Slough Consortium Appeal Guidelines

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chad
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Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:49 pm
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Slough Consortium Appeal Guidelines

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THE FORM
The form provided with the guidance leaflet has been produced to assist you in making your appeal. You should
include all matters you want the Appeal Panel to consider. Neither the Clerk nor the Appeal Panel will be
requesting information regarding your case from any source, including your child’s Primary School. It is your
sole responsibility to include and to provide any supporting evidence relevant to your case.
If part of the reason for your Appeal is your/or your child’s medical/health condition, it may be helpful to your
case if you were able to provide written evidence of this. The Clerk cannot write to your GP or hospital
consultant about such matters

THE APPEAL
The appeal will be heard at your first choice consortium school. A letter will be
sent to you at least 14 days before your appeal stating the date and time it will take place and the procedure to
be followed. Appeals will be heard in April & May and, as it is likely that there will be many appeals, it
will NOT be possible to provide alternative dates if you are unable to attend on the scheduled day. The
governors’ statement as to why your child has not been offered a place (entitled
Notification of the School’s Case) will also be sent. In addition, you will receive a copy of your appeal form and
any other information which you have supplied to the Clerk. The Appeal Panel will be circulated with exactly
the same information.
You may bring to the Appeal samples of the pupil’s Year 6 work in English, Mathematics and Science and a
recent school report as further evidence to support your case. Please select these items carefully as time
constraints will not permit large volumes of school work or reports to be examined. The Panel’s role is not,
however, to make its own assessment of your child’s ability.

THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMBINED APPEAL PANEL
The combined Appeal Panel will consist of three persons, as specified by current legislation. No member of
the Panel will have been involved in the original decision not to allocate your child a place.

WHO ATTENDS THE APPEAL
You have a right to attend the Hearing and are allowed to bring someone to help with the presentation of your
case. Normally the child whose appeal is being considered is not admitted. The Hearing will last up to 15
minutes which is a guideline on time as multiple appeals will be heard.
A person will attend to represent the School who will usually be either the Headteacher, Deputy
Headteacher or a Senior Teacher. Neither you nor the School’s Representative is present with the Appeal
Panel without the other. The Clerk, who is an independent source of advice on procedure, will be present
throughout the Hearing. If you do not attend the Hearing, your appeal will be decided on the information
available. Whether you attend or not, the Panel will consider the written evidence you have submitted.

PROCEDURE
Appeal Hearings are conducted as informally as possible and the Chair is responsible for the procedure which is as follows:
 The Chair will welcome you and introduce the members of the Appeal Panel and the School’s Representative.
 The Chair will outline the procedure to be followed.
 The School’s Representative will present the School’s Case, and you may ask questions if you wish.
 The Chair will ask you to present your case. The Appeal Panel will already have all the written information you have submitted to the Clerk, which may include examples of Year 6 work in English, Mathematics and Science, and a recent school report. Members of the Panel and the School’s Representative may ask you questions.
 The Chair will give the School’s Representative and you the opportunity to sum up your case (without adding any new information) before he/she asks you to leave.
 The Clerk will remain with the Panel to record the decision.
The emphasis is on informality coupled with fairness.

THE DECISION
There are two stages:

Stage One - The School’s Representative must satisfy the Panel that the School’s published admission criteria have been properly applied in your case, in other words that the duty to allocate your child a place at Langley Grammar School does not apply:
 either because your child gained the pass mark of 111 or more (averaged between the results of 2 individual tests of Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning) but all the available places had been allocated to children who scored a higher mark or an equal mark but who live closer to the school.
 or because your child failed to gain a score of 111.
If the Panel is satisfied that the admission criteria have been properly applied and if your child achieved the pass mark of 111, the Panel will then consider whether it would be prejudicial to the efficient education or the efficient use of resources at the school if your child was admitted. This is effectively to look at whether the published admission number is a justified limit or whether any more pupils could be admitted.

Stage Two - If the Panel is satisfied that the published admission criteria have been properly applied and (if appropriate) that there would be prejudice to the school if your child was admitted, the Panel must then go on to the second stage where the Panel will listen to your case and balance the degree of prejudice to the school in admitting your child against the weight of the reasons you put forward for admission, before arriving at a final decision.

THE COMMUNICATION OF THE DECISION
The Clerk will inform you of the combined Appeal Panel’s decision in writing as soon as possible after the Hearing but only after all Appeals have been heard. The school’s governing body and representative will also be advised. The decision of the combined Appeal Panel is final and binding.
If you consider that your Appeal has been conducted in a way that has been unfair, you are entitled to ask the Secretary of State to investigate matters on your behalf. You should be aware that the Secretary of State cannot review or overturn decisions of Appeal Panels but only consider if the Panel was correctly constituted and that they have not breached the mandatory provisions of the Code of Practice.

SUCCESSFUL APPEALS
If your appeal is successful, you will be allocated a place.

FURTHER INFORMATION
This information is only for guidance. The legal basis of Appeal Panels is contained in the 1988 and subsequent Education Acts.
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