School appeals - help offered

Inti

flea72 wrote: »

you have to find a link between your son's social needs and this school

by removing your son from boarding school you are meeting his social needs. this would in turn mean he should be happy at any school if he lived at home - so the fact he hates boarding school is not a social reason why he should attend your chosen school

tbh, if it wasnt a faith school, you might stand more of a chance, but the 'religious criteria' card means they dont have to let your child in

i also dont understand your comment about bullying. a child can be bullied at any school whether its faith, boarding, grammar or comp. its how the school deal with it that matters.

F

Thanks Flea,
Just putting the feelers out for how I should approach an appeal. You can sit at the pc forever trying to put an appeal together and not progress much. Well, that's been me for much of today. I am glad that when my head is fuzzy with a barrage of thoughts I can get advice from clear thinkers. So thanks.
I agree with your bullying point completely. It can happen anywhere. I want my son to have the smoothest transition to a school which understands where he is coming from and what he has to adjust to. This (faith) school has an excellent anti-bullying policy (although rarely needed) and the pastoral side is strong due to long form group sessions in am and pm. I believe that this would support him. As a contrast, the school I teach at the moment (comprehensive out of our area) has 15 mins form group registration/tutor time in morn and no afternoon reg with form tutor. Pupils have little time to raise concerns with tutors and just bottle it until there's an eventual, usually explosive, incident. BTW - I am not a form tutor. I deal with many friendship issues/bullying incidents whilst I am teaching my subject. Not that I mind doing so, it’s just that I am contracted to deliver a 55minute lesson. Just saying that I understand how the pastoral side can be an issue to timetable and monitor in some schools.
I just know that my son will need some settling into another school after being away from home for Year 7.

susancs

Inti wrote: »

Thanks Flea,
Just putting the feelers out for how I should approach an appeal. You can sit at the pc forever trying to put an appeal together and not progress much. Well, that's been me for much of today. I am glad that when my head is fuzzy with a barrage of thoughts I can get advice from clear thinkers. So thanks.
I agree with your bullying point completely. It can happen anywhere. I want my son to have the smoothest transition to a school which understands where he is coming from and what he has to adjust to. This (faith) school has an excellent anti-bullying policy (although rarely needed) and the pastoral side is strong due to long form group sessions in am and pm. I believe that this would support him. As a contrast, the school I teach at the moment (comprehensive out of our area) has 15 mins form group registration/tutor time in morn and no afternoon reg with form tutor. Pupils have little time to raise concerns with tutors and just bottle it until there's an eventual, usually explosive, incident. BTW - I am not a form tutor. I deal with many friendship issues/bullying incidents whilst I am teaching my subject. Not that I mind doing so, it’s just that I am contracted to deliver a 55minute lesson. Just saying that I understand how the pastoral side can be an issue to timetable and monitor in some schools.
I just know that my son will need some settling into another school after being away from home for Year 7.

To be successful in an appeal you usually have to show that the school did not follow their admisssion procedures correctly. My children attend R.C. faith schools and criteria usually includes baptised in the R.C. faith, signed form from the priest stating regular mass attendance, children from local feeder catholic school also is a criteia. They do have looked after children and exceptional social, medical or pastoral needs as high criteria. The exceptional social, medical or pastoral needs must be supported by recent detailed documentary evidence from appropriate professionals and submitted with the application form.

In my experience as a faith school Governor, where docmentary evidence in relation to exceptional needs was not submitted with the application form , the appeal has not been successful as the school has followed the correct admission procedures at the time of allocating school places. Also the exceptional needs is just that, one that cannot be met by another school easily. For example in relation to Catholic schools a child who is a paractising member of the Catholic church community and has attended a catholic feeder school for previous education, would have a case in regard to pastoral care if the only other schools offered were not those of the Catholic faith. However if another Catholic school was offered then this point is not valid and there would be no valid grounds for appeal. As stated before in another post all schools have to have anti-bullying policies and pastoral care in place so you would be unlikely to gain a place on appeal for those reasons as these needs are not exceptional and in theory can be met by another non faith school. Also as only four places are offered it is really only the most exceptional needs that were considered and sadly your child was not considered to fall into this category. Also a child of the faith of the school would usually be considered to have more specific faith based pastrol needs to attend the school.

