School appeals - help offered

poet123

JoJoArmani wrote: »

Well all has gone quiet on this subject...... Our appeal was unsuccessful as everyone predicted.

It was one of the most traumatic things I have put myself through! I cried nearly all the way through like a massive idiot - I was just so over-emotional it was horrible.

Anyway, I made my point and the panel were sympathetic but ultimately could not overrule the decision.

But I am a bit miffed that in the transcript of the panel's decision that my main point was not noted - the fact that the school are already oversubscribed for next years yr 1 classes anyway so why not let 1 more in. I specifically asked the head about this and she admited that next year if nothing changes they will have to either employ another teacher or mix reception and yr1.

Anyway, middle daughter will just have to go to the nearest school and we will have to hope for the best that my partner can collect them both on time.

I am sorry you lost. I am not surprised though, tbh it was unlikely to go any other way.

Re your point about over-subscription for next year, anything could happen to those who have shown interest in the school, families move, change their minds etc, so you cannot base a decision today on what might/might not happen in 12 months.

Savvy_Sue

I'm sorry you lost too, but you can continue to re-apply each year if you wish to - a space might come up if you think that's the best thing to do. And you can presumably also ask to be kept on a waiting list: it's possible something will change over the summer. Even though I told DS1's school that we WERE moving over the summer I'm not sure they took him off roll until he didn't appear in September!

JoJoArmani wrote: »

But I am a bit miffed that in the transcript of the panel's decision that my main point was not noted - the fact that the school are already oversubscribed for next years yr 1 classes anyway so why not let 1 more in. I specifically asked the head about this and she admited that next year if nothing changes they will have to either employ another teacher or mix reception and yr1.

poet123 wrote: »

Re your point about over-subscription for next year, anything could happen to those who have shown interest in the school, families move, change their minds etc, so you cannot base a decision today on what might/might not happen in 12 months.

As poet said, plus at what point do you say it's no longer OK to add 'just one more' to an oversubscribed intake?

When we moved, we had to go to appeal for DS1 to move into Y8 of our preferred secondary. There were 2 of us, and in the course of the appeal it came out that the school had been oversubscribed by 2 the previous year, but also that 2 pupils had moved on, so there would be no actual increase in year numbers if we and the other family won our appeals.

As it happens, we did both win, but I don't think that was my strongest argument!

savea_penny

HI everyone, I am looking for some advice on what I should be writing for my seemingly inevitable school appeal.

The situation is this: We have moved house and now live 6 miles away from the school my children currently attend. The journey is becoming costly both time and money wise. I have applied for places at 5 local schools and they have been unable to offer me aplace for my children at the same school, which is basically all I am asking for.

The older two (who are twins) are in year 3 and the younger in year1. The inital outcome was the older 2 being offered a place and the younger being offered a place at another with a taxi being offered as transport. I took this to mean on her own as I would be taking the other two to school.

I have been offered places at 4 other schools, the closest of which involves crossing the A1. Should a car be unavailable, which is possible, or the weather be bad, this would be a 2 mile walk each way across country lanes and a motorway. I cannot combine this with journey with work. The furthest is 5 miles away across fields.

I have no great preference which school my children go to, I just want them to all be together, but clearly nearer would be preferable.

I have no idea how to structure the appeal as it seems geared for people who would like a specific school, not one of five. There appears no holistic way of dealing with this.

I think I can appeal all of the places that we were refused and hope that we get them all accepted at one? It's so confusing.

So, any ideas of how to tackle this would be appreciated. I realise that for the 5 year old I am also facing the 'Infant Class size' battle. Is this winnable? I have asked for admission figures in previous years, but don't know if I am fighting a losing battle? These are in Year admissions and it seems that even if we meet all of the criteria we still have no chance of securing a place. How can I prove that they did not follow the process?

Sorry this is so rambled, I have gone through every which way to try to sort this. This is the last resort for me and I am still wracking my brains to find a solution.

Any help or comments or previous experience would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Amanda

embob74

Hi
I wondered if anybody had advice or info in relation to older pupils (16+)
My daughter failed 2 of her AS levels, passed one and had one grade deferred due to illness and has just been told by the school they won't allow her back to retake or continue her studies.
As she only found out on Friday we are frantically chasing courses at colleges but it's late in the day and places are few and far between now.

Anybody know if she can challenge the school? Lots of reasons were given, including one that my daughter would be better at college so she can wear what she wants :mad:

TeamLowe

savea_penny wrote: »

HI everyone, I am looking for some advice on what I should be writing for my seemingly inevitable school appeal.

