School appeals - help offered

Savvy_Sue

The very FIRST thing to do is make sure you are on on the waiting list for your choice of school.

dizzybird77 wrote: »

The book is sold out nearly everywhere!! And the delivery time on the ones available is too close to the closing date

Library?

dizzybird77

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

The very FIRST thing to do is make sure you are on on the waiting list for your choice of school. Library?

Yes, we are on the list. Number 8 currently.

Managed to order the book, should arrive tomorrow or Tuesday so I should have enough time to read it thoroughly and finalise my appeal.

markvirgo

Hi
My son is due to start school in September and our first choice was denied. He has been offered a place in a new school which is just being built (not one of our choices). We would like our son to get into our first choice. Can we appeal on the grounds that he will be walking from and to a local play group as we are working parents so would be dropping him off at 7.30am and picking him up at 6pm. This postcode would put him in the admission distance. I know it's long days but he has been at full time nursery since he was 3 months old.

susancs

markvirgo wrote: »

Hi
My son is due to start school in September and our first choice was denied. He has been offered a place in a new school which is just being built (not one of our choices). We would like our son to get into our first choice. Can we appeal on the grounds that he will be walking from and to a local play group as we are working parents so would be dropping him off at 7.30am and picking him up at 6pm. This postcode would put him in the admission distance. I know it's long days but he has been at full time nursery since he was 3 months old.

I am sorry as it will not be what you want to read, but in my opinion, you are very unlikely to win an appeal on the basis of proposed childcare being nearer a primary school. A very small amount of appeals in each LEA are successful and these are usually on the basis that the admissions criteria was not applied correctly or that a child has exceptional educational needs that only a particular school as opposed to others can meet during the school day. Put your child on the waiting list for a place and keep checking the position. If it is near the top, places may become available if people move before September.

markvirgo

Hi thanks for the reply, I didn't hold much hope to be honest. I will try the waiting list. I have another route of appeal that my property is in a certain linked area that according to the crieria my son should have got in, I just need to find proof.

susancs

markvirgo wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply, I didn't hold much hope to be honest. I will try the waiting list. I have another route of appeal that my property is in a certain linked area that according to the crieria my son should have got in, I just need to find proof.

If you call up your LEA admissions they should be able to send you details of how many children qualified under each of the admissions criteria for the school and also the home to school distance for each qualifying criteria. You need to look at what criteria your child would qualify under and the home to school distance of the last qualifying child in the criteria. A criteria list might for example be 1. for looked after children, 2. for children with exceptional needs supported by evidence, 3. siblings of children currently attending the school, 4. children whose address is closest to the school. Criteria 1-3 can have a greater home to school distances than your child as they are higher criteria, but if the last qualifying child in criteria 4 has a greater distance than your child then the criteria has not been applied correctly and you have good grounds for appeal. If yours is greater then you have no grounds. To be honest it is rare that the home to school criteria is not correctly applied. I do know of an appeal that was won on the grounds that a known mapped footpath was not taken into consideration when measuring home to school distances.

Nay_nay

markvirgo wrote: »

Hi
My son is due to start school in September and our first choice was denied. He has been offered a place in a new school which is just being built (not one of our choices). We would like our son to get into our first choice. Can we appeal on the grounds that he will be walking from and to a local play group as we are working parents so would be dropping him off at 7.30am and picking him up at 6pm. This postcode would put him in the admission distance. I know it's long days but he has been at full time nursery since he was 3 months old.

Hello, if you don't mind telling me is the new school in Birmingham? Out of curiosity

leannerenaud

Hello im not sure what help you are offering but i would be extremely grateful for any!
my daughter was not offered any of her choices we are appealing to get her into her first choice on 21 May i have until Thursday 14th to get everything in. our first choice school is our second nearest we did not apply for the nearest school because there is a child that goes there that bullies my daughter. there is 3 schools in my town and the one we want is by far the most desired. we are 30th on the waiting list so appeal is our only chance at securing a place. the school that was offered is not suitable in any way so for us it is about securing any placement not just our first choice.
we have been told that the last placement was offered to a child who was 0.701 miles from the school and that we are 1.2411. my daughter is a good student and we have the support of her current school but i don’t know what else to do.
it has caused so much stress and upset for my daughter that she has needed to be refereed for counselling via our GP.

any help or advice will be greatly appreciated on how i can improve my case and what things i should include. Many thanks in advance Leanne

silvercar

leannerenaud wrote: »

Hello im not sure what help you are offering but i would be extremely grateful for any!
my daughter was not offered any of her choices we are appealing to get her into her first choice on 21 May i have until Thursday 14th to get everything in. our first choice school is our second nearest we did not apply for the nearest school because there is a child that goes there that bullies my daughter. there is 3 schools in my town and the one we want is by far the most desired. we are 30th on the waiting list so appeal is our only chance at securing a place. the school that was offered is not suitable in any way so for us it is about securing any placement not just our first choice.
we have been told that the last placement was offered to a child who was 0.701 miles from the school and that we are 1.2411. my daughter is a good student and we have the support of her current school but i don’t know what else to do.
it has caused so much stress and upset for my daughter that she has needed to be refereed for counselling via our GP.

any help or advice will be greatly appreciated on how i can improve my case and what things i should include. Many thanks in advance Leanne

Is this primary or secondary?

How big is the school? Have you asked the school how far down the waiting list they normally reach?

tomtontom

leannerenaud wrote: »

Hello im not sure what help you are offering but i would be extremely grateful for any!
my daughter was not offered any of her choices we are appealing to get her into her first choice on 21 May i have until Thursday 14th to get everything in. our first choice school is our second nearest we did not apply for the nearest school because there is a child that goes there that bullies my daughter. there is 3 schools in my town and the one we want is by far the most desired. we are 30th on the waiting list so appeal is our only chance at securing a place. the school that was offered is not suitable in any way so for us it is about securing any placement not just our first choice.
we have been told that the last placement was offered to a child who was 0.701 miles from the school and that we are 1.2411. my daughter is a good student and we have the support of her current school but i don’t know what else to do.
it has caused so much stress and upset for my daughter that she has needed to be refereed for counselling via our GP.

any help or advice will be greatly appreciated on how i can improve my case and what things i should include. Many thanks in advance Leanne

I sit on an appeals panel, and unfortunately you have not said anything that would make your daughter an exception. Why is the allocated school not suitable, and what makes the other school suitable? You need to be very specific in your reasons. If you are concerned about bullying then speak to the new school, assuming there is more than one class they can make sure they're not together. What about the third school in the area, does that have places?