How you can win your school appeal
The Government’s announcement this week that parents who have not got their child into their first-choice school should appeal promises to cause mayhem in educational establishments throughout the country.
I should know, because I teach in a top-achieving comprehensive in outer London. In the past, parents angry that their child has failed to gain a place have phoned sobbing, shouted abuse at staff and, in one extreme case, staggered around drunk on the premises raging against the “injustice” of the system.
During the research for my book Parent Power — The Parents’ Guide to Getting the Best Education for Your Child, I spoke to a number of parents whose children had been rejected by popular schools. They all told me about their bitter disappointment. Most of them felt that their child’s life would be harmed if he or she attended the school they had been offered. Many of them followed the Government’s current advice and appealed against the decision.
Then their fun really began. Mounting a “school appeal” is a time-consuming and nerve-racking business. Furthermore, contrary to government propaganda, statistics show that it is often unproductive: roughly one fifth of appeals do not succeed. This is largely because many parents mount emotional appeals that their child needs a place because he likes the look of one school over another, or because his best friend goes to the school, or because he is too clever to go to a poorer-performing school.
These reasons will never succeed because they are not based on what are known as a school’s “admissions criteria”, the rules by which it chooses its pupils. If a parent’s appeal is going to succeed, he or she must prove that the school did not apply its admissions criteria correctly or that the problems faced by the child in going to another school outweigh the trouble for the school in admitting the child.
A third of completed applications are faulty: forms are not filled in fully, vital questions are incorrectly answered, crucial evidence is not provided. The net result may be that a child is not offered a place simply because bamboozled parents have not mastered the bureaucracy of the process.
It is crucial to read the guidance issued by the school to the letter: one tiny slip-up can mean rejection.
Usually, the school or local authority website provides all the relevant details.
Above all, your appeal will need to show that your child does indeed meet the school’s admissions criteria. I have known parents measure the distance between the school and their home with rulers to show that they do indeed live within the catchment area. Other parents trying to get their child into faith-based schools pester their religious leaders for detailed references, in some cases attempting to butter them up with “donations”. In one case, a parent actually pretended to be a pastor in order to get his child into a Christian school.
My advice is always to be honest but put absolutely everything you can think of into your appeal. This could mean showing that your child has aptitude in the school’s “specialisms”, such as drama or sports, or that your child would benefit immeasurably from the unique curriculum the school offers, or that he has special educational needs that can only be catered for at your preferred school. With religious schools some are vague, just asking for evidence that you are practising in that faith. Others are much more hard-nosed, demanding proof of regular church attendance for at least two years. Appeals are not adjudicated by the school or local education authority, but independent “lay” people, usually drawn from the local community. They will consider all parents’ points, including those not part of the school’s admissions criteria. If there are “special considerations” you will need to spell them out fully. I have known of parents who have confessed at appeal meetings that they are ill or disabled, which means their child needs to go a school which is easily accessible by train or bus but not necessarily the closest school, and have succeeded with their appeal. The panel has the power to ignore a school’s admissions criteria.
However, parents do have to bear in mind that they are the biggest single influence upon a child’s results and happiness. A huge amount of systematic and reliable research has shown that children will do well at more or less any school if they are supported positively by their parents.
Will a financial situation be taken into consideration at an appeal?
For instance we live 15 miles from our first choice of school, so we are out of the catchment area and even in a different council zone. My parents and my partners parents live within 2 minutes of the school and we rely heavily on them for child care. My son currently goes to the pre-school.
There is a school at the end of our road where we live, but if my son goes to that school we would have to employ a child minder in the mornings before school and after school until my partner gets home from work.
We can’t afford to employ a child minder, which in turn would require my partner to reduce her working hours, which would mean a salary decrease, which would mean we couldn’t afford our mortgage.
We do plan on moving to the immediate area of our first choice of school within the very near future.
What are your views on this?
Thanks in advance.
Yes, it could be relevant. Remember you have to prove that the trouble suffered by your child outweighs the trouble incurred by the school for admitting him. So this in addition to other points may be a factor. Looking into WHY the school uniquely meets the needs of your child will help too. So look into any policies/curricula that are different from the other schools available and point how/why they meet your child’s needs. Also, look very carefully at the Admission Criteria. Do you actually meet it all? If not, you won’t win the appeal. Provide as much documentary evidence as you can that you meet the Admissions Criteria and by law they have to admit your child. If it is catchment area school, then you might be stuck. The Advisory Centre for Education are great on this stuff: http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/
my daughter is currently at nursery and due to start nursery in january. I have been refused all three of my choices.
My daughter is currently getting alot of support at nursery with support staff and the special inclusions team. she struggles in social situations and is highly sensitive to change. I have read the OFSTED report for the school he has been allocated and it is performing poorly. last year there was a 50% staff turn over and it states that classes are often disrupted.
