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prejudice to efficient education at school zacytowany ponizej pod rubryka 'What does the law say'

School Admissions Appeals

If you are not happy with the school your child has been allocated, you have the right to appeal for a place at your preferred school, whether it is a community school or a church aided school.

How do I appeal?

Your appeal must be in writing.
• If your preferred school is a church aided school, you should contact the school, who will send you details of their appeals procedure.
• If your preferred school is a community school, you will need to complete and return the form sent to you by the School Admissions team by the date they have told you. If you do not have the form, you can get one by telephoning School Admissions on (01273) 293500, or e-mailing us at [email protected].
You should lodge your appeal (by returning the appeal form) by the date you have been told. If your appeal is late, and you do not have a good reason for this, your appeal will not be accepted. Your appeal will be acknowledged by the clerk within 48 hours of receiving it. If you have not heard from the clerk within a week of posting your form, please telephone the clerk on (01273) 291227 / 291228 or via email on [email protected] to make sure your form has not got lost in the post.

What does the law say?

The Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 says that the LEA has to convince the appeal panel that if any more children were allowed into your preferred school, one of the following would occur:
1) prejudice to efficient education at the school
2) prejudice to efficient use of the council’s resources
3) infant class sizes would rise above thirty, or qualifying measures would have to be taken by the LEA to avoid this, which would result in prejudice to efficient education or to the efficient use of council resources.
If the LEA does not convince the appeal panel of one or more of these points, the panel will uphold the appeal and award the child a place at the preferred school.
You should consider all of the above circumstances when preparing for the hearing.

What happens after I send in my appeal form?

After you have lodged the appeal, you will be given at least two weeks notice of where and when the appeal will be held.

Who will hear the appeal?

