QUESTION AND ANSWER
“My daughter applied for a place at a Foundation secondary school that wrongly applied the oversubscription rules, she has been rejected and our appeal has been turned down. What can I do?”I have acted for parents in several such cases requiring considerable research to get the facts, as no one is keen to provide information. However, you need evidence to challenge on these grounds. Appeal panels provided by the LEA act independently. Unfortunately, I am aware of cases where appeal committee members who have been recruited by schools have supported the school whether it has been right or wrong to do so. Worryingly, I have seen cases where a school has misapplied the distance rules, where an appeal panel was told to look at applications afresh ignoring the rules, and where school oversubscription rules are so loose they fail the rules of being clear, fair and objective. The education ombudsman can act where it is shown the appeal panel has gone against the rules, but this not just a further stage of appeal.