The police have put me and my daughter as high risk victims and are currently working with a domestic violence organisation to keep us safe from my daughters dad. the school allocated is where family members of my daughters dad goes – so i cannot send her there for safety reasons.
the school i am appealing has reached the 30 max with is the law for primary schools. on the gov website it states only in exceptional circumstances would an appeal be won. do you think i have any chance?
another child in my sons school has got a place in out 1st choice he has not made his holy communion with the rest of the class and has suddenly produced a baptismal certificate from zimbarbwae my son did not get into this school although we regulary attend church where he serves as an alter server. The criteria is catholic can i argue that a catholic is someone that practises this faith
I have recently moved house. However due to the time it took, I was only in a position to apply in June 2010. I applied for both daughters to attend school at the new location. My older daughter got into our school of choice in sixth form (AS year). My younger daughter was however declined a place for year 7 in all 3 local schools and we lost the appeals as well. As background: –
1) We are in the catchment area of our first choice school . I.e. less than 1/2 mile
2) Our elder daughter is attending this first choice school
3) The council offered the younger daughter a school 5 miles away
4) There is no direct bus service from nearby our home to school. The nearest bus stop is nearly 1.5 miles away. There are no other children attending this school in our area who she can walk with. It was suggested at the appeal that she could walk to this bus stop
5) The school is a science specialist school and our daughter is keen on science and got level 5 in both science, maths at year 6 SATS and also English
6) We are needing to drive to and from school and we are finding it difficult. We are also not able to let her attend after school events.
Would you have any advice as to how we proceed?
The best thing to do is to call the Advisory Centre for Education, http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/
i have a huge problem this year
my son is at nusery at the moment and i have applied for him to go to the reception class of this same school however my application was 1 day late due to my mother who lives 250 miles away has cancer and i was her main carer for 5 months which ment i was at home mon and tues to attend work then i would travel to stay with my mother for the other days and return home late on the sunday night to start all over again.Apparently this is not classed as extreme circumstance even though my whole life and childrens lives were turned upside down.
i live 500 mtrs away from my local school which i have been refused and offered a school 3 miles away.
for me to accept this school would mean givng up my job as i have no family to help out with school runs i know no one in the area of this school i do not drive (25 min bus route) and can not afford childcare.
i feel the only option i am left with is to home school which i am not keen on and dont have the knowlage myself to do this, also where will this leave my child on a social level?
any advice would be much appreciated.
Can I suggest you contact the Advisory Centre for Education, http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/, who are set up to deal with these sort of inquiries.
General advice line:
0808 800 5793
HI , IM CURRENTLY HAVING TO GO TO APPEAL FOR MY DAUGHTER WHO HAS BEEN RUFUSED ENTRY TO HER PREFERRED CATHOLIC SCHOOL OF CHOICE AS I HAD SENT HER ADMISSION FORM IN LATE, AS I HAD A PROBLEM GETTING HOLD OF ONE , MY FORM WAS RECEIVED IN FEB AND THE GOVORNORS MET IN JAN TO ASSESS ALL ADMISSIONS I NEED SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO WIN MY APPEAL AS I FEEL MY DAUGHTER NEEDS TO ATTEND THIS SCHOOL AS SHE MEETS ALL CRITERIA THEY ASK FOR ,SHE HAS A SISTER IN THE SCHOOL ALREADY SHE ATTENDS A FEEDER SCHOOL AT PRESENT AND I FEEL SHE SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR ME AS IT WAS MY FAULT THE FORM WAS LATE PLEASE HELP.
I have been trying to contact the advise centre for two days now and I keep on getting a message that their lines are busy and I need to call them back. How am I supposed to get their advice as I can’t get through to them at all. My daughter was not accepted in any of our six choices of schools and although she is attending the nursery in the Catholic school we’ve applied for, she didn’t get in and most of the kids in her group got in the school. We’re Christian Orthodox and of course we’re further down in the admissions criteria list, but I know so many children attending the school that are not catholic and we still didn’t have a chance to get in. We’ve been given a place in the nearest community school, which after visiting tonight, just made us even more disappointed, as we didn’t like the school at all, although they’re expanding now and got funds from the council, but still for sure they’re not improving at all. We’re both working full time and the offered school doesn’t have even an after school or breakfast club. So do you think that if we appeaal, we have a chance to win. I have read that this year there is a baby boom and so many children have been left without places and our council is one of the worse places in regards with that.
Please help.
This article is now out of date in that the helpline I believe is not fully staffed because there are issues over funding. I am sorry to hear about your problems. Your Local Authority is legally bound to help you over this; I strongly contacting them as a matter of urgency