Recent hearing

[Moscow]

So what you are saying is that any child that may have been offered a place recently at appeal for non-qualification, having failed a headteachers appeal may have that offer revoked as it is illegal because the appeal panel were not aware of the new rules?

I will be contacting KCC admissions tomorrow to check this out. I know that the appeals panel had no ideas whether the Head teacher had appealed and so were not aware of this new admissions code.
You cannot change a whole policy on admission and not inform the people involved as this opens up a can of worms. This would make all appeals in Kent null and void, therefore, there must be a starting date for this, after the present appeal for 2008.

[heronsfly]

I agree moscow and if we need to wave our banners at county hall in protest I will be there.
As I said earlier when this point was raised a few weeks ago, I rang the lea and they assured me that appeals were the same this year,if that is not the case then we have been misled very badly.
Also I find it hard to believe that appeal panels would spend up to two weeks intervewing up to 70 sets of parents out of courtesy.

[Alex]

Yes Heronsfly. i think you are right. This new procedure only applys from the next Kent test which is taken before school preference is chosen. Obviously school choice would be different if a child had not passed before schools were chosen. this is how it used to be. As for us, we still can appeal against non-qualification, otherwise out Head would have also told us there was no point in appealing.

The Appeals Code is treated as 'ex post facto' meaning that because Mr. Balls (Secretary of State for DCSF) has determined on the prosposed imposed Admissions Scheme for 2009 that Kent's head teacher assessment is part of a non statutory review system against which there is no right of appeal against non-qualification, appeals from 1st March are subject to restrospective law.

The legal advice given to Panels and Primary Heads was premature because, at that time, County did not consider that the Head teacher assessment was a non-statutory local review. The DCSF has now decided it is, despite Kent renaming the Head Teacher Appeals as Head Teacher assessment.

Subsequently, any panel accepting evidence from parents to determine qualification when the child has not passed the 11+ is acting illegally.

The DCSF will be monitoring the situation as far as I'm aware.

Are you saying that the DCSF has made a specific ruling about the Kent "local review" system? Lincolnshire also has a primary Head teacher Referral system for non-qualification and the LA has decided that this cannot be interpreted as "fair, consistent and objective" and therefore appeals for Community and Controlled schools will be handled as previously. My own feeling is that it would be quite hard to prove that such reviews really are fair, consistent and objective if a parent were to challenge this - the whole process would have to become a lot more open to scrutiny at the very least.

[heronsfly]

Good point alex.
In my hours of reading the ins and outs of the appeal process,im sure I have read that when this new system is up and runing, Ht appeals will be made with the parents knowledge.we will not have the input we have now but will have the chance to give HT any reasons for bad performance that they may not be aware of, again things would have to be much more open.

[c'est la vie]

Are you saying that the DCSF has made a specific ruling about the Kent "local review" system?

I shall quote verbatim from the DCSF on the proposed imposed scheme for Admission 2009, starting with the 'glossary.'

"head teacher assessment" - a stage in the assessment process in which a child's primary school may if necessary submit additional evidence and a written statement to a head teacher panel to enable a final assessment of suitability for grammar school to be made.

The proposed imposed scheme then goes on to procedure. The section headed 'Testing' states under paragraph 13:

"Following the marking and the application of the Head teacher assessment stage, on 20th October 2008 the LA will write to parents advising of the assessment decision. Parents will have until 14 November 2008 to return their completed SCAF.
There will be no right of appeal against the outcome of a child's assessment, but parents may make an admission appeal after 2nd March 2009 to the independent appeal panel if their child is refused admission to any school.


It could not be clearer.

When the new Appeals Code was produced to Kent, there was concern that the Head Teacher Appeals panel was a non-statutory review process. Kent's legal adviser told the Education Cabinet that Kent's system was not a non-statutory local review but part of the assessment process. In other words, semantics were used to circumnavigate the spirit of the new code. Clarification was sought - ministers were sent into Kent to examine their system - and the outcome is as above. The wording of the proposed imposed scheme specifically for Kent adopts Kent's new terminology but does not negate the provisions of the new Appeals Code.

And since the Appeals Code came into force on 1st March, the law applies from that date; there is no provision in the code for a transitional period.

I am appalled that 'experienced' people at County have not thought about dealing with the consequences of results before preference for the large group of 11+ 'failures.'

