Placing Request Appeal to Sheriff by Summary Application

In a recent case, our client’s 12-year-old daughter was refused a placing request in S1 at the secondary school of choice, which was a highly rated and sought-after secondary school in Glasgow. The family lived just outwith the designated catchment area for that secondary school in question, and the child had attended a feeder primary school since primary one on a placing request.

All her primary 7 school friends had a place in the preferred secondary. In addition, the refusal of a place would cause logistical problems for her parents in getting her to and from school as they both worked and had a  pre-existing care arrangement in place which was not practical unless she attended the selected school. The distance to the catchment secondary school was longer, and the child would be left to travel there on public transport by herself. Further, the child had been part of a music club at primary school and was very keen to remain part of the school band with her friends once she started Secondary. This would not be possible if she could not attend the chosen school. The child was becoming increasingly overwhelmed and upset at the prospect of being away from her friends when starting secondary.

The placing request had been refused by the local authority due to the school of choice being full to capacity and they maintained they would have to employ another teacher and also extend the school premises if the placing request was granted. An appeal was made to the Sheriff Court Appeal by way of Summary Application, and at the hearing the Sheriff heard oral evidence from three witnesses from local authority, and also from the parents of the child. The Sheriff also gave detailed consideration to a  written submission from the child herself, expressing her feelings about the impact of the refusal on her. At the conclusion of the evidence, we made a detailed legal submission referring to the right of parental choice in education, the “Parents Charter” and to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It was submitted that the impact on the child and family, of the refusal of the placing request was significant.

Ultimately the Sheriff accepted our clients’ evidence, and agreed with our position. The court held that despite the local authority having valid statutory reasons to refuse the request, after considering the whole circumstances of the case, he was willing to use his discretion and hold that the council had not discharged the onus on it to show that refusing to place the child at the school of choice was reasonable. The default position in the Education (Scotland)  Act 1980 is unless a refusal can be shown by the local authority to be reasonable in the circumstances, the child must be placed in the school of choice. The court therefore refused to uphold the Education  Committee’s decision to refuse the placing request, and the child was accordingly placed in the selected school, much to her own and her parents’ delight. In this instance the parents were also awarded the judicial expense of their application.   

We have frequently won placing request appeals to the Sheriff Court, and feel passionate about helping parents to secure the right education for their children. If you wish placing request or appeal advice, please do not hesitate to contact our Team.