The situation is this: We have moved house and now live 6 miles away from the school my children currently attend. The journey is becoming costly both time and money wise. I have applied for places at 5 local schools and they have been unable to offer me aplace for my children at the same school, which is basically all I am asking for.

The older two (who are twins) are in year 3 and the younger in year1. The inital outcome was the older 2 being offered a place and the younger being offered a place at another with a taxi being offered as transport. I took this to mean on her own as I would be taking the other two to school.

I have been offered places at 4 other schools, the closest of which involves crossing the A1. Should a car be unavailable, which is possible, or the weather be bad, this would be a 2 mile walk each way across country lanes and a motorway. I cannot combine this with journey with work. The furthest is 5 miles away across fields.

I have no great preference which school my children go to, I just want them to all be together, but clearly nearer would be preferable.

I have no idea how to structure the appeal as it seems geared for people who would like a specific school, not one of five. There appears no holistic way of dealing with this.

I think I can appeal all of the places that we were refused and hope that we get them all accepted at one? It's so confusing.

So, any ideas of how to tackle this would be appreciated. I realise that for the 5 year old I am also facing the 'Infant Class size' battle. Is this winnable? I have asked for admission figures in previous years, but don't know if I am fighting a losing battle? These are in Year admissions and it seems that even if we meet all of the criteria we still have no chance of securing a place. How can I prove that they did not follow the process?

Sorry this is so rambled, I have gone through every which way to try to sort this. This is the last resort for me and I am still wracking my brains to find a solution.

Any help or comments or previous experience would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Amanda

The easiest way to tell if Infant Class Size Prejudice would be a factor is to ask the school their yearly intake and make up of their classes- if it's multiples of 30, then it's ICSP.
Is there a school that the 5 year old has been offered and your other children haven't? a year 3 appeal would not come under ICSP so may be 'easier' to appeal for your older children to go to the same school as the younger, instead of appealing for the younger and encountering ICSP, IYSWIM

The oversubscription criteria, examples of which are posted above, is not really relevant in your case. if the school is full, then the school is full as far as in year transfers are concerned. only in limited exceptions can they accept an extra pupil- ie a SEN naming the school or because of an appeal.

Dontknowanymore

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me.

I am about to move to a new area, new county and will be applying for an in year place for my son who is in year 3.
I have phoned round a few of the local schools and none seem to have any spaces except for the one down the road that I really do not want my son attending. I know 3 people who have removed their children from the school, and it has a recent reputation for bullying.

I'm waiting for another school to get bak to me as they have 2 spaces but are unsure wether these are on offer already?
I'm doing a house swap so do not have a definate dat for moving yet, although I hope it will be in the next 3 weeks, possibly 4.

To cut a long story short, my children are classed as children in need by social services due to previous domestic violence by my ex. They are not classed as looked after.

I know I can possibly put my son into the local school then have him on the waiting list for another school but I don't want to unsettle him further than he already is. Last year he attended 3 schools as we moved to a refuge then to here.

Would a letter from my children's social worker help with the application? I don't want to seem snobby but I want my son to receive the best education he can, he has had a fair few issues, has just come out the other side and basically I just want what is best for him.

gauly

savea_penny wrote: »

The older two (who are twins) are in year 3 and the younger in year1. The inital outcome was the older 2 being offered a place and the younger being offered a place at another with a taxi being offered as transport. I took this to mean on her own as I would be taking the other two to school.

I have no great preference which school my children go to, I just want them to all be together, but clearly nearer would be preferable.

I have no idea how to structure the appeal as it seems geared for people who would like a specific school, not one of five. There appears no holistic way of dealing with this.

I think I can appeal all of the places that we were refused and hope that we get them all accepted at one? It's so confusing.

I would concentrate on the schools where your older two didn't get in but the younger child did - it's much easier to win an appeal for year 3 where the "30 per class" rule doesn't apply.

It might be worth going to the schools you are interested in and having a chat with the head about how best to get your children into the school - ours was very helpful in a similar situation. The solution she suggested was to accept the place for the younger child then appeal for a place for the older child. Fortunately we never had to try this as a place became available, so I have no idea if it would work!

FBaby

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me.

I am about to move to a new area, new county and will be applying for an in year place for my son who is in year 3.
I have phoned round a few of the local schools and none seem to have any spaces except for the one down the road that I really do not want my son attending. I know 3 people who have removed their children from the school, and it has a recent reputation for bullying.

