School appeals - help offered

susancs

Welcome to MSE, as the previous poster says, you are highly unlikely to win a place on appeal, because you don't like the school. You have to have valid reasons why a particular school is the only school that can met your child's specific needs or can find the school did not apply the admissions policy correctly. On a more positive note, you could look at putting your child's name on the waiting list for a place and check the position, if it is near the top then a place may become available nearer September due to people moving away etc.

izoomzoom

Just wanted to state that a friend appeal and it went to the hearing panel ... apparently 5 children were appealing but only 2 turned up and friend's child was given a place (without parents having to present their case).

Probably a result of the spaces becoming available, but there is no harm in trying.

Savvy_Sue

MallyGirl wrote: »

generally the advice seems to be that you cannot appeal on the basis of not wanting your current allocation - you need to be putting a case forward as to why your first choice would be better for them. Does DC have a flair for science and 1st choice is a science specialist school, that sort of thing.

I think you need to go beyond that to have any chance of success at an appeal. The allocated school has to be unsuitable, not just disliked, and you have to have reasons why one of the original choices is necessary.

susancs wrote: »

Welcome to MSE, as the previous poster says, you are highly unlikely to win a place on appeal, because you don't like the school. You have to have valid reasons why a particular school is the only school that can met your child's specific needs or can find the school did not apply the admissions policy correctly. On a more positive note, you could look at putting your child's name on the waiting list for a place and check the position, if it is near the top then a place may become available nearer September due to people moving away etc.

The waiting list is definitely your first step.

dizzybird77

Hi everyone,

This ma be a bit of a long post but I really need some help regarding an an appeal to secondary school.

My son was diagnosed with aspergers last August and really struggles to cope with change so the transition to secondary school is a really big deal to him before we even get to the choice of school.

My son attends a feeder school for the secondary school we applied for but we are not in catchment. Throughout the his last 7 years his school has promoted our selected school and they have attended various events there. My son has always taken for granted that he would attend this school and will not even discuss our catchment school.

When applying for his school place, I contacted the admissions team and explained my sons diagnosis and asked if there was anything they required to support the application.
They advised that if i could provide confirmation of his diagnosis and a supporting letter from his consultant whilst it would not guarantee him a place would put him at the top of the feeder school list.

On Monday we were devastated to find out he did not have a place. 6 other children who were not in catchment but were at a feeder were accepted.
On contacting admissions I was told that whilst they had looked at the documents I sent, they felt that his condition "could be dealt with at any school".

The school we have been given is a very large school where as the one we applied for is much smaller and my son is familiar with it's layout and the staff/pupils there. It is a much more sedate environment with a robust pastoral care team.

My son is exceptionally gifted at maths and is currently working at the level of a 13/14 year old and our preferred school specializes in mathmatics and science (another one of his real interests).

Also whilst he has difficulty maintaining relationships and making friends, his class mates that will be going to our preferred school are all understanding of him and his "quirks" and he feels safe and comfortable with them. To take all this away from him combined with the transition to secondary school is going to affect his emotional state and his mental health.

Anyway, I'm rambling.....

My questions are:

Are the education authority allowed to ignore correspondence and recommendations from health care professionals?

Do I have sufficient grounds to appeal?

Thank you for taking the time to read

Spendless

dizzybird77 wrote: »

My son attends a feeder school for the secondary school we applied for but we are not in catchment. Throughout the his last 7 years his school has promoted our selected school and they have attended various events there. My son has always taken for granted that he would attend this school and will not even discuss our catchment school.

On Monday we were devastated to find out he did not have a place. 6 other children who were not in catchment but were at a feeder were accepted.
On contacting admissions I was told that whilst they had looked at the documents I sent, they felt that his condition "could be dealt with at any school".


Do I have sufficient grounds to appeal?

Thank you for taking the time to read

I can't answer re any medical issue, but why were the 6 children admitted when they also fall under 'at feeder, not in catchment' category?

Do they live nearer, or have an older sibling there and is this in the published admission criteria. If you find they've applied a criteria to another child, but not to yours and if they had yours would have had a place you can use that in an appeal.

Some years ago my sis in law was in your position with my Niece and she appealed as back then you could base an appeal on 'it wasn't what a reasonable panel would have done' Sorry, I can't remember exact wording and I've no idea if this is still is practise or was just in my area, but she successfully appealed saying that she had been in the feeder school all the time. Doesn't always work though, one child out of my son's school year didn't get a place in our feeder Secondary as though he'd been there since Reception, he'd moved out of catchment in the interim years, it was a big school year though and 50 kids didn't get a place.

dizzybird77

Spendless wrote: »

I can't answer re any medical issue, but why were the 6 children admitted when they also fall under 'at feeder, not in catchment' category?

Do they live nearer, or have an older sibling there and is this in the published admission criteria. If you find they've applied a criteria to another child, but not to yours and if they had yours would have had a place you can use that in an appeal.

