On Sunday 17th April I had a pretty awful nights sleep. Besides being 35 weeks pregnant I was also anxious to find out which primary school Florence had been allocated for September. I never imagined I’d be sat writing about making an appeal a few days later.
We diligently used all five of our choices as advised by the Local Education Authority. Our first choice school was an easy decision to make. Since moving to the area, in September 2015, Florence has attended a pre-school which is attached to the school we would have wished for her to go to. The pre-school regularly use the schools facilities and it would have made the transition much easier and more familiar for Florence. We hoped that attending the pre-school might support her admission request. This school is also the second closest school to our home so we thought we had a good chance of being accepted.
Our second choice was the largest of the local schools, a little further away and three times the size of our first choice. As we moved down our list of preferences we had a couple of other local schools which were of greater distance from our home and also the closest school to us which is a very small village school. We weren’t keen on Florence attending a small school for various reasons.
As midnight rolled around and I checked the admissions website my heart sank and I began to cry. Florence has been allocated our second choice school. All I could see in my mind was Florence looking bewildered and asking what school her friends from pre-school were going to. She had already left behind some lovely friends when we moved and now she was facing leaving the friends she had made at her new pre-school. My heart breaks for her and we still haven’t told her the news as we have decided to appeal the decision.
I was reluctant at first, worried we might lose the place she had already been offered, however I have since read that our decision to appeal won’t affect Florence’s current offer. I’m friends with local mums and members of the PTA from the school and have been advised that the class numbers aren’t as full as they could be so what harm is there in trying?
We definitely need to do a little research into making an appeal to ensure we’ve covered all the bases and made a decent argument for the board to review. If you’re making an appeal and not sure where to start there is professional help available.
I’ll keep you all posted on the outcome!
