Jon Chard - Your School Your Choice: School admissions and school appeals explained

John Chard

Your School Your Choice
by John Chard

Copyright 2008 John Chard

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Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queens Printer for Scotland.

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ISBN: 978-1-905261-66-6

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While every effort has been made to ensure that this Lawpack publication provides accurate and expert guidance, it is impossible to predict all the circumstances in which it may be used. Accordingly, neither the publisher, author, retailer, nor any other suppliers shall be liable to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused by the information contained in or omitted from this Lawpack publication.

For convenience (and for no other reason) him, he and his have been used throughout and should be read to include her, she and hers.

John Chard worked in local government for over 25 years and for the last ten has worked almost exclusively on school appeals. In the course of organising over 2,000 appeals, he has given advice and guidance to both sides of the appeal: to the admission authority and to parents/guardians. He has also given advice to appeal panels in his capacity as Clerk. As a result, he has gained extensive knowledge of the legislation and the evidence requirements that contribute to a successful appeal. He has also gained considerable insight into the way in which appeals can fail because parents/guardians are inadequately prepared for the appeal process, and because they do not have the know-how or confidence to give themselves the best chance of success.

In 2002, John launched School Appeals, a business established to help parents through the appeal process that has helped thousands of families. The School Appeals website, www.schoolappeals.org.uk, attracts well over 100,000 visitors each year. John represents parents successfully at appeals, as well as providing one-to-one services, and he is often approached to give lectures to existing and prospective panel members across the country. John has also been invited by admission authorities to check that their admission criteria meet current legislation.

John is regularly approached by the BBCs Breakfast to contribute to their Chasing Places programmes. He has been interviewed many times on national television and he often provides information about the admission and appeal process to both radio and television programmes, as well as national newspapers.

I am grateful to the following organisations who have very kindly given their consent to use extracts from their publications in the preparation of this book:

The Department for Children, Schools and Families Codes of Practice on School Admissions and School Admission Appeals.

The Scottish Assembly Choosing a School A Guide for Parents.

The Welsh Assembly Codes of Practice on School Admissions and School Admission Appeals.

The Commission for Local Administration in England extracts from executive report summaries.

Jane Bell and Nadine de Souza at Lawpack have been enormously helpful in suggesting improvements to the text and in putting the book into shape for publication under very tight deadlines.

I would also like to thank my partner, Trisha, for her support and advice throughout and also my daughters, Sammy and Kelly, for putting up with my disappearing for hours on end while trying to meet editorial deadlines.

I have been employed by a local authority for over 25 years and for the last ten years have been involved in the school admission appeal process, from arranging the hearing of appeal panels, on the one hand, to clerking those hearings, on the other. I have also been responsible for providing training for panel members. This has given me a unique insight into how appeal panel members make their decisions. In 2002, I established the website School Appeals (www.schoolappeals.org.uk), which provides help and guidance to parents who have to appeal because they have not been successful in securing a place at a school of their choice.

One of the most important issues facing parents is how they can make sure that their children benefit from the best education available. What constitutes the best education available will differ from one parent to another. However, the one thing that is constant is the lengths to which some parents will go to gain a place at their preferred maintained school. This will range from lawful methods, such as moving house or renting a property close to the school, to unlawful methods, such as using a false address.

First of all, let me dismiss one of the myths about choice. Both the major political parties are guilty of giving you, as a parent, the impression that you have a choice as to where your child is educated. Unless you pay for your childs education, you do not. But you do have the right to express a preference on which maintained school you would like your child to go to, and the admission authority has a legal obligation to meet that preference, unless to do so would cause prejudice (i.e. an additional admission would create problems for the school).

Every year approximately 1.5 million children start or transfer to a different school. For the vast majority of parents (approximately 90 per cent), the admission process results in their children obtaining a place at their preferred school. However, for the remaining ten per cent this can lead to several further months of uncertainty and anxiety. Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do that will guarantee a place for your child at a particular school. But there are steps that you can take that will substantially improve your chances of success, both at the application stage and, if this is not successful, at the appeal stage.

This book takes you through the application stage and details what you can do to improve your chances of a successful application. Should you fail to get a place of your choice, it also outlines the steps that you can take to make a successful appeal. The application stage can be very confusing because of the different types of school and the variety of admission criteria used by admission authorities to determine places. I have broken these procedures into small sections to try to make them easier to understand. Once you understand them, you will find the process less daunting.

Education legislation is very topical and is always changing. Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with all the changes. At the time of writing, technically, there are four Codes on school admissions and appeals running concurrently in England. The advice in this book is based on the new Code on School Admissions which came into effect in February 2007 and which applies to admissions for children who are starting school from September 2008. However, the advice on appeals is based on the existing Code, which was published in 2003. A new Code, which replaces it, came into effect on 17 January 2008. There is always a period where the two Codes operate simultaneously. The new appeals Code applies to decisions communicated to parents on or after 1 March 2008. As a result, there are many parents who will have appeals conducted under the 2003 Code and others under the 2007 Code. There are many similarities in the two Codes, but where there are any significant differences the guidance in the new Code is shown in italics.