failed school appeal

[Legolassie]

Hi, Can anyone help with this problem. My son failed to get into the school of choice the reason given was geographical location. We went to an appeal hearing which we thought went really welland were told that we had put a very good case forward. However, the appeal failed and the reason given now is overcrowding. Out of the 13 appeals heard that day, 5 were given places. We have now been offered a place at a school 3 miles farther away than the 1st school we applied for (which was not granted because of the geographical catchment area). Where can we go from here?

[sara3]

every school has a limit to their intake. perhaps you need to move on from this and look for the positives with the school he will be attending, otherwise he will be very negative about it.

[Barmaid]

The only place you can go from here is either a complaint to the Ombudsman for maladaministration (and it doesn't sound like m/a to me, it sounds like you are unhappy with the decision). The alternative is a claim for judicial review to the High Court on the grounds of unreasonableness (google Wednesbury unreasonableness - it is basically a decision so unreasonable to be perverse).

[Legolassie]

Hi Barmaid, Thanks for your reply. The only reason that we are unhappy with the decision is that we know for a fact that children have been admitted from other towns, which from the school site are anything up to 10miles away, the main reason being they have siblings at the school. We are 3miles away which 'in our eyes' seems a little unfair. Nothing was mentioned at the appeal about overcrowding. The Council's decision originally, was merely on the geographical catchment area and the school offered is in the next town. The only reason we were asking advice was because of the extra children they have accepted.

[aniani]

My LEA stipulates having siblings in the school as the first criteria for admission ( after the selection tests)

[bednobs]

i suppose it will all depend of your view point what is fair and not. I don't have any kids, but i would guess it would be near on impossible to take one child to school, and then take another to school some mles away, so it seems reasonable (to me anyway) that siblings get frst choice. Maybe the "overcrowding" reason didn't come into play till they accepted the five extra ones? and thats why they didn't say it first

[Legolassie]

Hi bednobs, Thanks for the reply. Apparently we have been told since that the school had already reached its quota before the appeals. That's what is so annoying. Why do they have people taking time off work to attend appeals when they knew they were already full. I think we could have coped with that but shillyshallying around it and making up other reasons (which we counteracted) i.e. the geographical catchment area is totally out of order.

[tamborine]

move closer to the school of choice & apply again.

[Barmaid]

How it works is like this. The school has a Published Admission Number (PAN) over which it cannot go (it can do so for "looked after children" or "exceptional admissions") otherwise, it MUST stick to PAN. If there are more applicants than the PAN, they must use the oversubscription criteria. This is often children with a sibling at the school have higher preference than those who do not.

Once the school have reached PAN the parents of unsuccessful children have a right to Appeal. The IAP CAN go above PAN and their decision is binding on the school. At the first stage the School has to show that it has reached PAN and if further children were admitted it would cause prejudice to the efficient use of education resources or to the children already at the school. It must also show that in each case the over subscription criteria was properly applied. If the school "proves" its case you then go onto the second stage of the appeal where you put forward your reasons for wanting your child to go to the school. No decisions are made on individual cases until all parents have been heard and there is no comparison between cases. The Panel then makes a decision as to whether the "parental reasons" outweigh the prejudice to the children at the school. I think this is what has happened. Sounds to me as though, sadly, you were unsuccessful at round 2.

[flip_flop]

The sibling rule is absolutely the right criteria for schools to adopt as to who gets in first.

Yes, it is frustrating that someone may have moved out of the area following the acceptance of a first child and the sibling has got in at the expense of your child, but as somebody has previously said, it would be wholly inappropriate from (amongst others) a logisitcs point of view to drop one child at school and then drop the sibling off at another school.

My first child was refused a place at her nearest primary school (a 10 minute walk) due to an oversubscription and the alternative school offered had an awful Ofsted report and was filled with the offsrping of chavs, so, (and I'm not suggesting this is the answer for you) we took the drastic action of moving to ensure our child got into a decent school.

[buildersmate]

Further to Barmaid's excellent answer, the only bit of additional info that would have helped you beforehand is knowing under what circumstances an appeal could be successfully granted. But then that might have been seen as putting pressure on parents not to appeal.
The trouble for LEAs / schools is they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[ojread2]

the only bit of additional info that would have helped you beforehand is knowing under what circumstances an appeal could be successfully granted

There is no criteria per se. The criteria is as it was when applying to being with - all you can do at an appeal is give your reasons for appealing for the school of your choice.
If you havent moved, you have no chance if the school is oversubscribed.

Legolassie, it is likely that the other children won their appeal because places had been refused and they were next on the waiting list and given the places in geographical order

Unfortunately, many parents make the mistake of putting down the only choice they want and they are therefore given a place at schools that have spaces after children who have 1. put that school as a first choice/have siblings there. 2. put the school as a second choice. 3. put the shcool as a 3rd choice etc. You can only appeal for the school you put down on the form as well, not another school although you can place your child on the waiting list

It's unlikely you will get anywhere with any other complaints I'm afraid

[Legolassie]

Hi Ojread2, Thanks for the reply. 3 of the children who won their appeal put the school down as a 2nd choice and the other 2 didn't even fill their forms in. We are still going to fight on (for a little while anyway).

Thank you all for taking time to answer.