Secondary Allocation Day Results and Appeals Advice -

Secondary Allocation Day Results and Appeals Advice

Following secondary allocation day on 2^nd March, many parents may have received a secondary school offer they are not happy with, or in some cases may not have received an offer at all.

It can be very disappointing to have missed out on places at preferred secondary schools. If you are in this difficult position, you may well be feeling anxious, angry, frustrated, unsure and worried about where your child will end up going to school in September.

We understand that this can be an incredibly stressful time for parents who are now having to try to work out what to do next. The path ahead can be a minefield of waiting lists, second rounds of allocations, looking at alternative schools that may have places, trying to understand the appeal process and deciding whether to try an appeal – whilst at the same time trying to manage your own and your child’s expectations realistically, and also reassure your child confidently that it will all work out and they will be just fine, even when everything is still up in the air!

Appeals are not easy to navigate, there is a lot of work to be done to prepare and get things right. Securing a ‘back up’ school place is also a very important part of the process. Appeal hearings themselves can be quite stressful experiences, there is such a lot riding on the outcomes, emotions can run high, and how you approach the hearings and prepare for them can be crucial to your chances of success.

Our advice in a nutshell:

Remain as calm as possible!
Research alternative back up schools, and accept a place at another school somewhere.
Request an appeal by the deadline given in your allocation letter – in most areas these will be heard around June time.
Prepare your ‘reasons for appeal’ very carefully – consider getting advice on this from an appeals expert.
Remain as calm as possible while on the waiting list, and through subsequent rounds of allocation while you wait for the appeal hearing. Very often places can come up from the waiting list at any point right up to September.
Prepare for the appeal hearing by carefully reading all the paperwork sent to you about the school, and come up with some key questions to ask at the appeal hearing. An appeals expert can really help with this, and can coach you on your best approach.
Attend the appeal hearing on the day in person, prepared and with appropriate questions to raise, and ready to confidently outline your reasons for appeal.

The good news is that we can help with all this!

At Bowker Consulting we offer bespoke advice for parents who need guidance on the school appeals process, and on what to do next. Our support for appeals is arranged on an hourly basis, so you can have as much or as little help as you need. We can arrange a telephone consultation call to talk it all through, provide help preparing your reasons for appeal, research on all alternative options, assistance with looking through all the appeals paperwork, and coaching on the best approach in the appeal hearing to ensure you go in ready and confident, to maximise your chances of success.

We have advised many families over many years through the appeals process, and though we can never promise a particular outcome that may be beyond our control, we know that families who have us working alongside them stand a significantly stronger chance of success at appeals.

More importantly – every single family we support ends up with a solution that they are happy with.

Click here to contact Bowker Consulting today, and find out more about how we can help you!

Article written by Deborah Gregg, March 2020