School Appeals

Sarah is a single mother who lives with her 11 year old son and 4 year old daughter.
A year before Sarah’s son was due to begin senior school, Sarah began thinking about schooling options and audited the local schools to see which school would be most suitable. Sarah decided to apply to 3 schools that were in close proximity to her home and have a good reputation.

To Sarah’s surprise and disappointment, her son was not accepted into any of the 3 choices. Sarah’s son, was, however, offered a place at a different school that she had not applied to. The school that he had been offered a place was not an option for Sarah, as it has a bad reputation and does not achieve good results.

Sarah was not prepared to give up and was adamant that she wanted to send her son to a school that would give her son the best education and opportunities. Sarah decided that she wanted to appeal to the three schools that turned down her original applications. Sarah did not know what to expect with the appeal process, but it transpired that she had to meet face to face with 6 board officials and provide rationale as to why her son should be given a place.

Sarah met the officials on her own and she felt intimidated by the number of people on the panel and the information and statistics they were relaying to her. Sarah said she felt ‘out of her depth’ and outnumbered. Sarah’s appeal was subsequently denied. At this point, Sarah was very worried and felt panicked, as all her son’s peers had been accepted into their desired schools because they lived in the right catchment areas.

Sarah decided to apply to 3 different schools which are further away from the original 3 choices. Unfortunately, Sarah received 2 rejections but luckily, one week before her son was due to break up for the summer holidays, he was accepted into one of her choices.

Sarah feels very relieved that her son has been accepted into one suitable school. The problem with the school is it is on the other side of town and her son will need to take a one hour bus to and from school every day, which will calculate to ten hours of commuting every week. Sarah is concerned about how tired her son will feel and how he will retain his energy levels with the commute.

Sarah has found the whole experience to be very stressful and she has offered the following advice to parents who are about to begin the school application process:

• Begin thinking and researching about prospective schools at least 1.5 years in advance

• When moving house, research what schools are in the catchment area

• If you have to meet with board officials, take a friend with you

• Keep lots of notes!

• Ensure that as a parent, you take time out relax, as it can be a very stressful time

• Seek advice from organisations who can offer advice and support and can put you in touch with other parents who are going through the same thing

If you want to share the trials and tribulations, go to our Discussion boards where you can get further information from our team and support from other single parents.

The Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) offers free advice on many subjects like exclusion from school, bullying, special educational needs and school admission appeals. To ask ACE for advice about any education issue, ring their free advice line: 0808 800 5793 or for advice about exclusion from school: 0808 800 0327. Both lines are open Mon-Fri 10am-5pm.

Alternatively for advice by text message, text ASK plus your question (maximum of 160 characters per message) to 68808 and they’ll get back to you (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm).