If the LEA have refused to accept your child in the school of your choice, what can you do? Education expert, Elizabeth Cook, explains how to challenge the decision, and how having a sibling who already attends the school can help.

Raisingkids member's problem
As a parent, do I have the right to send my son to a primary school of our choice? His sister already goes to the preferred school but it's in the next village. He has been turned down by the LEA because of being out of the catchment area. But if they took my son, there would still be only 23 in the class and the law says the maximum is 30. Am I within my rights to send him there?

Elizabeth's advice
You do have the right to send your child to a school of your choice as long as they have the room. This applies whether the school is inside or outside the area you live in. If the LEA have refused to accept your child in the school of your choice you do have the right to appeal to an independent panel. The letter you received from the LEA should have also provided information about such an appeal - but you must make sure to make your appeal within any deadline given.

The result of your appeal will depend on the strength of your case, but as his sister is already there this should add weight to your appeal. In most admission appeals, the panel goes through two stages. In the first stage, the panel hears the case put by the LEA explaining why it did not offer you a place at your preferred school. The panel decides whether there was a good reason for turning down the application (the phrase sometimes used is 'whether the admission would be prejudicial to efficient education or efficient use of resources'). An example might be where the school had very small classrooms and couldn't fit your child in without making the space too cramped for good teaching and learning.

If the panel does decide there was a good reason for turning down your application, it will begin the second stage of the appeal, where the panel hears your case, and why you are appealing against the decision. You can mention all the reasons why that school would be the best for your child, and what special factors justify your child getting in, in spite of the good reason for turning you down. The panel then makes a 'balancing judgement' and decides whether the benefits to your child of going to the school you are appealing for instead of the school you have been offered outweigh the bad effects on the school and the other children of having one more pupil in the class.

If the appeal panel decides that your case is the stronger, it will uphold your appeal and the admission authority is then under a duty to admit your child to the school. If you are unhappy about the way the appeal hearing was carried out, you could complain to the Local Government Ombudsman, who might recommend a new appeal. If you want to know more about appeals, contact the LEA for the school, or contact the School Admissions Teams in the Department for Education and Skills.

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