admissions - Doubled Up

After all my worrying, I was told today that the appeal is over and that the child concerned has a place at another school locally. Hooray, hooray. What a good result all around - the child has, apparently, been at said school for a while and is very happy there. Despite all the problems Mum was envisaging with getting him to and from school, it seems that she is coping. I am so plesaed, as I really thought we were going to lose this one and it would have had big consequences for next year.

I have to say that limiting schools to a maximum of 30 per infant class is a good move, but it really does cause problems if a child moves into the area. If the child loses an appeal, then the consequences are that they have to go to a school further away with the issues that brings regarding transport and visiting friends etc. And if the school loses the appeal, it means that they have to either employ another teacher and find another classroom or that they have to go to mixed year groups.

And certainly locally we are going to find this more and more of a problem - all of the local schools are full, all have good reputations, and houses are springing up all over the place. We'll see next year, but I suspect we will have a fair few appeals for Year Reception places next summer.

I cannot believe how much of my time this appeal is taking up. It is not for another fortnight, but I am already feeling nervous to the point of tears about it. I can't imagine how the poor mother of the child who needs the school place must be feeling.

I have this morning had a rather unnerving conversation with the appeals clerk. She is an extremely nice and very efficient lady, but her opening line was "I think you should be very prepared to lose this one, and I mean, VERY prepared." Adding "But it won't be your fault" didn't really help, I have to admit.

She went into various reasons as to why we should be prepared to lose (vicinity of the school - about 200 meters! - Year 2 having places and other details that I don't feel I should go into here). However, from all the paperwork I have ploughed through (and, trust me, it is a forest full), there is nothing that says that the child should be taken. There is a school a mile and a half away with a place, there are taxis and there are childcare options and Year 2 will have gone to junior school next year when we will have to cut our class sizes back down to 30.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that the family in question is in a very difficult situation. I do feel sorry for them, but what I don't want is for the school to have to house a class of children in the library next year, or to employ another teacher at great cost.

I was doubly worried when the clerk told me to be prepared to respond should the panel ask how many children move out of the school each year. I knew that I had seen some paperwork on this that said that panels cannot consider possible movement from the school in making their decision. When I said this, the clerk said "if it isn't in the Guide to the Law, it doesn't count". When I have just looked it up, I have found it in a DCFS document released this September. Presumably, that means it does count? I have forwarded the details to the clerk and hopefully she will inform the panel. As I say, she has been helpful and given me some good advice as, I assume, she is doing for the appellant.

Some things I have learnt about appeals this week:

1)    If you are a foundation school, don’t expect your LA to help you.

2)    No one seems to want to help parents find a place at a suitable school (a parent who has moved to the area, it seems, is given the advice to ‘ring around the schools and see who has a place). So much for individual choice!

3)    Appeals clerks are mines of information.

4)    If you are a foundation school, you should form an Admissions Panel before any appeals come up. That way, you can say at appeal that you discussed each individual case and came up with your reasons for refusing them entry.

5)    The infant class size rule (that classes may not be more than 30) can be broken if:

a) a child that has moved into the area has a special need.

b) an appeals panel agrees in favour of the appellant (generally if the school has not applied its admissions criteria correctly).

c) there is no other place for a child that has moved into the area in a school that is ‘a reasonable distance’ away.

6)    No one seems to have a clue of what ‘a reasonable distance’ is.

7)    If you do break the infant class size rule, you may only do so for one year. If no child has left by the following year schools have to find some way to reduce the class size to 30.