Moscow - ring the Admissions team and ask to speak to Scott Bagshaw. When he and Ian Craig were reminded that the new code applies to appeals in the current round, they both maintained that parents had never been allowed to appeal against non-qualification anyway! One is inclined to ask what planet are they living on!

They will have to manage the 'flak' that has resulted from apparently being tardy in making some panels unaware of the clarification that the DCSF have brought to the process and I should imagine there will be quite a few parents bringing the matter to the attention of the Ombudsman with accusations of maladministration.

[Alex]

C'est la Vie,

Thanks for quoting from the DCSF comments on Kent's proposed admissions system -

"Following the marking and the application of the Head teacher assessment stage, on 20th October 2008 the LA will write to parents advising of the assessment decision. Parents will have until 14 November 2008 to return their completed SCAF.
There will be no right of appeal against the outcome of a child's assessment, but parents may make an admission appeal after 2nd March 2009 to the independent appeal panel if their child is refused admission to any school. "


It seems to me, however, that this does not constitute a ruling as to whether the review system is "consistent, fair and objective". There never has been any right of appeal against a non-statutory review decision (because it is non-statutory) so the DCSF is merely re-stating what happens already. The crucial question is how the admissions authority(ies) and the appeal panels will approach the statutory appeal. The admissions authority may decide that it has indeed conducted a consistent, fair and objective review, but would have to be prepared to substantiate this, if it were questioned by the parent and/or panel; alternatively, they may decide that its reviews do not pass muster on these criteria, in which case this should be made clear at the appeal hearing and matters would proceed as at present.

[c'est la vie]

Alex,

The assessment process encompasses the marking of the 11+ papers and the subsequent h/t assessment in borderline cases. There is no right of appeal against the entire assessment, not just the h/t part.

Presumably there is a set check list for Appeals Panels to determine whether the assessment process has been fair and consistent. After all, for all other matters relating to appeals e.g. did admission decisions adhere strictly to agreed admissions criteria; is school accommodation so limited that there are health and safety considerations for the school population if numbers substantially in excess of the PAN are admitted...and so on.
Para 3.37: "Where a local review process has been followed, the panel must not makes its own assessment of the child's ability, but must consider whether each child's review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way e.g. whether the same type of evidence was used in all cases. If there is no evidence that this has been done, it must follow the process in paragraph 3.36"

Additionally, County will have to ensure that the assessment process is fair, consistent and objective since they have overall responsibility for admissions. And to that end they amended their PESE 4 for primary heads to ensure that the same documentation was provided for each child by schools in all cases of review.

It saddens me to see how such a situation has arisen that adds to confusion for parents. The whole secondary transfer process is fraught enough without additional stress.

[A Mum]

I am a bit confused and I apologise in advance if I am completely way off here but Cest le vie has posted quoting preposed imposed scheme for Admission 2009 and later refers to Head teacher assesment date of 20/10/08 and parents chance to respond by 14/11/08 and a final date of 2/3/09 does this not all relate to next year ie will effect children currently in year 5.

The bit I am confused about is the admissions for 2009 as the appeals at the moment are for admission this Sept 2008.

I am really sorry if I am adding to the confusion

[A Mum]

Have Just re read Cest la vies post and seen the bit that states the rules for the appeals process came into force 1/3

This does seem unfair as head teachers may have made appeals in good faith but without knowing all the facts regarding mitigating cirumstances ie. Illness or broken limbs would have been informed to the school but more personal circumstances may not have been.

If a HT appeal was made but the HT did not know all the facts would this be a case for another appeal on the grounds of not being carried out properly in the first place?

I wish all of you appealing the best of luck and hope you do get the results you are after

[c'est la vie]

This does seem unfair as head teachers may have made appeals in good faith but without knowing all the facts regarding mitigating cirumstances ie. Illness or broken limbs would have been informed to the school but more personal circumstances may not have been.

Para 3.36 says that even in those cases where no local review process has been applied, the panel should consider any factors which parents contend may have affected their child's performance (eg illness, bereavement); whether the family made the admission authority aware of these before they sat the test; and whether it offered alternative arrangements or made reasonable adjustments (eg in the case of children with disabilities.)

The onus is on the parent to ensure that schools know before the test of any mitigating circumstances that could affect their child's performance. It would seem if these circumstances were brought to the attention after the results came out, then the panel would have to take this into account when making their judgement.