Thank you, I cried when the letter came through the post, I was so relieved. The additional stress is when your children have so much more faith in you to get them in than you have in yourself. I so didn't want to let our daughter down. We have never been through a process like this before.
In response to the bit about a check list, when you download the full appeals document from the other site, at the end of each section is a check list. Also look at ACE
http://www.ace-ed.org.uk Any information you can glean to help, it is very important that you get through stage one.
You need to prove that the school has places. It may not have places for all appellants, but you may be able to prove that it has a few, enough to give you a chance to get to stage 2. Many people don't seem to appreciate that if you can't demonstrate any room for more students, you may not get through to an individual case or stage 2.
In our case, we felt trying to prove the preferred secondary school had spaces was really difficult. All of the secondary schools in our town are involved in BSF (Building Schools for the Future). Also, a nearby secondary school is being closed, which means that all of the secondary schools are having to take additional pupils from that closing school. Because of BSF, 30 appeals had been upheld last year, we couldn't see the same happening again and it pushed the school to beyond it's limits really. The allocated secondary school had places (or was undersubscribed) our preferred secondary is heavily oversubscribed, we don't live within the catchment area of the partner primary school and our situation seemed impossible.
I learned from last years prospectus and the previous prospectus that the school had taken on 3 additional fully qualified specialist teachers. That gave a 16:1 pupil teacher ratio, the national average is 16.6:1. Also, the school had been provided with 2 temporary classrooms that hold up to 100 pupils. They had also installed a 3rd temporary classroom worth another 50 places. So I tried to argue on the grounds of them having the capacity to take more.
Find out how many science labs the school has, how many D&T classrooms. Apparently the national average is 150:1 pupils to labs and 250:1 pupils to D&T classrooms.
What are the class sizes, ie, how many students to teachers? Don't get carried away with what the other school doesn't have. Don't turn up and say, you took x amount of pupils last year why can't you do it again this year? Think about it, that is a really weak argument, those pupils haven't left the school, the school just has to rejuggle it's resources.
Another embarassment for us was having to ask for another panellist. It transpired that one of the panellists was a governor from a rival secondary school, the school that had been allocated to our child! - No one else objected despite the fact that their children had also been allocated the same school.
It was a good move on our part, we had to wait an extra hour for a 3rd panellist. This offered a good opportunity to try to offer questions to other parents to ask. It is a bit like question time, you ask a question, but don't always get the opportunity to push your point home. If others can ask good probing questions, then that is good for all of you.
Don't give away your individual case during this process.
The school also argued on the grounds of Health and Safety. I checked with the Council and no serious incidents had been reported to them.
The school will try to paint a bleak picture, don't let them.
If you can get through to stage 2, then you really need to impress upon the school why your child should attend that school. We were fortunate in that the ofsted report for both schools had been produced within a month of each other and in 2008. In the reports were direct comparisons proving why the allocated school was unsuitable for our child. I think the appeals panel appreciate your research. As posted earlier, the panel is made up of volunteers. How would you feel if you volunteered to hear people put their cases forward for their children and they arrived unprepared, expecting you to just let their child through because they turned up?
I am quite a confident speaker, but I would advise you to prepare a statement to read out. That is the best way to ensure that you don't forget anything important. I used as many facts and statistics as I could find. Don't try to pull the wool over the eyes of the panel. They are intelligent people and if they ask you a question that you can't answer easily, you can be tripped up. Just be honest. It really is the best policy. I read somewhere that someone had given advice about making up personal stuff. It won't work. If you don't feel right about your own argument and feel that you have to be evasive in any way, you can't put your best case forward, so I would ignore that as bad advice. Try to think of questions the panel would be likely to ask. We knew that travel was dodgy for us, but we were able to use it to our advantage by arguing the case for the LA (in the admissions code) about reducing traffic congestion. We thought the authorities would try to argue that we live closer to the allocated school, but it is in the opposite direction to where we normally travel and could state that we would not be adding to congestion to travel to our preferred secondary school.
I wouldn't expect you to state your case on line, their may be other people who are appealling for the same school. But if you have 3 good points as you state, work on them. Make sure they are pretty water tight arguments for the school of your choice. If there are any weaknesses turn them around and make them a strength.
Another question we were asked was about friendships. Attending a school not in our catchment area could put a strain on local friendships. We told the truth and stated that it can be difficult at times, but our child mixes with many children through extra-curricula activities and has friends across the town, so wouldn't be particularly affected.
Hope this helps
Best of luck
I would just like to say that we found excellent advice on the other site (schoolsappeals) and it was well worth the fiver to read a simple version of the appeals code that breaks down a tick list. It formed the basis of our statement. We also used one of their solicitors at a cost of £240 and found his advice and support very welcome and most valuable. He also advised against us asking him to represent us as you stand a better chance representing yourself if you follow his advice. Nor did he attempt to fleece us further by charging for the 2nd stage advice. He felt that we know our child best and are in the best position to answer any questions. None of this is handed to you on a plate, you have to put in the ground work yourselves. Each case is different, personal and individual to you.