School Admissions appeals, unlike Social Security or Housing Benefit appeals, are not dealt with by post, nor are they decided by people within the council. They are decided by an independent panel of people who are not connected with the Local Education Authority (LEA), but who know something about education. According to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, panel members have to be either:
a) lay members. This means that they will have no personal experience of the management of the school or the provision of education in any school (although they may have been a governor or have helped out voluntarily), or
b) people with experience in education. They will be familiar with educational conditions in the local area, or will be parents of children at a school in the area.
The panel will consist of three people and there has to be at least one of each type. There are groups of people who are disqualified from membership of an appeal panel arranged by the LEA in order to ensure that it is independent. This would include teachers at the school which is the subject of the appeal.
The appeal will be heard in a neutral location which is reasonably accessible to you. This is normally Hove Town Hall.
How do I prepare for the appeal?
Once you have decided to appeal, any documents which you wish to form part of the appeal and to be given to the panel should be sent in advance of the appeal.
Any correspondence you have had with the LEA about your child’s school allocation will automatically be given to the appeal panel.
It is up to you how you prepare for the hearing, but it is unlikely that you will need to bring any witnesses. The panel may allow any witnesses you do bring to give evidence if it is relevant and not repetitive.
At least seven days before the hearing, you will be sent a copy of the LEA’s case which will also have been sent to the appeal panel. The LEA will not give the panel any information without sending you a copy. The LEA’s case will include:
• A statement summarising how the school’s admission arrangements have been applied in your case with any relevant background information.
• A statement summarising the reasons for the decision, explaining, for example, why prejudice to efficient education at the school or efficient use of the council’s resources would be caused by offering your child a place at your preferred school.
• Any other documents which the LEA intends to show the panel, including anything which you have sent to the LEA or the panel.
There is no time limit for you to submit information about the appeal, and you may be allowed to submit information after that date. The LEA has to provide any information which you reasonably ask, so that you are in a position to question the LEA’s case.
Will the panel check what I say by contacting my doctor, social worker or other professionals about my child?
No. If you are relying on a medical condition or other special circumstances to support your case, you should provide written support from the doctor, social worker, educational psychologist or other professional well in advance of the hearing. If you do not do this, the panel will not have any professional advice as to how serious your child’s situation is and may not feel that it affects the need for your child to attend your preferred school. Any written submissions in support of your case may be referred to the council’s expert for a second opinion. A letter from your doctor or other professional does not guarantee that your appeal will be successful, but it will give the panel a clearer understanding of your case.
What happens at the appeal?
The appeal hearing is as informal as possible, and the panel will make every attempt to make you feel comfortable. You can bring a friend if you wish to.
If your first language is not English, and you would like an interpreter to help you make your case, please indicate this on the appeal form, and this will be arranged for you. Please also indicate if you have any special needs, e.g. if you have mobility or hearing difficulties.
In the first part of the appeal, the LEA’s representative will put forward the reasons why it was not possible to offer your child a place at the preferred school, using the papers that you have been sent. It will be helpful to you if you bring these with you. The representative will present the LEA’s decision not to admit your child as clearly as possible and giving all the relevant information. When the LEA’s representative has finished, you can
ask him or her any questions you might have about what has been said so far. The appeal panel may also ask questions.
After that, you will have the opportunity to put your case forward as to why your child needs to go to the school you prefer. You may find it helpful to write your case down beforehand so that you don’t forget to say things on the day. The panel may prompt you if they do not understand a point, or stop you if you are repeating yourself, but they will make sure that you are able to say everything that you want to say. The LEA’s representative will then be able to ask you questions about your case, and so will the appeal panel.
Do I have to attend the appeal?
You have a right to do so, but it is up to you. The guidance issued by the government is that parents should be encouraged to attend.
If you do not attend, the panel will only be able to make their decision based on what you have written down, and if they have any questions, they will not be able to ask them. If you cannot attend on the day you are offered, you can ask for an alternative date and every effort will be made to accommodate this request.
If you cannot attend at all, you should make sure that your reasons for preferring the school are as clear as you can possibly make them, and that you have included everything, so that the panel can make an informed decision. It will be a good idea if you also explain why you are not attending, so that the panel know that there is a reason for this and do not think that you have changed your mind about the school you want.
You can appoint someone else, such as a relative or family friend, to attend on your behalf, if you want to, but you must tell the panel about this in writing so that they know that the person is genuine. Alternatively, you may wish to be accompanied by a friend or representative or interpreter, who can speak on your behalf, or support you.
If you are invited to a plenary session, and do not attend it, the information will not be repeated for you at your individual appeal, although you will be able to ask questions about it.
Should I bring my child(ren)?
No, the appeal panel do not need to see your child(ren) and there are no crèche facilities available. If you do bring your child(ren) they will have to sit in the hearing, which they may find boring or distressing.
If I did not get any of my preferred schools, can I appeal for them all?
Yes. The normal practice is for people to appeal for their first preference first, and then appeal for the second one if they are not successful first time. However, if you decide that you do not want to appeal for your first preference, you can appeal for your second or third preference instead. You cannot normally appeal for all your preferred schools at once.
Can I apply for different preferences and still appeal for the schools on my original form?
No. You can only have three preferences at once. If you fill in a new preference form, it will cancel out the old one and you will only be able to appeal for the schools on the new form.
What is a plenary session?
If you are appealing as part of the annual admissions process, when your child is due to start primary, junior or secondary school for the first time, you may be invited to attend a plenary session. This is a preliminary hearing at which a number of parents who are appealing for places at the same school are invited to listen to the LEA’s case at the same time.
