Primary School Application - Exceptional Medical/Social Needs

Hello everyone

My son is due to start reception in September 2018.  He was diagnosed as an ASD child in January 2017 and currently is being assessed for an ECHP (literally just received the letter to say that the LA had agreed to do the assessment).

However, I have not yet sent off the online form for a reception place which is due in 5 days time - on the form there is a section called "Exceptional Medical or Social Reasons" - do I need to click yes to the medical reason for his ASD diagnosis? or is this part of the form for something else?.  The school is a mainstream school with no unit attached.

Also, his sister goes to the same school and the school has a sibling priority - would it be better for my son to be admitted in the school under this instead?

Hope this makes sense!

Andrew

Parents
  • I'd have a word with your LEA - they are often nice, helpful poeple.

    Please, please make sure that you also put other schools down as options in case this one is full.  Some believe that if they only put one school down, then the LEA will have to allocate that one, whereas what actually happens if it's full is that this person will go to the bottom of the list and is allocated a school after everyone else's preferences have been taken into account - it could be some way away!

    If you do not get alloacted this school, then you might be able to persuade the people doing the ECHP to 'name' the school in the plan, at which point the school would be forced to admit your son even if it takes them over the infant class size limit of 30.

    If all else fails, then you could appeal for a place, but winning a Key Stage 1 appeal is very hard if the class size is 30 - the appeals panel have to take account of the law on class sizes.

    Good luck

  • I’d agree with this.  The medical needs bit is if your child has a medical need which can ONLY be met by that school. If a school is named on an EHCP as the ONLY school that can provide education for your child then the school has to take the child, even if they go over the 30 children per infant class- however if they go over the published admission number (PAN) then it is a grey area.

    I’d go with the sibling priority myself (speaking as a school governor!)

  • Ah - I hadn't spotted 'Sibling already at school'.  Certainly that should almost certainly give priority (after 'Looked After Children' & named on statements) - but it's always worth checking the schools Admissions Policy.

    In my area we do have a number of country schools where the PAN is less than 30 - some even as low as 10 - or that have odd numbers such as 42.  That gives a lot more flexibility for the Appeals Panel - or even for the schools own admissions team if it's an in-year application and the school is an Academy.  Off topic, a number of secondary schools in my area feel happy with 32 in a class but have PANs of 30 so if the places are not filled on appeal, they will 'top up' from the waiting list!

Reply
  • Ah - I hadn't spotted 'Sibling already at school'.  Certainly that should almost certainly give priority (after 'Looked After Children' & named on statements) - but it's always worth checking the schools Admissions Policy.

    In my area we do have a number of country schools where the PAN is less than 30 - some even as low as 10 - or that have odd numbers such as 42.  That gives a lot more flexibility for the Appeals Panel - or even for the schools own admissions team if it's an in-year application and the school is an Academy.  Off topic, a number of secondary schools in my area feel happy with 32 in a class but have PANs of 30 so if the places are not filled on appeal, they will 'top up' from the waiting list!

Children
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