Any advice regarding secondary school appeals please help!

Cellardoor93

Hello. I am absolutely dreading letting me son down. Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Here goes... 
We moved house in December with the councils housing list as we won a property. We were put in band B due to my sons sensory processing issues. Unfortunately this was after the deadline to change school preferences. 
He has been allocated a school not on our preference list, and now in our old area this school is 7.8 miles away from our current address and he would need to take 2 public buses as well as walking around the main town himself. I cannot allow this because of his sensory processing dysfunction, he is very naive and has absolutely no stranger danger, he would go off with anyone which makes this very dangerous. 

If the council were to find my son transport via a taxi and pay for it I still find this would be detrimental to my son. Going to school in a completely different area to his peers would be detrimental towards his levels of resilience, which have already been impacted by moving away from his main friendship group a few months ago. My son needs to make friends in the local area for his own social wellbeing. This is something he would be unable to do if he was at a school so far away. It would also be harder for him to attend any extra curriculum clubs after school.

I know this is the only school in the local area that can cater to his needs. Rather than having sets at the school the classes are of  mixed ability and each child has a tailored way of learning. This would benefit him massively as he thrives on praise and often looks for this as reassurance something which was regularly seen when he has IEP . We were shown examples of how each teacher marks work as it is done, offering students the chance to respond to the teacher input. This constant encouragement alongside his learning will make him feel heard and enable him to grow self confidence, something he struggles with massively. We were impressed with the pastoral care too. He is a child that suffers from anxiety and can become overwhelmed. This stems from his Sensory Processing issues so we were very happy to learn the school have a team of teaching and non teaching pastoral care ensuring someone is in the pastoral office at all times so if any problems should arise they can be dealt with. They also offer in-house well being programmes that include an anger management programme, an anxiety programme, and a mindfulness programme as . Something the other school doesn't offer

Another benefit of the school is that they have seperate times year 7 can eat as well as their own common areas and toilets, I feel this would benefit him as he wouldn't be overstimulated with the noise of lots of year groups around him in the toilet, at lunch etc.

The other local schools in their area are unsuitable as when he went on a tour of  local high school 2, the smell of the building triggered him and he kept remarking to myself and his step dad that it was making him feel sick and the building smelt old and mouldy. This then triggers migraines.

I have a letter from 2019 from hid gp stating he has  sensory processing issues and how this can affect him. This letter was for evidence to help us move house due to his medical need for his own bedroom, so slightly irrelevant to the appeal. I also have his initial assessment that states he has sensory processing issues. I have contacted the multi agency asd team and they told me to they were unable to provide a new letter as it was over 6 years since he was assessed and I need to contact  sensory occupational health. I contacted them and they said school needs to refer him. I am in the process with his new primary school  to see if they can refer him for this but I have been told the waiting list is years. 

Any help please send my way please be kind my head is not in a good place

Savvy_Sue

Start by talking to the school you want him to go to - did you apply there? Ask for your son to be put on the waiting list, ask where he'd be on the list. Obviously if he's 999 on the list you need to do more, but if he's well up the list your chances are improved.

Cellardoor93

Savvy_Sue said:

Start by talking to the school you want him to go to - did you apply there? Ask for your son to be put on the waiting list, ask where he'd be on the list. Obviously if he's 999 on the list you need to do more, but if he's well up the list your chances are improved.

Hi savvy sue. We did apply and didn't get a place as they are over subscribed 😭 we are now on the waiting list and was 20th last week but now 28th.  😔

tacpot12

You will not have let your son down if you have tried everything that can be tried. Sometimes there is not enough education provision in an area, and this is not your fault.

It sounds like you will not be sure you will be able to get your son into your preferred school for a year or more. I agree that he will be happier living close to his school. if you can't get him into the preferred school promptly, and he starts at the school in your old area and appears to be settling in well, you might consider a council housing swap. It's a long shot, but you may get lucky. You might even consider looking at private rented housing if you can find somewhere close to his school.

Given that you know what school A is doing right, you might discuss this with school B and see if they can implement any of the other school's approach, as this is likely to benefit all the children in the school. I know this will also be a battle, but sometimes even small changes can help a lot.

I'm sorry that you haven't been able to secure a place for your son at the best school for him, but the other school should also care for his needs.

Flugelhorn

you need to apply for and submit an oversubscription appeal - the appeal is all about why the preferred school meets your son's needs - much of what you have stated is reasonable, though could do with getting as much evidence as possible and making sure it is up to date. 

Flugelhorn

Cellardoor93 said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Start by talking to the school you want him to go to - did you apply there? Ask for your son to be put on the waiting list, ask where he'd be on the list. Obviously if he's 999 on the list you need to do more, but if he's well up the list your chances are improved.

Hi savvy sue. We did apply and didn't get a place as they are over subscribed 😭 we are now on the waiting list and was 20th last week but now 28th.  😔

Are they oversubscribed because of distance? or is there some other factor involved? how do they allocate places?


You have a bit of a problem in that you moved house after the common application form was submitted in October last year so that your change of address may get treated as a late application - obviously moving at that stage was a bit out of your control and probably not planned (they are trying to avoid people moving into catchments at the very last minute eg after exam results come through ) - may help to demonstrate that you have been trying to move for some time and hence the late application was unavoidable 

Spendless

If you had lived at your current address BEFORE  the deadline date would you have got into your preferred school? Eg is catchment area high on the list and you know live within it? If so I'd go through the appeal process based on that you know live where your child is likely to have got a place but moving there was out of your control  

If it's just that it's a preferred school and you might not have got a place anyway, just keep on the waiting list, but the further down you are the more unlikely it'll be .