I'm waiting for another school to get bak to me as they have 2 spaces but are unsure wether these are on offer already?
I'm doing a house swap so do not have a definate dat for moving yet, although I hope it will be in the next 3 weeks, possibly 4.

To cut a long story short, my children are classed as children in need by social services due to previous domestic violence by my ex. They are not classed as looked after.

I know I can possibly put my son into the local school then have him on the waiting list for another school but I don't want to unsettle him further than he already is. Last year he attended 3 schools as we moved to a refuge then to here.

Would a letter from my children's social worker help with the application? I don't want to seem snobby but I want my son to receive the best education he can, he has had a fair few issues, has just come out the other side and basically I just want what is best for him.

I'm sorry for all the disruption and now having to deal with the conflict of schools. Just one question? Have you visited the school? Have you looked at its ofsted reports?

I'm asking because I found myself in the same situation (but not the trauma), and I was surprised to found out that we couldn't get a place for my son in our local school despite the school being the biggest in Europe...really! Instead, he was offered a place in a school which I then discovered was on remedial measures. I was really worried as I was very happy with his current school and its provision of education and didn't want my child achievements to be affected. My initial response was to look into appealing until I realised I had no chance so instead i went and visited it and was very pleasantly surprised. They had a new headmaster and she was lovely, coming out of a meeting to speak with us and I just got a nice feeling about it, even though I went there expecting the worse. A few weeks later, I found our that Ofsted had visited the school again and raised it to a 'good school' standard.

My boy has started three weeks ago and I have been absolutely delighted with everything, so much that I actually like it better than his previous school! I found out that the reason why our local school is oversubscribed is because parents from the other school worried about the quality of their local schools applied for their kids to go to our local ones. It has the same ofsted report... This leads to many kids travelling to school which is really stupid. Still, I don't mind so much despite having to go out of my way to drop him off, but I am so please I decided to visit the school before totally writing it off.

You never know, you might have a similar experience.

Dontknowanymore

FBaby wrote: »

I'm sorry for all the disruption and now having to deal with the conflict of schools. Just one question? Have you visited the school? Have you looked at its ofsted reports?

I'm asking because I found myself in the same situation (but not the trauma), and I was surprised to found out that we couldn't get a place for my son in our local school despite the school being the biggest in Europe...really! Instead, he was offered a place in a school which I then discovered was on remedial measures. I was really worried as I was very happy with his current school and its provision of education and didn't want my child achievements to be affected. My initial response was to look into appealing until I realised I had no chance so instead i went and visited it and was very pleasantly surprised. They had a new headmaster and she was lovely, coming out of a meeting to speak with us and I just got a nice feeling about it, even though I went there expecting the worse. A few weeks later, I found our that Ofsted had visited the school again and raised it to a 'good school' standard.

My boy has started three weeks ago and I have been absolutely delighted with everything, so much that I actually like it better than his previous school! I found out that the reason why our local school is oversubscribed is because parents from the other school worried about the quality of their local schools applied for their kids to go to our local ones. It has the same ofsted report... This leads to many kids travelling to school which is really stupid. Still, I don't mind so much despite having to go out of my way to drop him off, but I am so please I decided to visit the school before totally writing it off.

You never know, you might have a similar experience.

Thanks for your reply.
I did actually think about it this afternoon after speaking to my son's teacher from last year, I have basially decided it is not a good school on hearsay of a couple of people, so really I should go and have a look for myself.
It is actually the school I attended from age 5 until I left for secondary school, I liked it but I left there 16 years ago lol.
It had a new headteacher 3 years ago.

I will send the admissions form off and see what happens, at the end of the day my son needs to be in stable education so if that is the only place he can go then so be it. He's been through moe than enough disruption.

Savvy_Sue

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
I did actually think about it this afternoon after speaking to my son's teacher from last year, I have basially decided it is not a good school on hearsay of a couple of people, so really I should go and have a look for myself.
It is actually the school I attended from age 5 until I left for secondary school, I liked it but I left there 16 years ago lol.
It had a new headteacher 3 years ago.

I will send the admissions form off and see what happens, at the end of the day my son needs to be in stable education so if that is the only place he can go then so be it. He's been through moe than enough disruption.

I have said before that schools seem to keep their reputations, good or bad, longer than they should! But especially with bad reputations!

A new head can make a very big difference, very fast. At primary, the schools I chose absolutely horrified some of my friends, but they were excellent for my boys.