No details relating to individual children are aired at this hearing, which covers only the case as to why the school in question is unable to admit any extra children. Sometimes the headteacher or other senior member of the school staff will attend and speak about the situation at the school as well. All the parents will be able to ask questions. Your individual appeal will then take place later on in the day, or at a later date if there are a number of appeals for that school.
If you are appealing for a school place outside the annual process, you will not be invited to a plenary session. In that case, all the information will be dealt with in your individual appeal.
What are my chances of winning the appeal?
You need to remember that if you are appealing for a place at a school, it is already full, and you are asking the panel to overcrowd the school by letting your child in. They will only do this if they think that your reasons for sending your child to the school are more important than the difficulties that the school and your child will face as a result of the overcrowding. You need to think very carefully before you appeal about whether you want your child to go to a school which is overcrowded.
It would be a good idea to visit the school, and the school you have been offered, if you have not already done so, to help you make up your mind.
If your child is due to go into an infant class, and that class already contains thirty children, your appeal can only be allowed if you are able to prove one of the following:
a) that the LEA has made a mistake, and that if this mistake had not been made, your child would have been offered a place, or
b) that the LEA has acted unreasonably in not offering you a place.
Please note that in this situation, ‘unreasonable’ means that the process followed in your child’s case was irrational. It does not mean that, for example, the LEA has offered you a place at a school which you are unhappy with, or which is a long way from your home. Nationally only about 1% of this type of appeal is successful.
How long will it take?
Every effort is made to organise appeals as soon as possible, but they normally take two or three months to arrange, especially if you are appealing along with many other parents when your child is due to start school for the first time, or to start junior or secondary school.
You may want to think about the effect that not knowing where he or she will be going to school will have on your child, especially at secondary transfer, as he or she will not be able to talk to his or her friends about it and get excited about his or her new school.
Please remember that there is no guarantee that your appeal will be successful, and you may wish to send your child to the ‘taster days’ for the school he or she has been allocated, just in case.
When will I get the decision?
The clerk to the appeal panel will write to you informing you of the decision and the reasons for it within a week of the appeal hearing, unless your appeal is being heard as one of a number of appeals for the same school which are being held over a number of days.
In this case the panel will not make the decision until they have heard all the appeals, and then the parents will all be written to at once. The letter will explain in full how the panel reached its decision.
What happens if I lose the appeal?
The appeal panel’s decision is final and is binding on all parties for a year. This means that the LEA is not able to reconsider your child’s case for that school again during that time.
It is therefore very important that you make sure you have explained all the circumstances to the appeal panel and given them supporting evidence if you have any. You cannot have a new hearing later on if you realise that you have forgotten something.
Your child can stay on the waiting list for your preferred school, and you can appeal for a place at your second or third preference school if you want to. You can also ask for a place at a completely different school, if you would prefer this. You will need to contact the School Admissions team to discuss what you can do next.
What happens if I refuse to send my child to the school I have been allocated?
You do not have to send your school to the school you have been allocated, but you do have to arrange for your child to be educated. You may be able to arrange for your child to go to a different school, by contacting School Admissions.
If you do not send your child to school at all, you will have to make sure that he or she is getting an education which is appropriate for his or her aptitudes and abilities. Someone from the council will visit you to make sure you are doing this. If your child stays out of school and is not being educated, you could be prosecuted.
Do not assume that your child will get a place from the waiting list before this happens. It may be that your child’s name does not reach the top of the list, and you will not get a place at your preferred school.
What happens if I think that the appeal panel did not deal with my case properly, or that the admissions process was not followed in accordance with published procedures?
There are a number of options which may be available to you if you do not think the appeals have been conducted properly.
1. You can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman who will investigate instances of maladministration. The ombudsman will only investigate your case if you are complaining that part of the process was not done properly. Your case will not be investigated if you are only complaining that you think the decision is wrong. The ombudsman will not be able to give your child a place at your preferred school, but may recommend a fresh appeal hearing if there has been maladministration.
The ombudsman’s address is:
The Commission for Local Administration in England
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
2. If you think that the decision of the appeal panel is legally flawed, you can apply for a judicial review. If this were granted, the court would consider the lawfulness of the panel’s decision. If it found the decision to be unlawful or unreasonable it could quash the decision. It could order a fresh appeal hearing before a new panel.
3. If you think that the appeal panel was not correctly constituted or that the council has not acted reasonably in exercising its functions in respect of the appeal process, then you can complain to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State can direct, for example, that a properly constituted panel be set up.
Before you decide to do any of these things you should think about what you are hoping to achieve by this. None of the above options will guarantee your child a place at your preferred school.
If you are successful, you will be given a new appeal hearing, and there is no guarantee that this would result in a different outcome.
Please bear in mind that the process involved in following any of the above options will take a long time and you may find that your child misses a lot of school if you do not send him or her to the allocated school in the meantime.
Where can I get more information?
If you would like to speak to someone about the appeal process, please contact the Clerk to the Appeal Panel on (01273) 291227 / 291228 or email: [email protected]
For further reference, the School Admissions Code of Practice can be obtained from:
DFES Publications
PO Box 5050
Annesley
Nottingham
NG15 0JD Telephone 0845 602 2260
Please quote reference SAACP. It is also available on the department’s website at http:\www.dfes.gov.uk.

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