How to appeal for a Bucks GS place 2015 (Appeals/Reviews)

[Sally-Anne]

Also - BHS sent out letters last year adding a whole extra class - and yet their current roll number is 155 - 5 over PAN for 150. Did they not have enough interest to add the extra class in the end?

The roll number you are quoting is for January 2014, which is the date of the school census. This year's roll number will include the extra class, but it hasn't been published yet.

It is confusing because the year of admission and the year of the census are not the same.

[Booklady]

Also - BHS sent out letters last year adding a whole extra class - and yet their current roll number is 155 - 5 over PAN for 150. Did they not have enough interest to add the extra class in the end?

The roll number you are quoting is for January 2014, which is the date of the school census. This year's roll number will include the extra class, but it hasn't been published yet.

It is confusing because the year of admission and the year of the census are not the same.

Got it - thanks!!

[Etienne]

I thought the group hearing was just for the FCO bit?

See A10 (i) in the first post of this thread.

[BucksMum02]

Thank you so much for this incredibly informative thread. In spite of looking at your pointers (A10), and reading through the details - What I am not sure about is this group hearing?

Is it step 1) We submit appeal form, step 2) There is a group hearing to establish if the review was FCO, step 3) If agreed it was not FCO, you are invited to appeal in front of panel??

I am going to submit our appeal forms soon. We were unsuccessful at review, and don't feel that they considered all the evidence fully (it is ambiguous and subjective - so hoping that that will help us in our FCO argument - although the points on here are incredibly helpful)....

Sorry I just can't see what the progression is even though I am sure it is right there!!

[Etienne]

Hi BucksMum02

It's a good question.

step 1) We submit appeal form,

- Yes.

step 2) There is a group hearing to establish if the review was FCO,

No - there is a decision on whether or not the school has made its case for prejudice (assuming the school is oversubscribed), but confusingly FCO is different!
There is no 'overall decision' on FCO - because FCO can only be decided with reference to individual cases.
The reason for this is that para 3.13(b) of the Appeals Code specifically refers to "whether each child’s review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way", so there is no provision for the school's case for FCO to be considered as a whole.

At the group hearing, therefore, there is a question & answer session about FCO, but no decision is taken until after your individual hearing.
We suspect the idea behind the question & answer session at the group hearing is to try and get most of the generic questions out of the way.
(If all the generic questions were left for individual hearings, then the constant repetition of the same general questions at each individual hearing would be very, very time-consuming!)

The above is our understanding of the arrangements made by BCC's legal department. Schools handling their own appeals might manage the process differently.

step 3) If agreed it was not FCO, you are invited to appeal in front of panel?

No - you will automatically proceed to an individual hearing.
When the Appeals Team write to you about the arrangements, you will be given a date & time for both the group hearing and your individual hearing.

Hope this helps.

[BucksMum02]

Hi Etienne

Many thanks indeed for your patience and for explaining in detail.

Last question... I would like to run our appeal past someone (like yourself), in the know. Am I able to pay for your services to look over our FCO case, and appeal itself. As you may have noticed on this forum I have a tendency to talk a lot, and I know that my case will be weak because I want to tell them EVERYTHING....!

Many thanks in advance!

This topic is for general discussion only. As you're now moving away from questions about how the process works, and on to your specific case, I'm going to move your recent posts to Appeals where you need to have your own thread.

Etienne

[Etienne]

• Analysis of the school case 2014.
We cannot comment on the 2015 case until it becomes available at the end of April/beginning of May.

Is anyone able to help by sending a copy of this year's school case to the Appeals Box, please?

[heartmum]

• Analysis of the school case 2014.
We cannot comment on the 2015 case until it becomes available at the end of April/beginning of May.

Is anyone able to help by sending a copy of this year's school case to the Appeals Box, please?

Hi Etienne, received today the schools case notes for SHF. Will send them to you.

[Booklady]

Etienne - are all the schools cases different to each other? Or is there a common thread through them with just some separate pieces?

Thanks

[Etienne]

Thanks, heartmum.

Etienne - are all the schools cases different to each other? Or is there a common thread through them with just some separate pieces?

Thanks

The FCO case is identical, I think.
The oversubscription/prejudice case is specific to each school, although the format is likely to be similar.

It's the FCO case I was going to have a look at to see if there have been any changes.