I have to tell you, a part of me wishes I had never started
writing this series of posts – as the growing gaps between instalments perhaps
suggests.
Firstly, it’s really hard to condense everything I took from
our experience into nuggets of wisdom without rambling on and on. This is
actually the third time I have completely rewritten this piece now in an
attempt to make it shorter.
I was thinking about just letting myself go to town and
turning this into an eBook. For those of you not familiar with the term, that
is a scam in online marketing whereby you hand over your contact details in
exchange for a PDF which chucks together a load of stuff you could have found
on the internet for yourself.
Secondly, there is the rather more serious point that I don’t
really know how to win school appeals.
So, with that disclaimer still ringing in your ears, let’s
finish this damn thing off so I can get back to writing about the
mad shit thatcomes into my head when I’m driving to work without the pressure of
real-world-responsibility to disturb me.
Is it legal?
Everything you will get from the council will seem very
scary and legalistic. They will tell you that you can only possibly win if
there has been some kind of maladministration or cock-up in the process.
So all your arguments about why little Timmy should go to
this school rather than that school don’t count. It’s all about the correct
application of the Admissions Policy.
I have no doubt that a fair proportion of people are put off
from appealing just by the sight of the height of this bar.
Then there is the prospect of the appeal tribunal itself.
Oooh – scary. You have to go and represent yourself in front of a panel whose
decisions are legally binding, going up against someone (from the admissions
authority) who presumably does this for a living.
Well, let me tell you that in our experience, you should not
be put off by any of this.
The appeals panels are made up of members of the local “great
and good” – not legally trained people and not education experts. As such,
while the letter of the law says that they can only grant appeals on the basis
of misapplication of the criteria, I am absolutely convinced that you can get
them on your side by coming across as (i) intelligent, (ii) educated and (iii)
genuinely concerned about your child’s welfare – all of which will put you at
an advantage over the council’s rep.
Far from being experts, we found the person from the council
to be poorly briefed and basically going in with the same argument for
everyone.
Please note, that is NOT the case for faith schools and
other places that do their own admissions – where you find yourself
(excruciatingly) accusing of misadministration the very headmaster whose school
you are trying to get into.
I do not doubt for a moment that the good impression Elvira
and I produced in the panel (she cried! I read out long notes!) helped.
And remember, there’s the admissions authority can’t appeal
against the panel’s decision – so you need to do whatever it takes, whether it’s
admissible or not!
Listen to gossip
We found out – from local gossip – that someone who got a
place via the waiting list lied about their address. We kicked up a huge stink
about it before the hearing and in it. The council, naturally, had done nothing
beforehand and this did not impress the panel.
If you had believed that this was a purely legal proceeding,
it wouldn’t matter what went on in other people’s cases as to whether your own
was justified or not, would it? Well, see above.
Get your ear to the ground and pester the council about
everything you hear. By law, they have to have answered all your questions 48
hours before the hearing. Chances are they will be too disorganised to do that,
and you have your way in.
Oddly, we only heard from the council about the complaint after the appeal decision had been
published. It’s almost as if they wanted to make it go away...
Do your homework
Tedious I know, but you need to get totally familiar with
the admissions policies you are dealing with. You need to get the official word
on, for example, the distance of your home to your preferred school – and check
it yourself. Friends of ours successfully challenged an incorrect measurement
and got a place before even going to appeal.
You have a right to know where on the waiting list you are,
but the council will try to pretend that you don’t. Their rationale for that is
that some people can’t appreciate that their position can change in relation to
developments in others’ cases. Bollocks to that. Don’t let them get away with
it.
Get everything written down and give it in as late as
possible. The panel will read it, chances are the council won’t and will make
themselves look stupid and lazy at the hearing.
That’s it. I wish you all the best of luck if you’re
appealing. It has opened my eyes to how local bureaucracy really works and how
people can overcome its dead hand with
a bit of reading, writing and ruthlessness.
