Hello All

I am working on an appeal of a Kent grammar school’s decision to withdraw their offer on the grounds that they do not believe that we are resident in Kent (despite the fact that we provided a tenancy agreement, all required bills etc.)

We made a decision to allow our son to finish Year 6 in his current school (not in Kent) and not to pull him out a few months before the end of the current school year. I did inform KCC of this decision back in 2019 and they raised no objections. My son usually stays with me in Kent and sometimes with his mum outside of Kent (we now live separately). Travel distance of 1 hr to his current school is perfectly reasonable and doesn’t not seem to be a problem for us when he needs to travel to his current school from Kent. However, despite our best efforts to explain this to a Kent grammar school they made a decision to withdraw their (our!) offer.

Since we were offered a place in the first instance what our grounds for appeal of their decision shall be? Grateful for any advice. Thanks

It'll be up to you to prove that Kent were wrong to withdraw the place and that your son does in fact live in Kent rather than with his mother, and that he attends a primary school over an hour away.

Good luck

Does your home in Kent still meet all of the distance/location admissions criteria for the school?

_________________
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

Hi,
Sorry to hear this, I’m no expert but I’m guessing they have stated the reason for their doubts?? Tackling that reason would be a good place to start.
I note from you post last year that you were living in SW London but looking to move to a place closer if he was offered, did you fulfil their criteria (in terms of when you needed to be resident etc)?

Am I right that your situation is that you live in Kent and your son's mum lives near his old primary school?

Because if that's the case, you are asking the grammar school to believe that your son stays with you in Kent for most of the time and travels an hour each way to school from your house, rather than staying with his mum who lives much nearer his primary.

I can see why the grammar might find that implausible and might draw the conclusion that your son is not in facty mainly living with you but living with his mum. (If his mum also lives an hour away from his primary that would be different.)

Schools usually stipulate that the address they use for admissions purposes is the one the child spends most nights at. So you need to be able to prove that he spends more nights with you than with his mum, despite the logistical challenge of getting to school. Are you able to do that? I appreciate it might be difficult given that you would not have realised at the time that you would need to prove where he was sleeping.

NB - you need to be clear that the school isn't questioning where you live (I'm sure the tenancy agreeement etc back that up), they are questioning where your son lives.

Your first argument would presumably be: "The admission arrangements were not correctly and impartially applied because the child has been deprived of a place to which he was entitled".
The admission authority would have to justify its decision to the appeal panel.
You will want to dispute the school's case, and to argue that you met every single residency requirement as set out in the published admission arrangements.
Think what evidence you might be able to provide to show where he spends most of his time.
Whose GP is he registered with, yours or your wife's?

The second ground for appeal might be that you have reasons for wanting a place at the school which would outweigh any prejudice caused by the admission of an extra pupil.
See:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... -school#c2

_________________
Etienne

Where is your DS registered with a GP / dentist?

Which one of you made the secondary school application?

What does his current school have as his home address? If the grammar school hasn't already asked the primary school this question (and someone may have done - something has prompted it to withdraw the offer, after all), be prepared for it to have done this by the time you get to appeal.

As steathammum says, you are asking the grammar school to accept that a pupil's normal living arrangements are living with one parent for the majority of the school week, said parent living an hour's journey from hiss primary school, which, tbh, is a bit of a stretch.

If your address in Kent really is your DS's main address for school applications purposes, then the fact that you made no attempt to move him to a Kent primary school in the interim will have been a red flag, I'm afraid.

_________________
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Yes. It is in Tunbridge Wells

In your previous post you mentioned applying to Dartford GS so I assume that this is the school place you refer to. If you manage to challenge the decision and get your son's place re-instated have you given any thought as to how he will get there?

_________________
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

Thank you.

We have 3 kids (2 of school age). Tunbridge Wells schools didn't have a place for one of our middle child so she was put on a waiting list in 2 schools. So even if we wanted to change schools for all of them we couldn't do it for all kids so one would still be commuting...

I am not sure how I can prove where our son spends most nights.... We can ask neighbours and have them write a letter of support, I guess...