I won my oversubscription appeal

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MissTibs
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:43 am

I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by MissTibs »

My child was offered place at selective grammar school today. The oversubscription criteria meant that although deemed suitable for a place we lived too far (we are out of the area).
Although we were given very short notice (5 days) I manged to arrange time off work to attend stage one of the hearing (group hearing).
We received the schools reasons as to why they could not take any more students (12 pages). I went through it in detail highlighting ambiguous statements. The pertinent point was the school has taken students above the PAN in several years, whereone year this was 8 over PAN.

This was my first experience of an appeal. There was 8 parents appealing. The panel introduced themselves and then asked the school representative (Assistant Head) to make her case. She read succinct points from the document we had received. The parents were then asked if they had any questions and this is where it all began.

The first was straight forward, the school had taken over their PAN and thus there was a precedent. She just replied they had as the appeals were successful.
I asked regarding the square footage as the school has been refurbished and although she could not say what this was, when pushed she admitted 'more space ' had resulted.
The admission numbers for sixth firm was a very strange concept of '20 plus number in Year 11' which the panel found puzzling as she kept emphasising how full they were, yet had no definite numbers they could take in Year 12.
I asked if the school had hard evidence showing prejudice to the efficient use of resources had occurred in previous years where intake had increased significantly. She replied (to her unwitting detriment ) the school prides itself in quality of teaching and that cohort did very well.
Classroom could take up to 30 children but they decided 28 students was best. When probed she said the extra space was for support staff. The question asked the was how many support staff the school had and number of SEN children. There was 3 in entire school and only 1 child with SEN entering in September 2015. The panel did not appear impressed with her lack of knowledge or that there were 'spaces' for something that was not really required.

The summary was that after many more questions the schools argument had many holes in it. The panel went away and deliberated for 40mins before the clerk came back to say all children who had passed the exam (3 of the 8 ) would be given a place as the school did have space and there was no need to attend individual hearing. The remaining 5 children would have to as theirs was non qualification as well.

All in all it pays to research the schools argument, whilst coming across as reasonable questioning the schools argument was key. I was congratulated by several parents whilst waiting for the initial verdict on the number of questions I had asked. My thoughts were that it would help us all and not just my son, so did not hold back. :mrgreen:
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by Daogroupie »

Well done. These parents were very lucky that you were there. A great success story. Your son should be very proud of you. DG
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by ToadMum »

Congratulations on your success :).

Out of interest, what area are you in?
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
WindowGlass
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:59 pm
Location: West Midlands

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by WindowGlass »

I don't know how PAN is decided or updated, but I would hope there are firm and not vague reasons for it in any school. I can imagine a bit of a review going on amongst the governing body about it now.

I hope hope your child does well and indeed all the children of the school, and I know we all have to uphold valid rights and standards, but I do sense a bit of a them-vs-us aspect to this that seems unfortunate. I don't like the idea of schools being forced into decisions they wouldn't take for the best for their cohort, but on the other hand it isn't that they should be allowed to be unreasonably restrictive either.

All the best to you any way!
salsa
Posts: 2686
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:59 am

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by salsa »

Well done! It's great to hear good news. I wouldn't be surprised if other children give up their places and they go back to PAN or under!
heartmum
Posts: 1154
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by heartmum »

Great news :)

... for us it's non-qualification/appeal to get through, but lovely to hear happy news for others X x x
Heartmum x x x
MissTibs
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:43 am

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by MissTibs »

ToadMum wrote:Congratulations on your success :).

Out of interest, what area are you in?
Many thanks. The school is in North Yorkshire. I am new to the forum so don't know if I can mention the name. I wanted to put it on the forum as I benefitted a lot from the advice here and that it's worth doing your homework.
silverysea
Posts: 1105
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 3:32 pm

Re: I won my oversubscription appeal

Post by silverysea »

Wow, that is impressive!
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