Appealing a School Place

[hellin family]

Originally Posted by lottiesmum0

Schools can refuse an ehcp pupil if they can evidence they can’t meet the needs or that they have already capacity of need in the cohort

See more...

Yes absolutely, I just meant they won't hold places for that purpose, sorry to confuse

[lottiesmum0]

Originally Posted by Sandieb

School place availability is a strange thing. As an ex school governor, I know that schools put in a number of places, usually to local authority, known as their PAN - Published Admin Number lets say 90. When all the places have been allocated a school may be asked to take a few more, particularly to meet appeal/special needs/adopted children lets say 6. So schools tend to keep back a few spaces from their PAN number. This is because if they are told they must take another 6 pupils then they do. But this will add a strain to the school - resources, desks, teachers etc. So schools tend to submit a lower PAN than actual spaces in this case maybe 87 - so they can ride out the risk. A school submits its PAN at least year before the year of admission.

At least that was the case when I was a Governor, until 18 months ago.

See more...

I’ve never heard of this and I’m a deputy head- it’s desirable to fill to your PAN number. If you have 3 spaces in each year group this means that you are £12000 missing in each year group which does not make financial sense

[Leelashpurple]

Maybe think outside the box a bit and consider changing the nursery to a child minder who could then have both in the morning and would deal with after school for your primary and aged child as well (don't think you mentioned how you would deal with this).

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Leelashpurple

Maybe think outside the box a bit and consider changing the nursery to a child minder who could then have both in the morning and would deal with after school for your primary and aged child as well (don't think you mentioned how you would deal with this).

See more...

This is a good idea 😀

What hours do you work?
What hours does your DH work?

You say it takes an hour to drive to work due to traffic maybe if you went in later and finished later the traffic might be better?

Where will your eldest go when they finish school?

What arrangements do you do know? I'm guessing you're moving out the area.

When is your new house ready to move into?

[WhereIBelong]

This may sound a bit blunt - but you just have to sort something, you have to make it work, nobody else will.

The school won't find you a space because you want one, if it is an outstanding school lots of people want the spaces - there are other schools with spaces, so you will have to find a work around for the school you are allocated.

I would be spending lot of time trying to figure out what will work now. If you or your DH need to change work hours you need to get agreement in place, if you decide on childminder, you need to be looking now, if you decide on a mother's help, get advertising.

Who is picking the child up? Looking after the child after school? Could they be the one doing the drop off too?

[disney1st timer]

Originally Posted by WhereIBelong

This may sound a bit blunt - but you just have to sort something, you have to make it work, nobody else will.

The school won't find you a space because you want one, if it is an outstanding school lots of people want the spaces - there are other schools with spaces, so you will have to find a work around for the school you are allocated.

I would be spending lot of time trying to figure out what will work now. If you or your DH need to change work hours you need to get agreement in place, if you decide on childminder, you need to be looking now, if you decide on a mother's help, get advertising.

Who is picking the child up? Looking after the child after school? Could they be the one doing the drop off too?

See more...

It’s not harsh, I know I’ve got to sort it. It’s just extremely frustrating hence my original rant!

[ziggyzag]

Originally Posted by disney1st timer

I understand that it’s my responsibility but short of quitting my job (which is obviously not really an option) I don’t know what they expect you to be able to do. I wish I was lucky enough to be able to stay at home and get them all to school and back each day but without working we couldn’t live! I find the system really frustrating. When I was a kid you went to your nearest school and that was that!

See more...

If you can't get him to school and he has to stay home, who is going to look after him?

[disney1st timer]

Originally Posted by ziggyzag

If you can't get him to school and he has to stay home, who is going to look after him?

See more...

My MIL lives in the village my younger ds will be going to nursery in so I could drop him at hers. She can’t drive though so can’t do school runs for me.

[Irishlass]

Originally Posted by babywebb

If you can I would appeal you have nothing to loose , if you do appeal make sure you have your daily timeline all written down to show them , I had to appeal a few years back , Twins at nursery one direction eldest son nearest secondary school youngest son primary school 30 mins drive then middle son ( who didn’t get same secondary school that eldest was at ) was placed 45 min in the completely opposite direction , I lost the appeal but I do know other parents that did win who apparently were more firm than me in the meeting , good luck I know how stressful it is x

See more...

Really? It doesn't matter what her timeline in the morning is... It's not the schools problem. They are there to educate children, not to rear them. They're not babysitters. The same school has staff with children, they are able to be in school on time and make arrangements for their own children.
It's up to each parent to get their child to school and work out how best to do it. Not the schools.

If there's other schools in the area with places available then the obvious and sensible choice is to Send the child to that school and await further contact if needs be from the other school.
A child's education is more important than throwing our toys out of the pram because we don't get what we want. Sometimes we've got to sick it up and accept we can't always get what we want to suit us.

[babywebb]

Originally Posted by Irishlass

Really? It doesn't matter what her timeline in the morning is... It's not the schools problem. They are there to educate children, not to rear them. They're not babysitters. The same school has staff with children, they are able to be in school on time and make arrangements for their own children.
It's up to each parent to get their child to school and work out how best to do it. Not the schools.

If there's other schools in the area with places available then the obvious and sensible choice is to Send the child to that school and await further contact if needs be from the other school.
A child's education is more important than throwing our toys out of the pram because we don't get what we want. Sometimes we've got to sick it up and accept we can't always get what we want to suit us.

See more...

I agree it a parents job to get their children to school, I was trying to help the op with the fact that if you go to appeal make sure your prepared with all the evidence you want them to consider , for me it wasn’t just the location of school but the fact , my eldest son was moved from the school that my second son was placed at as ds was threatened with a knife for sticking up for a year 7 boy hence why I didn’t was second ds to go to that school even though police were involved I still lost the appeal , I was trying to prepare op that appeals are very harsh