Some years ago my sis in law was in your position with my Niece and she appealed as back then you could base an appeal on 'it wasn't what a reasonable panel would have done' Sorry, I can't remember exact wording and I've no idea if this is still is practise or was just in my area, but she successfully appealed saying that she had been in the feeder school all the time. Doesn't always work though, one child out of my son's school year didn't get a place in our feeder Secondary as though he'd been there since Reception, he'd moved out of catchment in the interim years, it was a big school year though and 50 kids didn't get a place.

Thank you for replying.
The 6 children given a place were allocated them based on distance from the school ( we were .2 of a mile further away ).
My feelings are that if it came down to just measuring distance then surely there should have been some consideration to a supporting letter with regards to medical/social needs?

There is a section in the booklet on applying stating that social medical decisions can be considered but only in the category you fall into, so for us that would be in the feeder school category.

Maybe I'm clutching at straws?

susancs

dizzybird77 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

This ma be a bit of a long post but I really need some help regarding an an appeal to secondary school.

My son was diagnosed with aspergers last August and really struggles to cope with change so the transition to secondary school is a really big deal to him before we even get to the choice of school.

My son attends a feeder school for the secondary school we applied for but we are not in catchment. Throughout the his last 7 years his school has promoted our selected school and they have attended various events there. My son has always taken for granted that he would attend this school and will not even discuss our catchment school.

When applying for his school place, I contacted the admissions team and explained my sons diagnosis and asked if there was anything they required to support the application.
They advised that if i could provide confirmation of his diagnosis and a supporting letter from his consultant whilst it would not guarantee him a place would put him at the top of the feeder school list.

On Monday we were devastated to find out he did not have a place. 6 other children who were not in catchment but were at a feeder were accepted.
On contacting admissions I was told that whilst they had looked at the documents I sent, they felt that his condition "could be dealt with at any school".

The school we have been given is a very large school where as the one we applied for is much smaller and my son is familiar with it's layout and the staff/pupils there. It is a much more sedate environment with a robust pastoral care team.

My son is exceptionally gifted at maths and is currently working at the level of a 13/14 year old and our preferred school specializes in mathmatics and science (another one of his real interests).

Also whilst he has difficulty maintaining relationships and making friends, his class mates that will be going to our preferred school are all understanding of him and his "quirks" and he feels safe and comfortable with them. To take all this away from him combined with the transition to secondary school is going to affect his emotional state and his mental health.

Anyway, I'm rambling.....

My questions are:

Are the education authority allowed to ignore correspondence and recommendations from health care professionals?

Do I have sufficient grounds to appeal?

Thank you for taking the time to read

It may be that the supporting evidence from professionals did not give detailed specific reasons as to why this particular school was the best school to meet your son's particular needs as opposed to other schools, rather than they ignored the evidence. It may be that a number of your local schools have had children who have Aspergers and have the ability and experience of supporting more able children with Aspergers, so that reason alone would not be a reason to make an exception.

You will need to provide reasons why this school is the only school locally able to meet his needs. If for example you had a report from his present school stating that he struggles to cope without the support of his current classmates who are all moving to the new school, this may be useful. All schools will have pastoral care, but if this school goes beyond others in the area, in that it has longer form tutor time during the day you could use this. If it is the smallest school in the area, you could look at obtaining professional evidence to support a statment that he will struggle in a large school environment. A report stating that his mental state would be affected by his going elsewhere, rather than to the school he has perceived he will be attending due to the strong links with his present Primary school, would also help.

There is a very good book by Ben Rooney on school appeals that Parents, I have know to have been successful at appeals have used. It might be worth obtaining a copy of it.

There is also information here:
http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/advice-about-education-for-parents/School_Admissions_and_Appeals/Disappointed_with_your_secondary_school_offer.htm

dizzybird77

Thank you, I will have a look for the book.

The support he needs is more around his environment and emotions rather than education.

It is very difficult to even speak to him rationally at the moment as he only has his own views and will not accept any alternatives or suggestions

Spendless

dizzybird77 wrote: »

Thank you for replying.
The 6 children given a place were allocated them based on distance from the school ( we were .2 of a mile further away ).
at straws?

This says to me that after spaces were filled from the higher categories eg catchment, then there weren't enough spaces for the next category down (feeder Primary school) to give places to all the kids that fell in that category, so they have a further criteria of distance and the spaces were filled before they got to you. As such, it might not make a difference in an appeal.

dizzybird77

Yes that is exactly what has happened, but my problem is that I was told that with my supporting evidence my son would be placed at the top of the feeder school list.
There is a section in the application booklet that says that medical/social reasons will be taken into consideration within each category and in this case they don't appear to have been considered fully.

I am concerned that they have decided that they are qualified to decide if my sons condition will not be affected by their decision when myself and his GP/Consultant know categorically that it will have a massive effect on him.