Will Parents be Facing an Anxious Time this Year?
Schools Admissions Appeals have been a hot topic in the news and with government lately. John Chard, of Schools Appeals, an organisation which provides a range of services to parents looking to appeal an admission decision, provides practical advice to parents on the appeals process, and how to maximise their chances of success.
Most parents would have begun the year full of hope and optimism and going through the seasonal tradition of making resolutions, most of which will be broken before they have even started. However, for many parents, sadly, the year will bring long periods of doubt and uncertainty.
Approximately one hundred thousand parents will have applied for schools of their choice and be disappointed. For those children transferring to secondary school they will be anxiously waiting for what has affectionately been described as “National Offer Day” on 1 March. Those who did not secure a place at the school of their choice will be faced with long periods of anxiety and unease due to the nature of the statutory appeals process. Some of those parents and children will not know where which school they are going until the beginning of the school year in September, and for some, not even then.
According to the most recently published information from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for the academic year 2005/06, 36.3 per cent of appeals heard were successful. This included 36.4 per cent of secondary school appeals and 36.1 per cent of primary school appeals. Somewhat surprisingly, the success rate for infant class appeals was 19.5 per cent despite the very limited grounds on which appeals can be successful.
Regretfully, the situation is about to get worse. The Department for Children, Schools and Families has published a new Code of Practice on School Admission Appeals which seeks to limit the success of class size appeals, which relate to reception and years 1 and 2, by preventing the introduction of fresh information at an appeal. At the moment parents can introduce fresh in formation at the appeal which was not available to the admission authority when it reached its decision on the application. The effect of this will be to limit still further the grounds on which an appeal can be successful. We will have to wait and see how the courts interpret these new restrictions.
Many will feel that a success rate of approximately one in three is not bad, but try telling that to those parents whose appeals were unsuccessful! So, what can parents do to increase their chances of success?
There are two elements to the appeal process; the first is the parent’s case and the reasons why they want a place at the school and the second is the admission authority’s case, where they try and convince the appeal panel that the school cannot admit any more pupils.
Many parents ask me “what are the grounds for an appeal?” The answer is simple. The grounds for their appeal are the reasons why they picked the school in the first place. There are many reasons why parents choose a particular school; it maybe because it is the nearest school or maybe it performs very well against national targets. Parents’ reasons for choosing a school will vary considerably but there is one consistent element to the appeal process; parents must be able to provide evidence to support any claims that they make. If, on the one hand, they are claiming medical reasons, a supporting letter from the doctor will be essential. If, on the other hand, their child shows a particular interest or ability in the subject that the school specialises in, evidence will be needed to support this reason in the form of letter from their tutor.
Most parents seem able to articulate the reasons why they chose a particular school. However, what is often seen as being much more difficult is how to challenge the admission authority’s case; parents either do not know how to challenge it, or to feel confident in doing so.
At the appeal, the obligation rests with the admission authority to explain why an additional admission will cause problems for the school; many authorities fail to do this. Others will cite reasons such as health and safety issues, and problems with overcrowding as grounds for refusing an application. However, such grounds must be supported by evidence to justify such claims. In many statements such evidence is non existent. But such an oversight must be drawn to the appeal panel’s attention.
In addition, you can submit evidence to challenge the authority’s statement. The school’s net capacity, which is based on a national formula produced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DfCSF) and determines the size of the school, will ultimately establish the number of pupils that the school admits each academic year. Details of this can be found on the website www.edubase.gov.uk along with the number of pupils at the school based on the annual census which is carried out in January each year. Any inconsistencies between the net capacity, the number of pupils at the school and the number of pupils which could be at school, can be exploited to help to undermine the admission authority’s case.
Parents can also look at the performance figures to see how the school is doing compared to other schools in the area and nationally. The DfCSF website is www.dfcsf.gov.uk which gives details of the performance tables of all schools. If the school is doing very well despite the fact that there are more pupils at the school than the net capacity, it can be argued that one more pupil will not adversely affect the performance.
And finally, parents can look at the Ofsted website to see what the government inspectors said in their last report. If the inspectors did not have anything adverse to say about the school then this can be used to challenge the authority’s case. The web site is www.ofsted.gov.uk and will cover all schools but remember the older the report, the less valid it will be.
The appeal process is subject to equalities legislation which requires the panel to treat both sides equally. But actually both sides must be treated differently to ensure that they are treated equally. It is recognised that the admission authority will be more used to attending appeals and presenting their case and so the panel is encouraged to allow a bit more flexibility and latitude to parents to enable them to present all their evidence and thus be treated equally.
The advice above relates to appeals for comprehensive secondary schools and all year groups from year three and above, and not selective secondary schools. If a child has not passed the grammar school test, parents will have to show that there were mitigating circumstances or that their child is suitable for a grammar school education. This can be done by producing evidence from a third party such as a doctor in the event of illness or a social worker (or similar professional) in the case of a family bereavement
If parents are applying for a place in reception, they are likely to be faced with what is known as a class size appeal. Legislation has placed a limit of 30 children per school teacher in Key Stage 1 classes; this includes reception and years one and two. If this is the case, there are only two grounds on which an appeal can be successful; one is that the admission authority made a mistake that resulted in a place being denied and the second is that the decision was unreasonable. However, the new Code on School Admission Appeals is seeking to limit successful appeals as described above.
Parents have access to a lot more information than previously due to the emergence of the internet. In addition there is also a lot of help available for those parents who do not feel confident at presenting their case either in writing or at the appeal. In 2002 School Appeals was established to provide such help and provides a range of services. The web site is www.schoolappeals.org.uk and phone contact details are 01903 718741.