Appealing a secondary school placement

[treehack]

Has anyone here had any experiance of this?
Our daughter has been refused a place at the 1st choice of school and been allocated a place at the 3rd choice.We have recieved the appeal pack today and I've just read through it.
I would like to know what arguments anyone used and the outcome of any appeal

Thanks

[loafer123]

treehack said:

Has anyone here had any experiance of this?
Our daughter has been refused a place at the 1st choice of school and been allocated a place at the 3rd choice.We have recieved the appeal pack today and I've just read through it.
I would like to know what arguments anyone used and the outcome of any appeal

Thanks

My sister successfully appealed.

I believe her main arguments were that, as a divorced working single mother, the journey to and from the alternate was too complex for my nephew to do on his own, and it wasn't possible for her to work and do the school run.

She also had the support of her vicar, who met the panel beforehand.

[treehack]

Thanks.
Our main argument needs to be along the line of, the place offered is 4 miles away with no safe walking or cycling route.She would need to walk into the town to catch a bus that the LA say they will not pay for.
The school we want her to goto is 2 miles away again with no safe routes but the LA say they would provide transport there.We live on a county border and both the schools are over the border, her current school is in that county aswell.
The 2 counties operate differant schooling systems hence we wish to keep her in her current system along with her friends( I know we can't use the friends bit in our appeal)

[MentalSarcasm]

Have any of the other children in your village/town got in to this school? The parents of one of my sister's friends managed to successfully appeal their son being sent their 3rd choice school, one of their points was that their next door neighbour's daughter was in the same year and made the exact same choices and was accepted in to the school, along with there being no school bus to this and with both parents working and his sister at another school in the opposite direction, getting him there would be nothing short of a nightmare.

[treehack]

Anyone from the evening crowd offer any advice?

[Jon C]

we put our chosen school down as 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice. We figured that it was the only choice we wanted, so there was no point putting a 2nd and 3rd choice. We got rejected, went to appeal and the panel were clearly impressed as we got in.

[miniman]

Jon C said:

we put our chosen school down as 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice. We figured that it was the only choice we wanted, so there was no point putting a 2nd and 3rd choice. We got rejected, went to appeal and the panel were clearly impressed as we got in.

Interesting tactic and I can see how it could work... if I was on the panel and saw this:

1. School x
2. School x
3. School x

I would probably think "jeez this guy is going to be hard work, let's just give him the place"

[P100]

Go and talk to the Head of your 1st choice school.... Get them on your side and explain why you have chosen that school as your first choice.. Most will be sympathetic, as the system for allocating school places has been nonsensical for years.

Then contact the Chair of governors, with the same reasoning...

Most secondary schools expect to take more than the number of allocated places so prepare a good arguement, go to the appeal, tough it out in front of the panel.

Whilst most of these panels seem intimidating, be strong and give the panel a non emotional,representation of your reasons and facts for chosing that school.

Most school heads worth their salt will attend so if you have already spoken to them they will be aware of you and your case.

Hope this helps... Good Luck

Roy