Change of appeal status - Primary

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worntoafrazzle
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:29 pm

Change of appeal status - Primary

Post by worntoafrazzle »

I have an appeal hearing tomorrow morning and have just received an email with a letter from the school requesting that the status of the appeal is changed from a normal appeal to an infant class size appeal.

Briefly it is a small village school with offered places of 18 (PAN 17 with a twin) for reception this autumn, they currently have 11 (PAN of 17) in reception now and this class will form a mixed year group in September. Unfortunately, a child has been offered a place for Year 1 in September bringing the class size to 30, hence the status of the appeal.

However, I will not know until I attend the appeal tomorrow morning what the status of the appeal will be.

Any help or advice greatly received as I feel like I have been tripped up even before I begin!
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Re: Change of appeal status - Primary

Post by Etienne »

This does sound like bad news.

Unusual, I would have thought, to combine Reception with year 1 (more usual to combine year 1 with year 2), but it depends on the numbers, and the decision is one for the school.

When you received the authority's case, did they take the precaution of including, in effect, two cases: one for 'normal prejudice', and one for ICS (should it be needed)?
Etienne
worntoafrazzle
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:29 pm

Re: Change of appeal status - Primary

Post by worntoafrazzle »

No - all the paperwork received up until today stated it was a normal (non-infant class size) prejudice appeal which we had a reasonable chance of winning. There is no way we can win a ics appeal, so it is really bad news and if the class is now full, I presume the panel will have to change the status of the appeal....

Should add that until 2010 they combined year 1 and year 2 and kept the reception as a single class but they have now re-structured the school so that year 6 is a single class and therefore reception is combined. They have always suffered with people using the school as a pre-prep and have much smaller classes as you enter KS2 so I guess the re-structure is an attempt to convince people to keep their children at the school. Otherwise their funding is shot as they keep losing children at the top end of the school. Unfortunately that does not help me at the moment - it is just frustrating that the school has spaces but not where I need them to be!
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Re: Change of appeal status - Primary

Post by Etienne »

I presume the panel will have to change the status of the appeal....
Strictly speaking, it's the admission authority that would be changing the case, not the panel. (As with any appeal, the panel would, of course, have to decide whether the authority has got a case.)
all the paperwork received up until today stated it was a normal (non-infant class size) prejudice appeal
In that case, the appeal - in my view - shouldn't really be proceeding, because you've not had advance notice of the authority's ICS case, and time to re-consider your own. I think this would amount to maladministration.

Whether you would have anything to gain from requesting an adjournment is another matter because, as you realise, the chances of winning an ICS appeal are very slim (certainly in terms of personal circumstances).

Unless yours is the only appeal, what puzzles me is why they wouldn't have included an ICS case as a precaution. After all, only one Reception appeal would have to succeed for the combined class to reach 30, and any remaining Reception appeals would instantly become ICS.
Etienne
worntoafrazzle
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:29 pm

Re: Change of appeal status - Primary

Post by worntoafrazzle »

Thank you for your reply! :D

Essentially the school offered 17 places for this year's reception. Whilst the appeal got underway one of the offered places was turned down and the next children on the list were twins, so they had to offer them both a place. Originally 4 children were appealing but 3 dropped out, so we are the only ones appealing now.

I will go along to the appeal tomorrow but cannot see that it will be worth me accepting, what I presume will be their offer to reconvene once we have all had time to look at the new paperwork. :(
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