Any advice regarding secondary school appeals please help!

silvercar

Children often feed off their parents, if you continually say how wonderful the school is, he may come round to the idea and the smell diminish in his thoughts.

Spendless

Cellardoor93 said:

grumiofoundation said:

Cellardoor93 said:

After all the factor of why he can't go to HH is a crucial point in my argument. The smell. Nothing to do with the actual school itself. My son is refusing to go back to a place that's triggered him.  It's so sad:(

Have you contacted HH since the first visit? 

There are things they will want to do - but also need to consider if you are going to use the fact HH is unsuitable in your appeal you having all information in hand with what they have tried to do to support your son and what they will do next year can only help. *

Has your son only visited the school once in school hours? Has he met pastoral/ALN support? 

*edit: but as above focus should be on what your son needs and why school A is match for this (but if HH can’t offer this could help??) 

You make some very good points but no I haven't, as I cannot see how he could get around the smell of the whole building and I am not prepared to make him when he Is telling me he does not want to go there. All his friends are going there and he's still telling me he doesn't want to go. That speaks volumes.  What can the school do without causing further exclusion to him? Tell him he can only stay in the outside buildings? Tell him to use essential oils? What exactly will this do to a young teenage boy who as it stands doesn't have much resilience. How do u think i should best approach this? I also have spoken to a parent at the primary school my kids are out and she has told me it's strange I should tell her this as she knows of a girl who went to HH with sensory issues and had to leave after a year because of the smell. 

Could you ask to be put in touch with the parents of the girl to see  if they are willing to share their experiences of this situation at this school? Though as already mentioned that only gives a reason why your son shouldn't attend there rather than why he should attend your preferred school.  

sheramber

the school isn't in catchment area to us 

So his local friends will not be going to that school  

Those who are ahead on him on the waiting list could have similar or greater needs than your son?

What is your plan if your appeal is turned down?

Cellardoor93

Thank you for you responses. Much appreciated. Ive spent the whole week just putting everything I can I to this. There's something I'm confused about. On our paperwork we've been sent out to support the appeal, it states the net cap is 1320. On the department of educations website it states 1330. And on the councils table of proposed published admissions it says net capacity range 1320-1467. Do I have room the question this? Why has the range gone up  to 1467? Every school has a different range so why did they choose 1467? And if so this suggests they can accomodate more students 

Flugelhorn

There is a document about net capacity here - looks like it is purely measurements and calculations https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/10975/1/DfES-NetCapacity.pdf

I think some rooms can get excluded if there are good reasons, but this is certainly something that can be asked at the stage one of the appeal - worth googling "PAN and Net Capacity"

Cellardoor93

Just an update incase anyone else is going through this. I won the appeal and my son has been going for over a year now and is thriving thanks  for your help 

TripleH

For those going to appeals for schools or even thinking about applying for children,

Always read the criteria for admission, these can change from area to area.

When in an appeal, emphasise the positives about the school you want, don't dwell on bad mouthing the school you were initially allocated.

The LEA have to view all schools as equal even when they're not, they have to have a sensible and logical process for applying places, appeals are there to add a human element.

I clerked several hundred school appeals in my time, albeit in another life and many years ago.