Admission Appeals and Coronavirus (Covid-19) update 30/04/2020

Unfortunately the coronavirus outbreak has impacted on the ability of schools and panels to carry out admission appeals in the usual way and therefore there may be some unavoidable delays to the commencement to appeals being held across the country. However, as parents/families must continue to have the right to appeal to any school which has refused their child a place, the Government announced regulatory changes on the 24th April 2020 to the Admissions Appeals Code which will enable hearings to take place, although it is unlikely these will be in person due to social distancing requirements.

Your appeal, once submitted will be forwarded to the Independent Clerk, who is currently planning again for the commencement of the appeal hearings. He will be in touch with you as soon as possible once a date has been agreed for the hearing to take place. We do fully recognise the frustration this may cause but these are unprecedented times and trust you fully understand this. Each appeal should continue to be sent to info@flyinghightrust.co.uk and you will receive acknowledgment that the appeal has been received, update on the situation and contact details for the appeals clerk who will manage your appeal and keep you informed of progress, date and outcomes.

Assuring you of our best attention at all times.

Flying High Trust

Appeals

Infant (key stage 1 and foundation) appeals

By law, subject to certain limited exceptions, no infant class may contain more than 30 pupils. Infant classes are those in which the majority of pupils will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year.

Admissions authorities can refuse to admit a child if to do so would require the school to take action such as employ an extra teacher or build an extra classroom to keep infant classes at 30 or less.

Parents can appeal in this situation, but the appeal panel can only uphold an appeal in limited circumstances.

The panel must dismiss the appeal where:

a) it finds that the admission arrangements complied with admissions law and were correctly and impartially applied, or

b) it finds that the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied but that, if they had complied and had been correctly and impartially applied, the child would not have been offered a place

In the event of oversubscription and applications being refused, applicants have the right to an independent appeal, however these are subject to the infact class size criteria, please see the attached document below. 

As an academy our appeals arrangements are handled directly by the school as part of The Flying High Trust. All appeals received by the school are handled by an independent appeals clerk who will make all the necessary arrangements to ensure all appeals are compliant with statutory guidelines.

Applicants wishing to make an appeal should do so within 28 days of the date of the letter notifying you of the decision to refuse admission to the school. An appeals form should be completed in every case and submitted to The Flying High Trust within the 28 days. The form is available on the school’s website https://www.horsendale.co.uk/admissions/, by contacting the school directly:

0115 913 2331

office@horsendale.notts.sch.uk

or by contacting The Flying High Trust directly:

The Flying High Trust, Admissions and Appeals

0115 989 1915

info@flyinghightrust.co.uk

C/O Flying High Partnership, 2a Vickery Way, Chilwell Nottingham  NG9 6RY