Oxfordshire County Council is looking for volunteers to sit on its School Admission and Exclusion Appeal Panels. So, if you are a good listener, a decision-maker who has a sense of fair play, and you like to make a difference, then the Oxfordshire School Appeals Service would like to hear from you.

No experience in education is necessary, as training is provided both initially and on an on-going basis. Also all panels have the services of a trained clerk to support them.

Parents have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel if their child is refused admission to schools that are maintained by a local authority, as well as Voluntary Aided or Foundation and Trust schools, and Academies.

Parents also have the right of appeal if their child is permanently excluded from any of the above schools and Academies, or Pupil Referral Units.

Panel members do this work on a voluntary basis, although subsistence and travel expenses are paid. A financial loss allowance is also payable for loss of earnings and child-care costs, which are both subject to a maximum amount.

The admission and exclusion panels are established in education legislation, and members must not have any connection with Oxfordshire County Council’s education service, although teachers and teaching assistants are eligible to sit on admission panels, and head teachers can sit on exclusion panels. Admission panels have to decide whether or not a child should be admitted to a particular school. The panels normally hear the school’s case and decide whether or not the admission of another child (or children) would harm the education of pupils already at the school, or if the school would have to provide more resources.

Panels also have to decide whether or not a mistake has been made and the child should in fact have been offered a place at the school when the admission authority applied the admission rules. Finally, if the appeal has not already been allowed, the panel has to decide if the personal circumstances of the child outweigh any difficulties the school would experience if another pupil were to be admitted.

Exclusion panels have to decide whether or not a pupil has behaved in the way complained of; consider if the pupil has received sufficient support; and whether or not permanent exclusion is an appropriate response. Panel members have said they enjoy sitting on these panels as they are able to help people who are in difficult situations, possibly correcting any errors that may have occurred. It is also a good way of meeting people and, mainly, it is “an excellent way of giving something back to the local community,” said one.

If you would like to volunteer to sit on these panels, or to find out more about what these panels do, call 01865 810180 or email: schoolappeals@oxfordshire.gov.uk