I'd also look into how the appeal process works with regards to your son's needs. If he has an ECHP for example then I *believe* a school can be named on it. Get some advice.

Cellardoor93

tacpot12 said:

You will not have let your son down if you have tried everything that can be tried. Sometimes there is not enough education provision in an area, and this is not your fault.

It sounds like you will not be sure you will be able to get your son into your preferred school for a year or more. I agree that he will be happier living close to his school. if you can't get him into the preferred school promptly, and he starts at the school in your old area and appears to be settling in well, you might consider a council housing swap. It's a long shot, but you may get lucky. You might even consider looking at private rented housing if you can find somewhere close to his school.

Given that you know what school A is doing right, you might discuss this with school B and see if they can implement any of the other school's approach, as this is likely to benefit all the children in the school. I know this will also be a battle, but sometimes even small changes can help a lot.

I'm sorry that you haven't been able to secure a place for your son at the best school for him, but the other school should also care for his needs.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately moving back to the area would be completely not an option as I've a daughter who I've moved schools from our old area too. This has competely affected her moving and she found it hard to settle in with friends. I am not prepared to do that to her again. I also cannot afford to private rent as we need 3 bed housing due to my sons medical needs. Thankyou for your input. I really do appreciate it 

Cellardoor93

Flugelhorn said:

you need to apply for and submit an oversubscription appeal - the appeal is all about why the preferred school meets your son's needs - much of what you have stated is reasonable, though could do with getting as much evidence as possible and making sure it is up to date. 

Hi this is what I have done and our appeal is in the next 2 weeks.I am trying to get as much evidence as possible but trying to get any paperwork from anyone is like pulling teeth 😭💔

Cellardoor93

Flugelhorn said:

Cellardoor93 said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Start by talking to the school you want him to go to - did you apply there? Ask for your son to be put on the waiting list, ask where he'd be on the list. Obviously if he's 999 on the list you need to do more, but if he's well up the list your chances are improved.

Hi savvy sue. We did apply and didn't get a place as they are over subscribed 😭 we are now on the waiting list and was 20th last week but now 28th.  😔

Are they oversubscribed because of distance? or is there some other factor involved? how do they allocate places?


You have a bit of a problem in that you moved house after the common application form was submitted in October last year so that your change of address may get treated as a late application - obviously moving at that stage was a bit out of your control and probably not planned (they are trying to avoid people moving into catchments at the very last minute eg after exam results come through ) - may help to demonstrate that you have been trying to move for some time and hence the late application was unavoidable 

Yes distance, the school isn't in catchment area to us but I believe its the only suitable school near us. Had we would have been allocated school let's call it HH. HH is in our catchment and the school they're at now is a feeder. HH wouldn't have been ideal either because when we went to look round the school as it is a very old building my son was very triggered by the smell throughout the building. I feel like my appeal why he wouldn't be able to go to this school and why the preferred school would be best for him I feel would be a stronger appeal with the evidence I have of his sensory issues. With the evidence stating he has a problem with smells, sounds and tastes.  It's so difficult we moved with the councils local housing register and gas been bidding actively every week for 2 years for the house we are in now. We had no control over when we would get offered a house or where we were going to be offered a house. It's not like in other circumstances where I would choose when and where to move. If we had turned this house down we would have been removed from the bidding system. Honestly I feel like my son is slightly been discriminated against because we are in social housing 😭

Cellardoor93

Spendless said:

If you had lived at your current address BEFORE  the deadline date would you have got into your preferred school? Eg is catchment area high on the list and you know live within it? If so I'd go through the appeal process based on that you know live where your child is likely to have got a place but moving there was out of your control  

If it's just that it's a preferred school and you might not have got a place anyway, just keep on the waiting list, but the further down you are the more unlikely it'll be .

I'd also look into how the appeal process works with regards to your son's needs. If he has an ECHP for example then I *believe* a school can be named on it. Get some advice.

Your reply really god me thinking and looking at the admissions policy. If I had lived here before the deadline, we would have been offered a school let's call it HH. HH would still be unsuitable for my son due to his sensory issues and the suitability of that school when we went on the tour but I feel the appeal would have been stronger had I been appealing on behalf of those 2 schools instead of the school we were given based on the other address.  Their policy states if the child does not qualify for any of the parent/carer's preferred schools and

provided the child is resident in our council, a place will be offered at the school

designated by council to serve the parent/carer's address or, if no such place is

available, the nearest appropriate council school where a place is available. Nearest

means the shortest distance from the child's home to the school measured in a

straight line.

This is true for our old address but after offers day I changed the preferences due to our circumstances and they send a letter not offering us a place but not offering us the nearest school to our now address with availability. It's so difficult we moved with the councils local housing register and gas been bidding actively every week for 2 years for the house we are in now. We had no control over when we would get offered a house or where we were going to be offered a house. It's not like in other circumstances where I would choose when and where to move. If we had turned this house down we would have been removed from the bidding system. Honestly I feel like my son is slightly been discriminated against because we are in social housing. We were 20th out of 44 on the waiting list and now he's gone up to 28😬

He doesn't have a EHCP unfortunately, but did have an IEP (believe they are the same but iep isn't governed by law) unfortunately this stopped in 2019 when the new head teacher  came in and covid started. It all got lost in translation really. I still have copies of his ieps from his old primary school. We are trying to get his new primary school to apply for an occupational therapist to help us but the waiting list is years