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Presumably you're being rejected because you don't attend Church, rather than for any other reason? And I guess that would apply to anyone else applying who wasn't a churchgoer? I guess you could appeal but given that your children have been with you for sometime now and are no longer LAC then you don't have priority over anyone else who applies for a place.Is this the best school for your children? I'm not sure whether any of your children have additional needs in school - if so would they be able to support them? I agree that our children all need support in school in the same way that LAC children do, but if they're not rejecting you purely on the basis of too many children then I'm not really sure how you should proceed.Is this the only school that would be suitable?

Yes we have been rejected because the school is over suscribed and they take in priority the people who go to church and have all their "church points" which they have gathered by attending church over the past 5 years - of course we don't stand a chance on that front. Yes we want the children to go to that school which is the only one suitable for them in our area. And no they don't have any additional needs that could support our case. The only case we have is the fact that the children are adopted (with all their adopted needs) and that because of these exact reasons we were not able to attend church earlier but we shouldn't be discriminated against because of that. The point is: if the children were biologically ours, I would have taught French to them from the start, they would have gone to a UK school from the start, we would have gone to church from the start like any other religious family, we would have gathered the necessary points, and we would be in no problem as we live at the end of the road.It just seems unfair that the school does not take our special circumstances into consideration and I wondered if any one else had to deal with that in the past.Thanks a lot for your interest, really appreciated.

Hi WillowI am not sure if you have already had your appeal heard but something on the main adopters board caught my eye earlier today and may help you. The new draft admissions code that is coming in which will be relevant from 2013 (although it has yet to be accepted by parliament) is to give adopted children equal billing with current LAC children. This makes sense as you and many of us well know the issues do not go away after children have been legally adopted. Another thing you could add is where the other children will go. For example if this is the first child and they will not be able to go to that school because of the old rules but the others will it could be desruptive/ harmful and difficult logistically to have children at different schools. If there are issues of oversubscription than you have to prove that there would not be detriment to other children of them having to take an extra child so you will need also to look at the PAN (published admissions numbers) and previous intakes in years to see if they have taken children over a set limit previously.I would also look into at it from the point of why they have the attending church point in the admissions code. I realise that this is because it is a church of Engkand school. Presumably this is tied into the ethos of the school and that they want suitable families that fit in with that ethos rather than ones who are free to atend a particluar church at a given time each week for a set number of years. I would provide further evidence of how you fit into the ethos of the school (which adopting 4 children and bringinng them up ...... etc I would think would be fairly easy to do). You have to be able to put together a strong but clear argument of why it is the most suitable school for your child and why it would not harm them to take in an extra child..... also adding in that in other circumstances you would be able to tick all of the right boxes.I have been to appeal for my BS but in different circumstances and was successful. It is a very trying, emtional and stressful time and I wish you all the best.