have their needs catered for, why not mine?

do not rely on schools to cater for your childs cultural needs. you will be sorely disappointed. so i take it your child speaks very little english? and his mum doesnt speak to him at home in her mother tongue? his needs will still be catered for at a non-denomination, english speaking school. im not sure where you get the idea that children of other ethnicites have their needs catered for, when they dont fulfil the selection criteria, and dont live in catchment

until we find a property in the area, we're currently looking

you wont get a place even if you move nearer. all it will do, is move you up the list, should someone relinquish their place

They are our main reasons, religion, language studies and having someone to collect him.

religion - not a reason for appeal, its just a preference
language - same as religion
childcare - you work, you can pay for it - working is a lifestyle choice, if you didnt work, you would be free to do the school pick-up and drop-off

i know it all sounds harsh, but this whole process was brought in to make it an even playing field for all. we can all come up with reasons we think are valid for us to be granted a place, but unfortunately, unless you fulfil the selection criteria and live in the grounds of the school, you cant ever be guaranteed a place at your school of choice

F

balletshoes

chrismal which other ethnicities/cultures, as opposed to faith schools, are catered for in your area? If my DD's language/cultural background were to be fully catered for at her school, they would teach Arabic or Turkish - and they don't, I never expected that to be a feature of her school.

chrismal

flea72 wrote: »

religion - not a reason for appeal, its just a preference
language - same as religion
childcare - you work, you can pay for it - working is a lifestyle choice, if you didnt work, you would be free to do the school pick-up and drop-off

i know it all sounds harsh, but this whole process was brought in to make it an even playing field for all. we can all come up with reasons we think are valid for us to be granted a place, but unfortunately, unless you fulfil the selection criteria and live in the grounds of the school, you cant ever be guaranteed a place at your school of choice

F

First off I have never seen such poor advice in my life Flea72. I'll ignore your advice. And your quote "work is a lifestyle choice" work is a moral right and obligation. I can only assume you are unemployed from that absurd comment.

Savvy_Sue

chrismal wrote: »

First off I have never seen such poor advice in my life Flea72. I'll ignore your advice. And your quote "work is a lifestyle choice" work is a moral right and obligation. I can only assume you are unemployed from that absurd comment.

You may find, however, that Flea's advice is technically correct, although it might have been worded differently. There are very limited grounds on which you can base an appeal, and I am not sure that you have any reason to expect success. You may not like the advice given, but I suggest you get hold of the Ben Rooney book which people refer to throughout this thread and see if that helps. You would need to establish either that the process was not correctly followed, and that if it had been your son would have a place at the school you've chosen, or that there is some compelling reason why ONLY that school can meet your son's needs. Your preferences are just that.

flea72 wrote: »

religion - not a reason for appeal, its just a preference

absolutely: you need to check the school's admission criteria, and then see if they were applied fairly in your case. Have non-catholics who are not siblings been admitted in preference to your son, for example? That's why we asked what the actual admission criteria are.

flea72 wrote: »

language - same as religion

since languages are not required to be taught at primary level, AFAIK, I don't think you have a legal case there either. And even if your child had only recently arrived in the UK speaking not a word of English, they would not NEED to attend a school where Spanish was taught - some language support MIGHT be provided but the expectation would be that he would pick up English from his friends fast enough.

flea72 wrote: »

childcare - you work, you can pay for it - working is a lifestyle choice, if you didnt work, you would be free to do the school pick-up and drop-off

perhaps better to say that getting your child to and from school is, as far as the admissions process is concerned, YOUR problem. The exception is that if the only school offered by the LEA or suitable for your child's needs is more than 2 miles away (at primary level) from your home, then the LEA must pay for transport, and may provide it. But that's your child's NEEDS, not your preferences.

If LEAs had to take into account where parents were working, and what hours they were working, and whether or not they had transport, and if they did not whether public transport was a viable way of getting child to school and parent to work - well, that way madness lies!

And there is an element of lifestyle choice involved: when we moved house, we had a fair bit of juggling to do so that one of us could drop off and the other could pick up. We changed our hours around: I went full-time, DH was part-time; when he went full-time I went part-time. The alternative was paying for childcare, since we didn't have any family nearby to help out.

flea72 wrote: »

i know it all sounds harsh, but this whole process was brought in to make it an even playing field for all. we can all come up with reasons we think are valid for us to be granted a place, but unfortunately, unless you fulfil the selection criteria and live in the grounds of the school, you cant ever be guaranteed a place at your school of choice

That's where you need to be looking.

So, what exactly does your letter say, and what exactly are the admission criteria? I know this sounds tedious, but the school I moved DS1 to was quite precise, making distinctions between baptised children of practising and non-practising catholics, non-baptised children of practising and non-practising catholics, baptised children of practising and non-practising parents of other denominations, and finally - very last on the list - The Unbaptised. There were probably sibling rules and distance rules too, but it's a long time ago.