School appeals - help offered

geek84

Good Morning folks

I applied to a C of E school for my twins under catergory C - Other Faiths (the most appropriate for my circumstances).

I have been told by the school that they received 245 applications under this catergory, and only 30 students got offered places.

Under these circumstances, do you think I should consider appealing or just not bother (taking into account the large number of rejections).

Thanks in advance.

Spendless

geek84 wrote: »

Good Morning folks

I applied to a C of E school for my twins under catergory C - Other Faiths (the most appropriate for my circumstances).

I have been told by the school that they received 245 applications under this catergory, and only 30 students got offered places.

Under these circumstances, do you think I should consider appealing or just not bother (taking into account the large number of rejections).

Thanks in advance.

It depends on HOW they selected which 30 children got in. If their published criteria says in the event of oversubscription all names will be put into a hat and drawn out at random then there's prob no point as you are unlikely to succeed at appeal. If it states that under category C you must submit a letter of faith and you know that someone has been allocated a place under category c who didn't then appeal, as the school hasn't followed their own rules (like in the example I gave in an earlier post). If the published criteria states that in the event of oversubscription priority will be given to children living nearest to the school and someone further away has been allocated a place undr category c and your child hasn't then yes appeal.

You can also ask how they operate a waiting list and what number your child is on that list.

poet123

There will be published criteria for what happens in the event of over subscription, if they have followed it, you won't have a case. If not, you will, proving it is not easy however.

cottonhead

Just a quick one to say I also work for school admissions ( obviously somewhere different to OP ) and some of the allocation rules / appeals proceedure we use are different to the ones being explianed on here.
My advice would be to telephone your own admissions team to get the correct info for where you live so as not to make any mistakes with applications / appeals. If something happens not in your favour and your defense is you didnt know or you were advised incorrectly that wont be a good enough reason to have it overturned.

poet123

cottonhead wrote: »

Just a quick one to say I also work for school admissions ( obviously somewhere different to OP ) and some of the allocation rules / appeals proceedure we use are different to the ones being explianed on here.
My advice would be to telephone your own admissions team to get the correct info for where you live so as not to make any mistakes with applications / appeals. If something happens not in your favour and your defense is you didnt know or you were advised incorrectly that wont be a good enough reason to have it overturned.

Different from what and in what way? The advice seems to be pretty general to me, not specific.

helphelphelphelp

I need to appeal about my daughters secondary school. Does anyone have any advice or successfully won an appeal. Do you think the reasons I am going to use would be successful?

We only applied for one school, the one in our catchment. My daughter is not at the feeder school as she stayed at the one by our old house when we moved 2 years ago.

We have been offered a secondary school that has an ofsted rating of 4 (yes, 4!) in 2011, down from 3 in 2011. My daughter has always has really good results at school so there is no way I want to send her to a school with such poor results. Was going to quote the Ofsted results in my appeal, the school we want has a 1 rating, and good GCSE results.

The main reason we want her to go there and the reason we didnt change school is in 2009 her brother (my son died) and to keep some continuity in her life and at the advice of her bereavement consellors, kept her at the same school so she could have the support from her teachers and friends.

Her school are willing to write a letter supporting this to the appeal panel.

Also, my daughter lost her uncle (my brother) last year, so moving to a school where she knows no one I feel will not be good for her where as at this school she has already made friends.

Also the allocated school is over 3 miles away and I am unable to take her so she will have to take public transport, sometimes 2 buses away if she has to go back to the childminders (which will be most days), some times it will be in the dark if she attends after school activities which I do not feel is safe for an 11 year old, not to mention the cost which I cannot afford as I am a full time student on a bursary. I also dont want to change childminders as again it comes down to continuity which I feel is important to her.

Are there any other points I should put in my appeal. Is it likely I would win on these points?

It seems unfair that I put my daughters well being first and didnt change school to her local one and she is now being punished for it.

I feel so strongly about this other school that I will be keeping her at home and if necessary getting a home tutor until a space becomes available as I feel it would do her more harm than good sending her there as the place is a dumping ground for anyone who cant get a space in a decent school in the town. Just want this sorted!

Thank you.

Spendless

What's the admission criteria in order? Does feeder Primary school take precedence over catchment?

delain

The ofsted results won't be mentioned in the appeal, otherwise schools with a score of 3 or 4 would be empty! if the school you were allocated is 3 miles or more away she will be entitled to free school transport.

peachyprice

To be honest, you're only likely to win an appeal if they have breached their own admissions criteria ie children at the feeder school being higher on the criteria than proximity. Not taking extenuating circumstances is not necessarily gounds for appeal, particularly if the school is over-subscribed.

Did you make all these points clear when you made your application? You can't use further information in the appeal that was not in the original application, you're appealing against the decision they made based on the information they had at the time, it's too late for her school to write a letter, it should have been submitted with her application.

Also, as said above you cannot use the performance of the school you have been offered as gounds for appeal to the school you want.

Do you know how far up the waiting list she is for the school you want?

pennypusher

I think there was someone on here who was offering to help people appeal who didn't get in to their chosen school. Perhaps if you look back through you will find them.