New appeals code

[capers123]

From the DfE - I note that the draft code does not have the date that it comes into effect from, and guess that will not be decided until its put before the house.

"The Codes and draft regulations will be laid before Parliament in December, in order to come into force in February 2012, and thereby affect the allocation of places for children starting school in September 2013."

culled from http://www.education.gov.uk/a00199858/p ... ions-codes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

" Parents will have at least 20 days to lodge an appeal against primary or secondary school decisions. The current 10-day limit means parents must appeal quickly but many then drop the appeal because they later get an offer at another of their preferred schools. In the last school year for which figures are available (2008/09), more than a quarter of all appeals lodged (24,550 out of 88,270) were not taken forward, wasting time and money.

Guidance against hearing appeals on school premises will be overturned. At the moment admission authorities sometimes have to make costly, taxpayer-funded bookings of hotels or conference rooms.

Admission authorities will no longer be required to advertise for lay appeal members every three years, but must ensure that panel members are independent and that they retain their independence for the duration of their service."

[pabrighton0]

Sensible changes but perhaps if they would push authorities to communicate the scores before applications, this would mean people could appeal immediately so avoiding delays in the whole process. I am still puzzled about why marking papers takes 3 or 4 months.

[tedolita]

It doesn't. In Medway, where the children take English, Maths and VR exams the results are out very quickly. This year the exam was on the 24th of September and the result was out on the 7th of October. You then have until the 31st of October to make your choice of school, already knowing whether your DC has qualified or not. Most of the schools have their open days after the results day, therefore you only visit the schools that are suitable to you. Personally, IMHO a much better system. The main difference is Medway is an opt in system, while Bucks is an opt out, so maybe a lot more people take the test in these type of counties.

[aargh]

In Gloucestershire we too get our results within a week so that we can make sensible decisions on the CAF. You still cannot appeal early though, because the places at each school are not allocated until March (there is a thread somewhere where that process is discussed at length). You cannot appeal against an allocation which has not yet happened.

[pabrighton0]

You cannot appeal against an allocation which has not yet happened.

Point taken. There are however some appeals based on extraordinary events that may have skewed the pupils results and these could be sorted out earlier.

[Guest55]

Bucks does allow 'selection appeals' before allocation which is good. So if you don't qualify you have the opportunity to go to an independent panel to look at other evidence of ability.

You are then in the first round of school allocations.

[aargh]

Yep, I had considered that possibility but I couldn't figure out how they can measure a child with this kind of successful early appeal against the scores of other applicants, especially when getting in or not is by such a narrow margin in their scores.
e.g. SHS offers places to the top 120, where does the child who has won her early appeal come in the rank?
Or does Bucks just allocate "qualified for Grammar" ?

[Guest55]

Yes - in Bucks it is just 'qualification for a GS place' - the score (as long as you are 121+) is irrelevant.