It may be best to ring up and check the schools that have vacancies and consider accepting one for these from Septmeber and in the meantime continue to keep your child on the waiting list of your prefered school.

cafinlg

I'm trying to help a friend put together her appeal case and wondered if there are any examples of appeal letters that I can access online. I have found guides for writing the appeal but would like to see a sample of a complete appeal to get an idea of the length and level of detail that may be required. The reasons for appeal are complex and I am trying to get an idea of how much of the child's history should be included.

flea72

cafinlg wrote: »

I'm trying to help a friend put together her appeal case and wondered if there are any examples of appeal letters that I can access online. I have found guides for writing the appeal but would like to see a sample of a complete appeal to get an idea of the length and level of detail that may be required. The reasons for appeal are complex and I am trying to get an idea of how much of the child's history should be included.

tbh other peoples letter wont really help you, because each case is so individual.

just state the facts about why this school is the only option and list them in order of importance. if there are social and medical reasons for this school, then make sure you already have written evidence that you can refer to in your statement with substantiating reasons why these can only be accommodated by this school

have you already requested and received information from the LA about admission numbers and appeal outcomes for previous years? as many schools unwitting set a precedent

what reason did the school give for refusal?

F

cafinlg

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

The year group is full, but the child was previously at this school before family circumstances moved them out of the area a couple of years ago. They are now returning to their original home and because the child's education has already been disrupted (this will be the third move in four years) they believe the best thing is to return to their catchment secondary school that they attended before ... but the year group no longer has space.

My friend has all the admissions statistics (although I'm not sure she has appeal success rates).

Savvy_Sue

Could be worth checking whether the year group is full, or full + a few.

Also whether anyone's expected to move on at the end of this year.

It's a long time ago, but when we moved, we went to appeal for a Y8 place, and someone let slip that the year group had been full +2 in year 7 but that two were moving on. There were two of us appealing for Y8 places, so I suggested that there was actually room for both our children, and we did both get in.

flea72

cafinlg wrote: »

My friend has all the admissions statistics (although I'm not sure she has appeal success rates).

so i take it this is an application to join the school in year 10+ and the stats relate to every year group, for the past 5yrs?

if so, what do the stats show? have the numbers stayed constant for every year or are there fluctuations?

F

cafinlg

Yes - it is a Y10 application and the stats do show fluctuations in sizes of year groups - currently there are some bigger and some smaller than Y10 is projected to be in September. I think we only have the current stats not all the figures for the last five years - I'll see if she can get hold of that data as it may be helpful.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Dustykitten

If the child has missed chunks of education it maybe worth considering going down a year. There could be space in Year 9 and depending on the child's ability etc it may be better. There are often students 'out of year group' in schools for a variety of reasons.

flea72

cafinlg wrote: »

Yes - it is a Y10 application and the stats do show fluctuations in sizes of year groups - currently there are some bigger and some smaller than Y10 is projected to be in September. I think we only have the current stats not all the figures for the last five years - I'll see if she can get hold of that data as it may be helpful.

Thanks for your suggestions.

in your favour, if the school has some year groups larger than the current Y10 applicants, then they really wont have much of a leg to stand on at appeal. especially if some of the lower intake years are below Y10

contact the LA again and ask for the last 5yrs stats, as this is the easiest way to compare the total capacity. the school would then have to come up with very valid reasons why they have had to lower the overall capacity and why admitting a child into year 10 (ie with only 2 school years remaining) is detrimental to children entering the school in lower year groups, over the next 2yrs

F